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  #1  
Unread 12-20-2013, 09:09 PM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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Default Melvin B. Tolson

I'm providing a link rather than the text of the poem, for two reasons: 1st: legal stuff; 2nd: the lineation of the piece, which makes for a lot of white space. I believe this is pure genius, & represents what poetry is all about, or should be about, at least for those who aspire to greatness rather than a comfortable mediocrity (I am not certain at this time if I fit into that category: I'm emotionally and intellectually conflicted in that regard).

There are many elements that make up this fine poem: an excellent ear & attention to meter; indications of the poet's knowledge—this was WAY before the Net and our relative ease of access to data, factual or nonfactual—; & its ancient and time-honord theme, which should be apparent to a knowledgable reader.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/245204
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Unread 12-21-2013, 04:02 AM
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Steve Bucknell Steve Bucknell is offline
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Default The Notorious M.B.T.

That's a great rap. Be careful, you'll be plugging in to Eminem and 2pac next!

Steve.
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Unread 12-21-2013, 07:59 AM
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Steve Bucknell Steve Bucknell is offline
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Default Thanks Bill

I think even in a pre-Net world the only reference that would lose me is 'Chladni'. I wonder why Tolson thought him part of this powerful pantheon?

'Chladni's technique, first published in 1787 in his book, Entdeckungen über die Theorie des Klanges ("Discoveries in the Theory of Sound"), consisted of drawing a bow over a piece of metal whose surface was lightly covered with sand. The plate was bowed until it reached resonance, when the vibration causes the sand to move and concentrate along the nodal lines where the surface is still, outlining the nodal lines. These patterns are now called Chladni figures.' Wikipedia.

Thanks for posting this, Bill. I hadn't heard of Tolson at all, and he is a fascinating, inspirational figure. Apologies if my first post was a little flippant , but I still think that his 'Song' would be tremendously effective performed as a rap.

Steve.
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Unread 12-22-2013, 02:46 AM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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No worries, Steve. I hadn't even thought of the poem as a potential rap. I wonder why Tolson decided to lineate the poem the way he did. It's perfectly metrical, but to a careless reader, might appear tossd-off.

I suppose you're right about the allusions & references. I think I know most of them. I had no idea who Chladni was, until I read your post just now. I agree, it's a wonder Tolson included him in such a list.

I'm glad to have introduced this amazing and largely neglected poet to you. He has an enormous body of work, and from what I've gleaned from looking at samples at Google Books, his work was consistently upper-strata.

I want to buy one of the man's books but at the moment I am absolutely strapped for cash. Thank God for the Internet, Google Books, and the "look inside" feature at Amazon's Kindle. In some cases, upwards of seventy percent of the book can be read using this feature. On the other hand: I am all for the sanctity of intellectual property, and in a great many cases I think the "sample" feature is far too liberal, and ought to be curtaild.

As I keep saying here at the Sphere, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of excellent dead poets waiting to be discoverd, or rediscoverd, as the case may be. It would be a shame to allow these people to remain in obscurity.

I happend on Tolson when I sought out my copy of Selden Rodman's (another neglected great mind) slim but potent anthology, 100 American Poems. That was one of the first anthologies I owned, and it would be worth the price for Rodman's lengthy introduction alone.

I hope more people will discover or rediscover this excellent poet. Thanks for taking a look and for responding.

Last edited by William A. Baurle; 12-22-2013 at 04:45 AM. Reason: corrected spelling of Selden
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Unread 12-22-2013, 03:15 AM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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Since I don't anticipate too much activity in this thread, I'd like to highlight some of the better bits of Tolson's poem:

Who makes
A noose
Envies
The goose.
Who digs
A pit
Dices
For it.


I think that speaks for itself. As does this:

If hue
Of skin
Trademark
A sin,
Blame not
The make
For God's
Mistake.
Since flesh
And bone
Turn dust
And stone,
With life
So brief,
Why add
To grief?


~

What’s writ
In vice
Is writ
In ice.
The truth
Is not
Of fruits
That rot.


This reminded me instantly of Keats' famous "Here lies one whose name was writ on water", though it speaks volumes.

~

Those who
Wall in
Themselves
And grin
Commit
Incest
And spawn
A pest.


This hearkens back, of course, to Blake, in a few places. To just pick two, from The Marriage of Heaven & Hell:
  • Those who restrain desire, do so because theirs is weak enough to be restrained; and the restrainer or reason usurps its place & governs the unwilling.
  • He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.

Enough for now.
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Unread 12-22-2013, 03:41 AM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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Closing paras from The Poetry Foundation's entry/article on Melvin B. Tolson:

Quote:
Published in 1965, Tolson's Harlem Gallery: Book One, The Curator was the product of years of work and is widely considered a poetic masterpiece. Robert Donald Spector, reviewing the poem for Saturday Review the year it appeared, judged that it "marks [Tolson] as one of America's great poets." Originally a sonnet, in the early 1930s it became the book length Gallery of Harlem Portraits, which remained unpublished during Tolson's life; in the 1950s Tolson conceived it as part of a five-book epic about Harlem and black America and revised it as Harlem Gallery: Book One, The Curator. A fictional gallery curator "provides the central point of view" in the poem's discussions of black art and life, remarked Farnsworth, "but three major characters, all practicing artists, dramatically amplify the reader's view of the black artist's dilemma and achievement." Stanzas in the style of blues music punctuate the portraits, reinforcing Tolson's points or offering ironic commentary. Payne found such stanzas "very effective, among the most effective elements of the book." Still, while Tolson used black elements such as the blues, focusing on black characters and a black setting, he did not espouse separatism. According to Blyden Jackson's New Republic critique, "The brotherhood of man and the universality of serious art . . . catalyze [the poem's] perceptions."

Tolson's skillful delineation of character, his ability to turn discussions of aesthetics into social commentary, his breadth of vision, and his deftness with language garnered critical acclaim. Reviewers compared Harlem Gallery to works by Walt Whitman, Edgar Lee Masters, Hart Crane, and T. S. Eliot and praised with Spector "the richness and variety of [Tolson's] characters" and the "allusiveness that absorbs classical, Biblical, oriental, and African references." Admitting that Harlem Gallery presents the same complexity and involved syntax that rendered Tolson's earlier works somewhat inaccessible, Jackson asserted that "nevertheless [it] is a fine product of the imagination. . . . [Tolson] achieved a memorable presentation of the human comedy and of human values." Responding to other critics' neglect of Tolson's work, Spector declared, "Here is a poet whose language, comprehensiveness, and values demand a critical sensitivity rarely found in any establishment. . . . Whatever his reputation in the present critical climate, Tolson stands firmly as a great American poet." And Gibson summarized: "Tolson, by virtue of an extraordinary mind and intelligence, keeps a vast array of disparate elements in constant relationship. His poetry is, therefore, coherent, and its primary effect is of the containment and control of vast reserves of energy."
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Unread 12-22-2013, 04:36 AM
William A. Baurle William A. Baurle is offline
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http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/245212
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/245196

Last edited by William A. Baurle; 12-22-2013 at 04:39 AM.
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