Synopsis: Born in African American work songs, field hollers, and the
powerful legacy of the spirituals, the blues traveled the country from the
Mississippi delta to “Sweet Home Chicago,” forming the backbone of American
music. In this anthology–the first devoted exclusively to blues poems–a wide
array of poets pay tribute to the form and offer testimony to its lasting
power. The blues have left an indelible mark on the work of a
diverse range of poets: from “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “Funeral
Blues” by W. H. Auden, to “Blues on Yellow” by Marilyn Chin and “Reservation
Blues” by Sherman Alexie. Here are blues-influenced and blues-inflected poems
from, among others, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, June Jordan, Richard
Wright, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Wright, Yusef Komunyakaa, and Cornelius Eady.
And here, too, are classic song lyrics–poems in their own right–from Bessie
Smith, Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey, and Muddy Waters. The rich emotional palette of the blues is fully represented
here in verse that pays tribute to the heart and humor of the music, and in
poems that swing with its history and hard-bitten hope. (Description from the inside of the book)Review: While I'm not much of a blues girl, I enjoy the cultural and social history behind them. This is a fine collection - although they left out Billie Holiday on the grounds she's more jazz than blues, which was slightly vexing. But, that's a personal issue. I found this to be a fine, well-rounded collection. Young's introduction about blues was an excellent start to a collection that includes song lyrics, poems about the blues, and poems about blues singers, all from the beginning of the blues to recent years. For anyone interested in blues, Black culture in the 1930s and 40s, poetry, or Black history, this is an excellent choice. A well-done collection.
Bookmarks: 7 of 10
Awards: None
ISBN: 0-375-41458-4
Date Finished: 1-11-2015
Pages: 256
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