Acknowledged for his multifaceted, creative poetry, Melvin B. Tolson was considered to be one of America’s leading Black poets. As a poet, Tolson was influenced by both modernism and the language and experiences of African Americans. Tolson was deeply influenced by his studies of the Harlem Renaissance. Tolson was a debate coach at the historically black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, there he led a team of college students that pioneered interracial college debates against white institutions in the segregated South. Under Tolson’s direction, Wiley’s speech and debate team upheld a ten-year winning streak between 1929 to 1939. As some may know, this was depicted in the 2007 biopic The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington as Tolson and produced by Oprah Winfrey. After his successful coaching and teaching career at Wiley College, Tolson then accepted a position at Langston University. That same year, Tolson was appointed the Poet Laureate of Liberia, which inspired his second book of poetry. Tolson attracted increased attention with one of his most notable works Libretto for the Republic of Liberia, a poem which commemorates the African nation’s centennial. 

Aside from Tolson working within the modernist tradition to explore African-American issues, his concern with poetic form and his enduring optimism is what set him apart from many of his contemporaries. Though he wrote after the Harlem Renaissance, Tolson adhered to its ideals and he was hopeful for a better economic and political future for African-Americans. Critics say that Tolson has developed “a vision of Africa past, present, and future” with “prodigious eclecticism” and “force of language and rhythm”. This sentiment speaks volume to the great influenced he had on twentieth-century poetry and why his work remains relevant. 

Tolson’s poem, “Dark Symphony”, is arguably one of his best works and many can feel a connection to it. The poem offers more to readers than just discussion about being a modernist poem or a poem about racial inequality. In the poem, Tolson is celebrating the accomplishments of the African race throughout history and continuing into the modern era in a melodic way. Each section in the poem is broken up in the same way that symphonic music is displayed, beginning with Allegro Moderato which translates to “quick but not overly fast” and ending with part 6, Tempo di Marcia which means “a marching tempo”. In order to thoroughly understand the poem, it is important to know the musical terms of the poem. Specifically, it is important to understand the implication in this poem being that each title gives readers a set pace and mindset for each part of the symphony. 

Another aspect that is significant is the way in which the poem is structured and its length. The poem is actually longer because it expresses a lot of history and the way that it is written is both formal and informal in way that is musically accurate. Furthermore, in the poem Tolson questions white Americans and how he believes white culture continuously tries to forget that slavery happened at all. Beginning at part 4 of the poem Tolson articulates his concept of a “New Negro”, in part 4 is says, “The New Negro strides upon the continent/ In the seven-league boots…/ The New Negro…”. From those lines, I gathered that Tolson is describing someone who should be admired or looked at as the equal. Tolson then continues by describing the accomplishments of the New Negro and the Old Negro. The poem ends with the New Negro and how they will shape the world in the future.  When reading this poem, it is important to break down each part and look at each section of the Symphony in order to fully grasp Tolson concept. 

Wallace Stevens was an American modernist poet, he was a “late bloomer” amongst other poet of the modernism era. Stevens was born and raised in Pennsylvania, he attended the New York Law School, and spent the majority of his life working at an insurance company as an executive. Stevens began his poetry career with one of his most notable works, Harmonium, which was published in 1923. Stevens was also a philosopher of aesthetics which critics believe heavily influenced his unique writing style. He mastered the art of inputting unusual yet extraordinary vocabulary in creating his poems. Though, Stevens is known as a “difficult poet” because his work encompasses extreme thematic and mechanical complexity in his work. Additionally, he is known as a provocative and abstract thinker, and this reputation continued even after his death. After Stevens left his career as a lawyer, he began to tap into his writing. He rose to fame for his most notable work, Collected Poems. Stevens the won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1955, along with the Bollingen Prize and the National Book Award. Before this, Stevens traveled to Casa Marina Hotel located in the Key West, Florida. There his thirst for writing increased and that when he came to publish Ideas of the Order book. He also met Robert Frost during his time in Key West in the year of 1935. Moreover, Stevens admitted other poets such as Carlos Williams, Hart Crane, and Carlos Williams. Stevens’s work explores interactions with reality and what a man can make of reality. An article from The New Yorker states that during the time in which Stevens began to write, he would compose poems on piece of paper as he walked to his office then his secretary would type them. It is rumored that some of these poems were used in “Harmonium”, his first book comprised of 85 poems.

Moreover, Ezra Pound is another poet that advanced the modern movement in English and American literature. He attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York where he earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Pound studied literature and languages in college and during 1908 Pound moved to Europe, where he wrote and published many successful books of poetry. Pound authored well over seventy books and promoted many other famous poets such as T.S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and Ernest Hemingway. Pound also was a well-established journalist. He held pro-Fascist broadcasts in Italy during World War II and was arrested and jailed until 1958. Much of Pound’s success was gained overseas, he produced three books, “Personae, “Exultations”, and “The Spirit of Romance”. In addition to the books, he also wrote several critiques and reviews for publications agencies such as the Egoist, Poetry, and New Age. Pound also assisted with writing “Imagism”, which created a movement for a new literary direction in poetry. Essentially, Imagism was a push towards a direct course with language, with would shed the sentiment that had practically shaped Romantic and Victorian poetry. Precision and economy was something that was of high valued for Pound and the other advocates of the movement, which included F.S. Flint, William Carlos Williams, Amy Lowell, Richard Aldington, and Hilda Doolittle. With its focus on the “thing” as the “thing,” Imagism reflected the changes happening in other art forms, most notably the Cubists and painting. Pound introduced the world to rising poets such as Robert Frost, D.H. Lawrence, and he also was T.S. Eliot’s editor. In fact, Pound edited Eliot’s “The Waste Land”, which is considered to be on the greatest works created during the modernist era. Ultimately, Pound is considered to most responsible for defining and stimulating a modernist aesthetic in poetry. 

Rita Dove specifically chooses these writers to be featured in her book because of the impact that they left on society. Each of these authors influenced American Literature one way or another. Not only having a great impact on Literature, but the time period as well. Showcasing an accurate description of life during the time period in which these authors were alive and active

Edna St Vincent Millary was an American poet and playwright  born in Rockland, Maine February 22, 1892. Edna’s parents divorced at the age of 8, and she was raised by her mother along with her younger sisters. In Millary’s family education and culture were valued as so Millary spoke six different languages along with studying the piano and theatre. Originally, Edna St Vincent Millary desire was to pursue a career as a pianist, however her music teacher discouraged her and Millary decided to be a writer. From 1906 to 1910, her works appeared in children magazine, St. Nicholas, and one of her prize poems was reprinted in a 1907 issue of Current Opinion. At the age 20, Millary entered one of her most popular works, Renascence, into a competition, in which it received no prize but was recognized when she released The Lyric year in november of 1912. Caroline B. Dow, a school director who heard Millay poetry and her music, encouraged that Millay should go to college. Millary went on to take several courses at Barnard College in spring of 1913, after that she went on to attend Vassar.

Edna St. Vincent Millary released many great works and in the year of 1923 she married Eugen Jan Boissevain in July. Although he was not familiar with the literary world, he still devoted his life to ensuring the success of his talented wife as well as full responsibility for nursing her to health. During the 1920’s Millary went on many reading tours arranged by her husband. Edna St. Vincent Millary was influenced by Robert Frost, acquainted with Ezra Pound as well, she went on to write many great sonnets. Sonnets who were inspired by her lover George Dillon, who was also an American poet, whom she was having an affair with. Inspired also by William Shakespeare, John Milton, William Wordsworth, Alfred Tennyson, Charles Dickens, Walter Scott, George Eliot, and Henrik Ibsen.

It is important to understand Edna St. VIncent Millary’s life because, not only eass her work very inspiring, her life helped bring about what of, what I consider to be, the most intriguing literary works, The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. The famous affair of Gatsby and Daisy is modeled by Millary and Dillon’s love affair. Like the character Tom in the novel, Millary’s Husband Boissevain also knew about the affair between the two lovers and as the story ends, The two never separated because of the mistresses. F. Scott Fitzgerald not only used her love affair to inspire Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship, the extravagance of her lifestyle was also used to inspire Gatsby’s reputation. Millary got caught up in the court case of two men accused of murder, as does Gatsby connection in the mob makes his character look suspecious, Edna is also credited for the famous parties because as Gatsby does in the novel. 

Edna St. Vincent Millary not only heavily influenced American Literature, she also made her footprint during the times that they were wriitng and publishing. She shedded light on important issues in society which is why Rita Dove choose to put them in her poetry book. The writing styles are unique, but the works are deeper than ju

In the introduction it gets into the importance of modernism dealing with the literary movement. Modernism was a movement in art that takes it away from its original form. Wallace Stevens one to go against the normal while being a late bloomer to writing he was a modernist poet who rather “the supreme fiction” which I took as he rather it flow like a stream of consciousness than the basic objective of reality. Wallace Stevens was born on October 2, 1879 in Reading,Pennsylvania. Stevens was educated at Harvard Law to later finish up at New York School of Law. Stevens Stevens worked as an insurance executive for most of his life at a company in Hartford, Connecticut. Wallace Stevens first publication and writing period was in 1923 with a collection of poems in Harmonium. Stevens was perfect during this time period he personally had a mine of his own.

Ezra Pound modern poet was born October 30, 1885 in Idaho. Pounds muse was Imagism so much in fact he help shape the work of other poets such as Ernest Hemingway, Robert Frost, T.S. Eliot and others. Pound worked in London during the early 20th century as foreign editor of several American literary magazines. In 1908 , Pounds first publication and book was A Lume Spento which opened up the doors for the Ezra Pound we know today .

Amy Lowell’s Patterns embodies the very essence of Imagist writing. Her language remains simple, descriptive and straight forward through the poem as she paints sullen images of a woman confined and mourning the loss of her fiance.

 

Amy Lowell is a canonical figure of modern American poetry. Her work spans decades, setting the standard for proto-feminist texts and Imagism. Over the years, she has published 650 poems, written a 1300-page biography on John Keats, edited an anthology on Imagist writers of the period, and translated a few East Asian haikus. Her non-metrical writing style, also known as free verse, encapsulates the natural rhythms of speech. Furthermore, her profession as an editor, lecturer, poet, performer, and mentor to Imagist poets such as Carl Sandburg landed her opportunities to contribute to her cause of enlightening American readers about trends in modern poetry. Born to an affluent New England family, she was exposed to education at a young age. She excelled in school during a time where women were prohibited from continuing their education once reaching a certain age. As a teenager, she began educating herself, and by 17, she had published her first poem in the Atlantic. From there, she embarked on her literary career, creating a collection of poems titled A Dome of Many Colored Glass, based on a volume by John Keats. In fact, John Keats heavily influenced her work. Later on, she would befriend Imagist poet Ezra Pound and become acquainted with novelist Henry James. Lowell left behind a legacy of work that remains as the hallmark for feminist text. 

 

 In the first stanza, the speaker is “walk[ing] down the patterned garden paths” gazing at the daffodils and “bright blue squills”, which blows freely in the wind. Then the scene switches to her walking down the garden paths restricted by the gown she wears, her “stiff, brocaded gown.” It seems that Lowell attempts to depict a dichotomy between freedom and restriction. Nature thus represents the unrestraint the speaker alludes to while her finely patterned gown, “jeweled fan and powdered hair” represents restriction. 

 

It is not uncanny that Lowell references fashion throughout this poem. Patterns was published in 1915, and during this time, the Great War was just beginning. From the 1890s until 1914, fashion trends in America harkened back to the Edwardian period in England where the elite flaunted s-curved corsets and extravagantly patterned gowns that accentuated their silhouette. Body ideals and new interests in emulating looks of the ruling class created a new type of woman. It also created a more self-aware, politically attuned and outspoken woman, one who spoke unapologetically about pervading issues in society during that time. Fashion, in a nutshell, reflected not only what appeared popular according to the ruling class but also the social norms and limitations placed on women. 

 

Essentially, Lowell beautifully captures, in the second stanza, how uncomfortable the speaker feels in these luxurious garments. A concept quite bizarre considering women strived to dress finely.  Her “tripping by in high-heeled, ribboned heels” in her “plate of current fashion” appears as though the speaker shows great disdain for having to wear such clothing and that she has little knowledge about how to properly walk in heels. She is restricted from expressing her  “softness” because her garments literally and figuratively prohibit her from doing so. The speaker watches as the daffodils and squills “flutter in the breeze,” expressing themselves with such freedom which, again, juxtaposes the speaker’s feeling of confinement. It saddens her because not only is she thinking about her own position, but she is also mourning the loss of her lover. I would also contend that she is also mourning the loss of her selfhood. She expresses a deep disconnect from herself, and her garments thus represent the force creating that distance. She views the natural world as a world free to act authentically, in its own authorized pattern. 

 

By the fourth stanza, the speaker has become “the softness of a woman bathing in a marble basin,” which I would argue contrasts the idea of a woman’s femininity lying in what she wears, that her garments determine her softness and not her selfhood, her authenticity, her literal body. Unlike the third stanza, where she describes herself as not having “softness anywhere about me”, this softness that she alludes to, which I interpreted as flirtatiousness and playfulness, comes when she is naked. It is this nakedness that authorizes her fully immerse into her being while being in the presence of her fiance. He admires her raw beauty, unclothed and exposed rather than the clothes she wears. 

 

Towards the sixth stanza, the speaker receives a letter about her fiance who dies during combat. Her tone reflects melancholy as she “walked into the garden paths / in my stiff, correct brocade.” I found it interesting that she uses stiff and correct to describe her gown. To me, the words she chooses to represent an idea that society pressures women to act like modest, decent ladies. 

 

By the end of the poem, the stiffness returns. Her sullenness and mourning appear synonymous with rigidity and conform. In fact, the speaker makes a conscious effort to conform, to “go/ up and down / in my gown / . . . guarded from embrace.” She raises inevitable questions about the cycle of life. Why must people die? How must life go on without the warm embrace of a lover? Lowell thus leaves us pondering our own questions about what life teaches us and the inescapable cycle of life and death each human being must experience. 

Gertrude Stein

Stein’s language in her abstract poem Susie Asado reflects such musicality that the reader can actually hear the tapping of Susie’s shoes as she dances the flamenco. Stein’s writing resembles the fluidity and randomness of memory and the subconscious, which shows distinctly in this poem. 

Gertrude Stein is noted as a vanguard to modernism. Her obsession with psychology and how the inner workings of characters created attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions propelled her into a world of alternative art and poetry. Many may know her for throwing routine salons at her apartment on 27 rue de Fleurus or for inspiring writers such as Ernest Hemingway. However, Stein’s familial background adds to the depth she carries as a poet, author, and significant literary figure. 

 

Born in Alleghany, Pennsylvania, her family settled in Oakland, CA where she attended Radcliffe College. She became fascinated with psychology, particularly William James, whom she worked under. While attending Radcliff, she along with another student conducted research on the limitations of the conscious mind and the repetition of memory. She was also mentored by psychologist Hugo Munsterburg who described her as “the model of what a young scholar should be (Hoffman, 128).” She enrolled in John Hopkins Medical School but soon quit after failing a few courses. From there, she moved to Paris in 1930. Being in Paris, the epicenter of intellectual freedom inspired her to fully immerse herself in the literary scene. She became fully acquainted with a group of American and English expatriates who moved to Paris. Dubbed as the Lost Generation, these poets sought to tell their experience by toying with a cutting-edge, experimental style of writing. 

 

Cubist artists majorly influenced Stein’s writing. She rejected the conventional linear form of storytelling from the 19th century and decided to flirt with the idea of creating objects from a spatial, process-oriented approach. Susie Asado is her attempt at doing this. Stein invites the reader in calmly with alliteration, the repeating of the s sound in the first few lines creates an image of water slowly dripping from a full cup of tea, slowly and with such fluidity. It also creates movements similar to dance. 

 

Towards the second stanza, the speaker continues to play with sounds, using a “told tray sure” to echo the tapping of Susie Asado’s heels as she moves, swiftly and smoothly. 
I found it interesting that the poem lacks a conventional structure. It was typical of Stein to leave out a plot or dialogue in her poems. With Susie Asado, she forces readers to follow her storytelling method and think outside their style of thinking.

I would consider an excerpt from, The Walls Do Not Fall, by Hilda Doolittle one of the most intriguing poems I have read by far. As the title suggests, the poem is quite literally about different walls that refuse to fall no matter what seems to happen. Very straightforward and not much to find interesting in that particular aspects. What makes this particular poem so interesting, though, are the actual walls. “Pompeii has nothing to teach us, we know crack of volcanic fissure, slow flow of the terrible lava”, this quote suggests two very important points:

1. Pompeii was destroyed by lava. Lava causes anything that it touches to burn. While most things fizzle away never to be seen again, other things are preserved. For example, human bodies are sometimes preserved along with the skeletons of structures…or the walls. These items are preserved through the lava cooling and hardening in to a rock like substance.
2. The second point ties directly into the first point. Th poem is entitled, “The Walls Do Not Fall”, in Pompeii there were and are walls that did not and will not fall.

This quote was the beginning of a narrative that seems to stress the importance of walls within the human body, structure, society, everywhere. Hilda Doolittle impressed upon the notion that walls are the backbone of everything and seem to be even more important than what’s in and on them. But the question is, why write a poem about a wall? Yes, they are important to the structural foundation of a home. And yes they can become important when speaking about psychology and how people sometimes build walls to keep certain things in and other things out. What could possibly be so important about a wall?

World War II began in the year 1939 and ended in 1945. Hilda wrote this poem in the beginning of the 1940s, during the time when World War II was just getting started. From September 1940 through May 1941, Germany performed bombing raids, called Blitz, on London during the night. Hilda Doolittle lived in London during this time so she saw the devastation that the bombs did to London first hand which is what this poem is about. This poem is about the death and devastation that London experienced during this time. People that went to bed thinking that they would wake up the next day didn’t, “the bone frame (flesh) was made for no such shock knit within terror, yet the skeleton stood up to it”. For the people that parishes during the raids, all that was left was their bones.

Going back to the earlier quote, armed with historical background, a new analysis can be made. The quote, “Pompeii has nothing to teach us, we know the crack of volcanic fissure, slow flow of terrible lava”, means quite literally, the history and destruction of Pompeii cannot help with the destruction that was happening at this particular time. Scientists began to understand how volcanoes worked and could predict when they would erupt so a catastrophe like Pompeii would hopefully not happen again. But how do you predict when a country will randomly bomb you at night? If caught early enough, one can escape lava, but how do you escape a bomb?

But, although all of this went on, Hilda still held a sense of hope, “yet the frame held; as we passed the flame: we wonder what saved us? what for?”. This speaks about the perseverance of man but the inevitable pain and suffering that will come from it. No one came out of this situation unaffected, unbothered, or unscathed. Although there was hope, there were some wounds that would take a lifetime to heal. In this particular part of the quote, “we wonder what saved us? what for?”, it is almost as if she is saying that it it better off to be dead.

Rita Dove specifically chooses these writers to be featured in her book because of the impact that they left on society. Each of these authors influenced American Literature one way or another. Not only having a great impact on Literature, but the time period as well. Showcasing an accurate description of life during the time period in which these authors were alive and active

James Weldon Johnson was an author, civil rights activist, educator, lawyer, diplomat, and a songwriter. Born June 17, 1871 in Jacksonville, Florida. Interesting fact, June 17 is two days before Juneteeth which is the day the slavery was officially abolished in all states. It is ironic that James Weldon was born two days before then, because he would later go on to write the Black National Anthem,  Lift Every Voice and Sing in 1900. The song was originally written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson, but his brother John Rosamond Johnson put the music behind it. James Weldon Johnson also was a leader in the NAACP. In 1920 he was chosen as the first black executive secretary of the NAACP, and served the role through 1930. Also noted that he has an honorary doctoral degree from Howard University. In 1933 he recieved the W.E.B Du bios prize for Negro Literature. James Weldon Johnson was a very influential writer, especially during the Harlem Renaissance.

Paul Laurence Dunbar was born June 27, 1872 to freed slaves from Kentucky. Dunbar became one of the first influential African American poets in American Literature.  He was internationally acclaimed for his analytical verses in his works such as Majors and Minors, written in 1895 and Lyrics of Lowly Life in 1896. Paul Laurence Dunbar went to Howard University as well. After relocating to the city of Chicago, Dunbar got in contact with Frederick Douglas who then helped him get a job as a clerk and also arranged him to read a selection of his poems. By 1895 Dunbar’s poems began to be featured in major national newspapers and magazines such as the New York Times. Dunbar’s work is known as an very intriguing bodies of work that accurately represented Black life in the turn of the century America. 

Each of these writers not only heavily influenced American Literature, they also made their footprint during the times that they were wriitng and publishing. Each other shedded light on important issues in society which is why Rita Dove choose to put them in her poetry book. The writing styles are unique, but the works are deeper than just another poem. The touch on very infuential topics. 

In the introduction we are afforded the opportunity to witness the various reasons chose to

The Introduction to “The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth Century American Poetry,” written by Rita Dove and criticized by Helen Vendler in a response entitled “Are These the Poems to Remember,” listed names of black and white poets which Rita Dove sensed they were important to list to which Helen Vendler didn’t quite share the same beliefs, henceforth the criticism by Helen Vendler. The introduction speaks of time during American industrialization, such as World War 1, World War 2, The Civil War, the Great Depression, etc. and how the art poetry during these times gave hope and/or changed perspectives and views, also how these times changed poetry. She also jumps back and forth between the 19^th century and the 20^th century speaking of past poets, their works, their writing styles, and achievements.

                She begins sections in her introduction with a line from a poem then displays who wrote the quote. For instance, she began one of the sections by quoting Delmore Schwartz, a poet, Caucasian, from Brooklyn, New York who won the Bollingen Prize. His quote makes the statement, “The scrimmage of appetite everywhere.” This statement by itself could have more than one meaning. It could mean everyone is so hungry, metaphorically, to get “theirs” or what they want during a time of suffrage for the Americans. Or, secondly, it could mean a hunger struggle or people battling against their own hunger. After penning this quote, Dove gives us the names of poets who served in the Second World War in the army, navy and air force such as, Kenneth Koch, Robert Bly, and James Dickey, to proclaim these poets to have been “conscientious objectors.” A conscientious objector is a person who, for reasons of conscience, objects to following a particular requirement, especially serving in the armed forces (google dictionary). In other words, it is an individual who refuses to serve on the grounds of religion, conscience, and freedom of thought.

Dove remembered these poets because the aftermath “opened American consciousness” to concepts such as, absurdism (the belief of human existence being meaningless) and nihilism (the belief of life being meaningless). This, in my opinion, is written down by Dove to explain how poets began to develop their own style of writing because of the opened consciousness during this time of despair and hope. Coming to a breakthrough of no longer being held back or “indebted to the old British school of articulate reasoned oratory and less beholden to social, ethnic, or regional confines…” She then jumps to metaphorical characteristics and traits to describe the new and “fresh” style of other writers such as Langston Hughes, claiming he moved from the “decorous pronouncements of his Harlem Renaissance poems” to his poems now being infused with a jazz and bebop rhythm. Dove then compares Margaret Walker’s poem For My People to a black sermon and stating her achievement as the first African American poet to win the Yale Younger Poets Prize. Obviously, she was also the first African American female poet to win the prize as well. Soon after, Dove pens about another African American female poet who won the 1950 Pulitzer Prize, and the first huge recognition of a nonwhite poet, with her second book entitled Annie Allen, Gwendolyn Brooks. Dove declares, Gwendolyn Brooks not only won a Prize for her second book, but Gwendolyn’s first book, “confirmed that black women can express themselves in poems as richly innovative as the best male poets of any race.”

There were events happening in the African American community surrounding the 1950’s time period. Other than Gwendolyn Brooks winning the Pulitzer Prize, Supreme Court case justices ruled racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka Supreme Court case on May 17, 1954. A year later, on September 6, 1955, the funeral of Emmett Till took place in Mississippi, the state where he was killed. It was during this 1950 time period Dove suggests African American influences were increasingly permeating mainstream life and art. I am suggesting this means, the African American culture influenced the mainstream of poetry. In other words, the influence of African American culture was penetrating the American culture of life and art and changing it. Jazz and blues went North, scat singing evolved into bebop and the “musical innovation and improvisation loosened screws on other traditions as well…” Possibly, also in my own opinion, influencing the writing style in Howl written by Allen Ginsberg which Dove describes the personal style stood as an “unabashed antiestablishment stance and confessional rawness” ultimatum. The African American culture around this time seemed to have their own style of writing and a bit of confessional rawness because of the voice they were then trying to have. In Dove’s words the Black Arts movement was “a necessary explosion.” Dove goes on to elaborate, the Black Arts Movement was hitting targets they did not aim for. White students were wearing dashikis and crooning to Marvin Gaye. Could this have been the start of culture appropriation? This success inspired feminist poets, Native Americans, Hispanics, gays, and Asian Americans to use their neglected voices. Though the Black Arts movement was making an influence on other cultures, Dove states there was a lack of African Americans in poetry establishments. Though how could this be if African Americans made an impact with their art and style and rhythm in their poetic pieces? Are black poets in 20^th century appreciated as an influence in poetry, or are they only appreciated in the black community for influencing and new black aesthetic, or way of writing?