The Vintage Book of African American Poetry: 200 Years of Vision, Struggle, Power, Beauty, and Triumph from 50 Outstanding Poets

By: Walton, Anthony

Book Overview

In The Vintage Book of African American Poetry , editors Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton present the definitive collection of black verse in the United States--200 years of vision, struggle, power, beauty, and triumph from 52 outstanding poets. From the neoclassical stylings of slave-born Phillis Wheatley to the wistful lyricism of Paul Lawrence Dunbar . . . the rigorous wisdom of Gwendolyn Brooks...the chiseled modernism of Robert Hayden...the extraordinary prosody of Sterling A. Brown...the breathtaking, expansive narratives of Rita Dove...the plaintive rhapsodies of an imprisoned Elderidge Knight . . . The postmodern artistry of Yusef Komunyaka. Here, too, is a landmark exploration of lesser-known artists whose efforts birthed the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts movements--and changed forever our national literature and the course of America itself. Meticulously researched, thoughtfully structured, The Vintage Book of African-American Poetry is a collection of inestimable value to students, educators, and all those interested in the ever-evolving tradition that is American poetry.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375703004
• ISBN13: 9780375703003
• Release Date: February 2000
• Publisher: Vintage
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Textbook? I never would have guessed!

There are very few poetry books that can be used as a comprehensive textbook in a college class...but this is one of them. Every author has a well-written mini-biography that is rather in-depth for how short it is, and the poetry found within is not always the poet's greatest or most remembered work; in fact, the book tries to convey more than just the popular poems that any famous poet within the book might be known for. It actually inspires the reader to learn more about the other poetry these poets may have written! There are definitely moments when I forget that I'm reading for a class, and I read for the sheer pleasure of it. This book belongs in your personal library, even if you are wary of poetry as a whole. The book itself focuses on the evolution of African American poetry, from the very structured beginnings to the more contemporary here & now. It's a captivating read.

Beautiful

Everything was perfect. My review was delayed because my ex-roomie accidentally took the package when she moved out. And just today did I finally drive over to her new place of dwelling and picked it up. Thanks!

4.3 stars: A splendid anthology; please read

The Vintage Book of African American Poetry, edited by Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton, is reminiscent of a somewhat earlier anthology EVERY SHUT EYE AIN'T ASLEEP (also edited by Mr Harper and Mr Walton). The poems in the Vintage Book span three centuries, from Jupitor Hammon and Phillis Wheatley, to Carl Phillips and Reginald Shepherd; the 20th century, as one might expect, is most generously and gloriously represented. This reviewer has always prized the work of Countee Cullen and of Robert Hayden; and is grateful to make the acquaintance of Sterling A. Brown and Gwendolyn Bennett (her poem "To A Dark Girl," written early in the last cnetury, is an irreducible greatness); Langston Hughes is shown to advantage in the selection of his work, many of the chosen poems being new to this reader. It shames us that hithertofore we had not been familiar with the work of Boston-born William Stanley Braithwaite. Claude McKay and Jean Toomer appear in these pages, McKay's finely wrought sonnets being familiar from other anthologies. New to us, and a gift for which the reader is grateful, is Margaret Walker's "October Journey," of Keatsian loveliness.Stylistic diversity exists here, and surfaces in a salient fashion as we reach the middle of the twentieth century: Gwendolyn Brooks (both formal and colloquial); Bob Kaufman (can we cavil at the omission of his fine eulogistic poem "Afterwards, They Shall Dance"?); Etheridge Knight (whose diamond-like haiku enliven our sense of the possibilities of the form); and the Nobel laureate Derek Walcott, whose "Bounty" is indeed a marvel. Raymond Patterson's baldly unsubtle imitation of Wallace Stevens ("Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Blackman") strikes this reader as a culpable generosity of inclusion on the part of the anthologists.We find merit in the poems of Audre Lorde and Lucille Clifton; Sonia Sanchez's piece urging nuclear disarmament does not affect us positively, on either a political or an esthetic level, a slack garrulity that is too long-winded to be a slogan and too formless to be a poem. Jay Wright, Michael S. Harper, Al Young and Toi Derricotte (almost exactly contemporaneous) fashion lyrics of beauty, ingenuity, toughmindedness and considerable appeal. We value Marilyn Nelson's poem (charmingly sardonic) called "Emily Dickinson's Defunct." Yusef Komunyakaa, Thylias Moss, and Rita Dove -- justly renowned poets -- are in the Vintage Book (Komunyakaa a Pulitzer Prize winner in 1994, Dove a recent U. S. poet laureate). Nathaniel Mackey's poems display an unparalled intelligence and ability to renovate and renew the language; his work should be more widely known. Elizabeth Alexander cages wrath within formality in "The Venus Hottentot", and is quite effective in her sequence of poems about Muhammad Ali. And finally, an autumnophile reviewer must congratulate Anthony Walton on the achievement of his lyric "The Summer Was Too Long"; great poetic force is also to be found in his poems on Thelonious Sphe

The Vintage Book of African American Poetry

An excellcent collect of African American Poetry. Never really been interested in poetry, but after reading this book can't wait to read more poetry any kind of poetry.