Blues poems / selected and edited by Kevin Young.
Material type:
TextSeries: Everyman's library pocket poetsPublication details: New York : Knopf, 2003.Description: 256 p. ; 17 cmISBN: - 0375414584 (alk. paper)
- 9780375414589 (alk. paper)
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
|
Main Library | NonFiction | 811.54 B658 | Available | 33111005741919 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
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.
Standards (blues poems before World War II) -- Some songs -- Form -- Facing off -- Figures -- Freight -- Finale (for Bessie Smith) -- List of authors -- Acknowledgments.
The blues-a musical tradition uniquely American-has had a powerful influence on American poets, and this scintillating anthology offers a richness of poetry as varied and vital as the music that inspired it.