The Oxford anthology of African-American poetry
By: edited by Arnold Rampersad ; associate editor, Hilary Herbold.
Contributors: Rampersad, Arnold.; Herbold, Hilary, 1962-
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 424
ISBN-13: 9780195125634
Subjects: American poetry -- African American authors; African Americans -- Poetry
Genres: Poetry.
Description: "For over two centuries, black poets have created verse that reflects the sorrows, joys, and triumphs of the African-American experience. Reflecting their variety of visions and styles, The Oxford Anthology of African-American Poetry aims to offer nothing less than a definitive literary portrait of a people." "Here are poems by writers as different as Paul Laurence Dunbar and W. E. B. Du Bois; Countee Cullen and Langston Hughes; Gwendolyn Brooks and Amiri Barakia; Rita Dove and Harryette Mullen; Yusef Komunyakaa and Nathaniel Mackey. Acclaimed as a biographer and editor, Arnold Rampersad groups these poems as meditations on key issues in black culture, including the idea of Africa; the South; slavery; protest, and resistance; the black man, woman, and child; sexuality and love; music and religion; spirituality; death, and transcendence." "With their often starkly contrasting visions and styles, these poets illuminate some of the more controversial and intimate aspects of the black American experience. Poetry here is not only or mainly a vehicle of protest but also an exploration of the more complex and tender subtleties of black culture. One section offers tributes to celebrated leaders such as Sojourner Truth and Malcolm X, but many more reflect the heroism compelled by everyday black life. The variety of poetic forms and language captures the brilliant essence of English as mastered by black Americans dedicated to the art of poetry."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: Includes index.
Table of contents: title: To make a poet Black; title: What is Africa to me?; title: The rocking loom of history; title: Like walking out of shadow; title: If we must die; title: This man shall be remembered; title: A rock against the wind; title: Is she our sister?; title: Don't it make you want to cry?; title: Whose children are these?; title: They are all of me; title: Oh, singing tree!; title: Oh, my soul is in the whirlwind!; title: Dear lovely death; title: I dream a world.