Bibliographic Data: Rampersad, Arnold. 2012. African American Poetry. Ill. by Karen Barbour. New York: Sterling Children’s Books. ISBN 978-1-4027-1689-8
Plot Summary or Poem Theme: African American Poetry is a moving anthology compiled and edited by Arnold Rampersad and Marcellus Blount. It features poems from many of the most inspiring, prolific, and notable African American writers such as Frederick Douglass, Maya Angelou, and Langston Hughes. The poems cover a myriad of topics from religion to segregation, to the great ‘northern shift’, to struggling with loving oneself and being robbed of freedom. The anthology is powerful and moving, as are the accompanying illustrations by Karen Barbour.
Critical Analysis:
The poems in this anthology run the gamut of poetic elements. There is a strong meaning, or message imparted in each of the poems chosen by Rampersad and Blount to comprise this book, and it makes for a very emotional and exciting read. The rhythm or meter that Paul Laurence Dunbar is able to give to his poem “We Wear the Mask” is impressive and when read aloud sounds almost like a haunting drum circle or ghost melody sung by his ancestors. The rhyming in his poem “Dawn” is effortless and imparts almost a nursery rhyme quality (see: spotlight poem). The figurative language used in James W. Johnson’s “The Creation” is unparalleled (“darkness covered everything, Blacker than a hundred midnights”). The emotional nature of the poems build up, burst, and then flow in a masterful crescendo of hope, optimism, and perseverance as is seen in “The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom” by Alice Walker, and the hard-hitting “I, Too” by Langston Hughes. The poems convey the strength of these writers and poets, speak to the reader as a friend, and never take the tone of the victim, or martyr, which is amazing considering the circumstances many were in or had come from.
There is a wide appeal to this anthology, as the poems speak of the desire to fit in, the desperation one feels to have autonomy, the struggle of living with daily criticism, and the overall desire to live a normal life. The poems absolutely will further an audience’s insight or knowledge on these many topics, and the introduction and definitions accompanying the poems help as well. The mix of both familiar and relatively unknown poets balances wonderfully, and strangely, it is not only the notable poets that have hard hitting poems or that do the heavy lifting in this anthology. Mae V. Cowdery’s ‘Exultation’ is a simple poem about the beauty in both the day and the night, and is clearly also about the beauty of both the white and black man, and it is a simple, yet beautifully impactful two stanzas.
The layout of the book is one of the best I have seen so far in a children’s anthology. There is a great introduction that really sets a tone for the mood of the poems, as well as gives the reader a little insight as to why certain poems were chosen. There is a thorough index listing both author and title of the works. Each page begins with the title of the poem, the author, the date the author lived, and a short introduction to the poet themselves. Then, the poem is typed in a simple, serifed, black font on half of the page, while a lush mixed media illustration adorns the other. The illustrations are wildly detailed and colorful, yet interestingly enough still come off as rather a group of doodles in one’s notebook. They match the tone of the poems beautifully, the cross-hatching becoming more apparent in heavy emotional poems, and light blooms of watercolor adorning poems with a subtler meaning. The thing that I like most about the illustrations, however, is that as opposed to just shading in the scalp or hair of the illustrated characters with ebony ink, (like many illustrators do when depicting African-American characters), Barbour draws intricate, ornate, beautiful lines almost as if glorifying the beauty of these waves, which is so exciting and long overdue in general depictions!
Connection:
The figurative and sensory language in these poems is so lush that the poems easily lend themselves to an art lesson. I would have the children choose three poems and then storyboard, or illustrate them. Once they have drawn the poem the way they see it, they could share them with the class, or their fellow patrons and explain what lines really stood out or painted the stories in their mind(s).
Spotlight Poem:
Dawn
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
An angel, robed in spotless white,
Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night.
Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone.
Men saw the blush and called it Dawn.
Plot Summary or Poem Theme: African American Poetry is a moving anthology compiled and edited by Arnold Rampersad and Marcellus Blount. It features poems from many of the most inspiring, prolific, and notable African American writers such as Frederick Douglass, Maya Angelou, and Langston Hughes. The poems cover a myriad of topics from religion to segregation, to the great ‘northern shift’, to struggling with loving oneself and being robbed of freedom. The anthology is powerful and moving, as are the accompanying illustrations by Karen Barbour.
Critical Analysis:
The poems in this anthology run the gamut of poetic elements. There is a strong meaning, or message imparted in each of the poems chosen by Rampersad and Blount to comprise this book, and it makes for a very emotional and exciting read. The rhythm or meter that Paul Laurence Dunbar is able to give to his poem “We Wear the Mask” is impressive and when read aloud sounds almost like a haunting drum circle or ghost melody sung by his ancestors. The rhyming in his poem “Dawn” is effortless and imparts almost a nursery rhyme quality (see: spotlight poem). The figurative language used in James W. Johnson’s “The Creation” is unparalleled (“darkness covered everything, Blacker than a hundred midnights”). The emotional nature of the poems build up, burst, and then flow in a masterful crescendo of hope, optimism, and perseverance as is seen in “The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom” by Alice Walker, and the hard-hitting “I, Too” by Langston Hughes. The poems convey the strength of these writers and poets, speak to the reader as a friend, and never take the tone of the victim, or martyr, which is amazing considering the circumstances many were in or had come from.
There is a wide appeal to this anthology, as the poems speak of the desire to fit in, the desperation one feels to have autonomy, the struggle of living with daily criticism, and the overall desire to live a normal life. The poems absolutely will further an audience’s insight or knowledge on these many topics, and the introduction and definitions accompanying the poems help as well. The mix of both familiar and relatively unknown poets balances wonderfully, and strangely, it is not only the notable poets that have hard hitting poems or that do the heavy lifting in this anthology. Mae V. Cowdery’s ‘Exultation’ is a simple poem about the beauty in both the day and the night, and is clearly also about the beauty of both the white and black man, and it is a simple, yet beautifully impactful two stanzas.
The layout of the book is one of the best I have seen so far in a children’s anthology. There is a great introduction that really sets a tone for the mood of the poems, as well as gives the reader a little insight as to why certain poems were chosen. There is a thorough index listing both author and title of the works. Each page begins with the title of the poem, the author, the date the author lived, and a short introduction to the poet themselves. Then, the poem is typed in a simple, serifed, black font on half of the page, while a lush mixed media illustration adorns the other. The illustrations are wildly detailed and colorful, yet interestingly enough still come off as rather a group of doodles in one’s notebook. They match the tone of the poems beautifully, the cross-hatching becoming more apparent in heavy emotional poems, and light blooms of watercolor adorning poems with a subtler meaning. The thing that I like most about the illustrations, however, is that as opposed to just shading in the scalp or hair of the illustrated characters with ebony ink, (like many illustrators do when depicting African-American characters), Barbour draws intricate, ornate, beautiful lines almost as if glorifying the beauty of these waves, which is so exciting and long overdue in general depictions!
Connection:
The figurative and sensory language in these poems is so lush that the poems easily lend themselves to an art lesson. I would have the children choose three poems and then storyboard, or illustrate them. Once they have drawn the poem the way they see it, they could share them with the class, or their fellow patrons and explain what lines really stood out or painted the stories in their mind(s).
Spotlight Poem:
Dawn
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906)
An angel, robed in spotless white,
Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night.
Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone.
Men saw the blush and called it Dawn.