Product Description

This volume brings together Melvin B. Tolson's three books of poetry - "Rendezvouz with America", "Libretto for the Republic of Liberia", and "Harlem Gallery" - as well as fugitive poems after 1944.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1681685 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 473 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Admired by unlikely allies during his lifetime, Tolson (1898-1966) is due for reappraisal: this weighty book of all his mature poetry may be just what he needs. Tolson sought to depict African-American concerns in long poems modeled on T.S. Eliot and Hart Crane. His Libretto for the Republic of Liberia (not an opera libretto, but a book-length ode in eight parts) tries to do for that African nation what Crane's The Bridge did for the U.S. His longer, harder book-length Harlem Gallery (left unfinished at his death) records, in 24 intricate sections, the thoughts and symbolic deeds of a figure called the Curator, who meditates on art and history as he encounters symbolic personages, among them the outspoken Dr. Nkomo; "Hideho Heights,/ the vagabond bard of Lenox Avenue"; Guy Delaporte III, "symbol/ of Churchianity"; and John Laugart, the powerful creator of a painting called Black Bourgeoisie: "This castaway talent/ and I" (the Curator and Laugart) "were fated to be/ the Castor and Pollux of St. Elmo's fire/ on Harlem's Coalsack Way." Tolson alludes to everything from Bessie Smith to Sir Toby Belch, "the bulls of Bashan" and the Sicilian Vespers; his elaborate lineations announce at once the worth of high, complex art and the integrity of Black experience. If his baroque approach frequently seems overblown, the ambitions behind it remain impressive and moving. Tolson provided his own annotations to Libretto; Harlem Gallery's battalions of allusions have quite properly prompted editor Nelson to add brigades of endnotes. This volume also includes Tolson's more conventional first book, Rendezvous with America (1944), and several shorter uncollected poems. Former Poet Laureate Dove's introduction furnishes useful hints for reading Tolson, linking him to other Black writers. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
Babylon
The Ballad Of The Rattlesnake
The Bard Of Addis Ababa
The Big Game Hunter
The Blindness Of Scorn
The Braggart
Damascus Blade
Dark Symphony: 1. Allegro Moderato
Dark Symphony: 2. Lento Grave
Dark Symphony: 3. Andante Sostenuto
Dark Symphony: 4. Tempo Primo
Dark Symphony: 5. Larghetto
Dark Symphony: 6. Tempo Di Marcia
The Dictionary Of The Wolf
Esperanto
An Ex-judge At The Bar
Fugitive Poems: A Long Head To A Round Head
Fugitive Poems: Abraham Lincoln Of Rock Spring Farm
Fugitive Poems: African China
Fugitive Poems: E. & O. E.
Fugitive Poems: The Man From Halicarnassus
The Furlough
The Gallows
A Hamlet Rives Us
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Alpha
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Beta
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Chi
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Delta
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Epsilon
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Eta
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Gamma
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Iota
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Kappa
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Lambda
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Mu
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Nu
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Omega
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Omicron
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Phi
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Pi
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Psi
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Rho
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Sigma
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Tau
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Theta
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Upsilon
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Xi
Harlem Gallery: Book 1, The Curator: Zeta
The Idols Of The Tribe
If You Should Lie To Me
Inevitability
A Legend Of Versailles
Libretto For The Republic Of Liberia: Do (1)
Libretto For The Republic Of Liberia: Do (2)
Libretto For The Republic Of Liberia: Fa
Libretto For The Republic Of Liberia: Mi
Libretto For The Republic Of Liberia: Re
Libretto For The Republic Of Liberia: Sol
Libretto For The Republic Of Liberia: Ti
The Man Inside
The Mountain Climber
My Soul And I
The Note
Old Houses
Old Man Michael
The Poet
A Primer For Today
Rendezvous With America
A Scholar Looks At An Oak
The Shift Of Gears
The Shipwright
A Song For Myself
The Street Called Straight
Tapestries Of Time
The Town Fathers
The Traitor To France
The Triumph Aster
The Unknown Soldier
Vesuvius
Views
When Great Dogs Fight
Whence?
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

About the Author
Melvin B. Tolson was born in Moberly, Missouri, in 1898. A longtime scholar and teacher, he won numerous poetry awards and was named Poet Laureate of Liberia in 1947. He died of cancer in 1966.

Customer Reviews

The Melvin B. Tolosian Review
Melvin B. Tolson was recognized as one of the first African American poets whose poetry has been classified as being in the esoteric category. The implication of this statement means that Tolson was writing poetry in a format which would be acceptable by the greatest English and American poets. One of them who recognized Tolson was W.H. Auden, who wrote favorable reviews about Tolson's poetry. Tolson, who came after the last years of the Harlem Renissance era, knew many of the prominent writers and poets of that era, which lasted from the 1920s through the 1930s. He knew many of the well known writers and poets of that period, including Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, Zora Hurston, V.F. Cavington, Ralph Ellison, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Gwendolyn Brooks, Margaret Walker, W.E.B. Dubios, James Weldon Johnson and Charles S. Johnson. While he was at Wiley College, Marshall, Texas, Tolson established his reputation by publishing his first book of poems entitled, Rendezvous with America, in 1944. For years prior to that date, Tolson taught English classes to thousands of students since his arrival there from Lincoln University, Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1923. Also he was the coach of the famous Wiley College Debate Team, which included, James Farmer, who later became the founder of the CORE Civil Rights Organization.

Harlem Gallery and Other Poems
Perhaps one of the most powerful yet ignored American voices of his time was Melvin Tolson, whose work unashamedly demanded a level of literacy and general knowledge only to be found in the classic talented fraction of any population. Born in the late 19th century he was educated and became a college professor against the odds of racial injustice, and rose above those circumstances to inspire generations after him to achieve excellence in spite of difficult odds.

Tolson's "Dark Symphony" particularly excited this writer, who saw him read excerepts from this piece when he visited his Alma Mater(and mine), Lincoln University Penna., six months before he died in 1966. His work is so classic that in time Tolson, I believe, will become "Poet Laureate of the U.S." the country he so loved.

A superb anthology of an outstanding Black poet.
Raymond Nelson edits Harlem Gallery And Other Poems Of Melvin B. Tolson (1865-0), which presents works from one of the most recognized black voices in American poetry. His poems are here organized by topic and include notes for further study.