"The claim of THE BLACK POETS to being at least a partially definitive anthology is that it presents the full range of Black American poetry,from the dave songs to the present day. It is important that folk poetry be included because it is the root and inspiration of later, literary poetry.Not only does this book present the full range of Black poetry, but it presents most poets in depth, and in some cases presents aspects of a poet neglected or overlooked before. Gwendolyn Brooks is represented not only by poems on racial and domestic themes, but is revealed as a writer of superb love lyrics.

Robert Hayden · James M. Whitfield · Lucy Terry · Phillis Wheatley · Frances E. W. Harper · Paul Laurence Dunbar · James Weldon Johnson · Langston Hughes · Claude McKay · Jean Toomer · Melvin B.Tolson · Sterling A. Brown ·Arna Bontemps · Frank Horne · Countee Cullen · Frank Marshall Davis · Dudley Randall · Margaret Walker · Gwendolyn Brooks · Margaret Danner · Ray Durem · Imamu Ameer Baraka ·Marl Evans · James A. Emanuel · Naomi Madgett. Conrad Kent Rivers· Johari Amiri · Etheridge Knight· June Jordan · Larry Neal · Sonia Sanchez · John Raven · James A. Randall ·Welton Smith · Don L. Lee · Carolyn Rodgers · Lucille Clifton. Ishmael Reed · Everett Hoag-land · James W. Thompson · Michael Harper ·A. B. Spellman · Yusef Iman · Doughtry Long · Nikki Giovanni · Stephany

Introduction

FOLK POETRY

Walk Together Children

Folk Seculars

Song: We Ratse de Wheat

He Paid Me Seven (Parody)

Bun, Nigger, Bunl

Promises of Freedom

Jack and Dinah Want Freedom

Wild Negro Bill

Negro Soldier"s Civil War Chant

Song to the Runaway Slave

Down in the Lonesome Garden

This Sun is Hot

That Hypocrite

Old Man Know-All

Raise a "Rucus" To-Night

FII Wear Me a Cotton Dress

John Henry

-She Hugged Me and Kissed Me

Slave Marriage Ceremony Supplement

Blessing Without Company

The Old Section Boss

The Turtle"s Song

Chuck Will"s Widow Song

Spirituals

No More Auction Block

I Know de Moonlight

Go Down, Moses

Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho

Dere"s No Hidin" Place Down Dere

I Got a Home in Dat Rock

Deep River

Steal Away to Jesus

Git on Board, Little Chillen

Give Me Jesus

What Yo" Gwine to do when Yo" Lamp Burn

Down?

Crucifixlon

Were You There when They Crucified My

Lord?

I Thank God I"m Free at Las"

De Ole Sheep Dey Know De Road

LITERARY POETRY

Black Poet, White Critic,

byDudley Pamdall

The Forerunners

from America, by James M. Whitfield

LUCY TERRY

Bar"s Fight, August 28, 1746

PHILLIS WHEATLEY

from To the Right Honorable William, Earl

of Dartmouth

FRANCES E. W. HARPER

The Slave Auction

Bury Me In a Free Land

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