In this Book
- This Is My Century: New and Collected Poems
- Book
- 2013
- Published by: University of Georgia Press
summary
Margaret Walker became the first African American to win a national literary award when her collection For My People was chosen for the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1942. Over the next fifty years she enriched American literature in endless ways through her writings and, in 1993, she received the National Book Award for Lifetime Achievement.
This Is My Century is Walker's own defining summation of her career. Selected by the author herself, the one hundred poems include thirty-seven previously uncollected pieces and the entire contents of three hard-to-find volumes: the award-winning For My People (1942), Prophets for a New Day (1970), and October Journey (1975).
Table of Contents
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- Foreword: Looking Up, Margaret Walker
- pp. xi-xvi
- Introduction: Margaret Walker and the Practice of Poetry
- pp. xvii-xxxvi
- Acknowledgments
- pp. xlv-xlvi
- For My People
- For My People
- pp. 6-7
- Dark Blood
- pp. 8-55
- We Have Been Believers
- pp. 9-10
- Southern Song
- pp. 11-58
- Sorrow Home
- pp. 12-59
- The Spirituals*
- pp. 13-60
- Since 1619
- pp. 22-69
- People of Unrest
- pp. 23-70
- Molly Means
- pp. 26-27
- Bad-Man Stagolee
- pp. 28-75
- Poppa Chicken
- pp. 29-30
- Kissie Lee
- pp. 31-32
- Yalluh Hammuh
- pp. 33-34
- Two-Gun Buster and Trigger Slim
- pp. 35-36
- Gus, the Lineman
- pp. 39-41
- Long John Nelson and Sweetie Pie
- pp. 42-43
- Big John Henry
- pp. 44-45
- Iowa Farmer
- pp. 48-95
- The Struggle Staggers Us
- pp. 51-52
- Prophets for a New Day
- Street Demonstration
- pp. 55-102
- Girl Held Without Bail
- pp. 56-103
- The Ballad of the Free
- pp. 60-61
- Jackson, Mississippi
- pp. 62-63
- Oxford Is a Legend
- pp. 64-111
- Birmingham
- pp. 65-66
- For Malcolm X
- pp. 70-117
- Prophets for a New Day
- pp. 74-75
- Amos, 1963
- pp. 78-125
- Amos (Postscript, 1968)
- pp. 79-126
- Ballad of the Hoppy-Toad
- pp. 84-86
- October Journey
- October Journey
- pp. 91-93
- Harriet Tubman
- pp. 94-99
- Epitaph for My Father
- pp. 100-107
- I Want to Write
- pp. 113-160
- For Gwen, 1969
- pp. 114-161
- For Paul Laurence Dunbar
- pp. 115-162
- For Mary McLeod Bethune
- pp. 116-163
- Tribute to Robert Hayden
- pp. 117-118
- For Owen Dodson, 1983
- pp. 119-121
- Ballad for Phillis Wheatley
- pp. 122-123
- A Litany from the Dark People
- pp. 124-126
- This Is My Century
- This Is My Century
- pp. 129-134
- Giants of My Century
- pp. 135-138
- Five Black Men . . .
- pp. 139-144
- On Death and the Resurrection
- pp. 145-192
- My Mississippi Spring
- pp. 146-193
- Black Paramour
- pp. 147-148
- A Litany of Black History for Black People
- pp. 149-151
- On Youth and Age
- pp. 152-157
- My Truth and My Flame
- pp. 158-205
- On Youth and Age II
- pp. 163-166
- Disillusion for Flower Children of Long Ago
- pp. 167-168
- I Hear a Rumbling
- pp. 170-173
- Love Song for Alex, 1979
- pp. 175-222
- Medgar Evers, 1925—1963
- pp. 176-223
- Birmingham, 1963
- pp. 177-224
- Jackson State, May 15, 1970
- pp. 178-179
- The Telly Boob-Tube on the Idiot Box
- pp. 180-181
- Money Honey Money
- pp. 186-233
- On Police Brutality
- pp. 187-234
- Power to the People
- pp. 188-235
- They Have Put Us on Hold
- pp. 189-190
- Inflation Blues
- pp. 191-192
- Fanfare, Coda, and Finale
- pp. 194-196
- Farish Street
- The African Village
- pp. 199-200
- A Patchwork Quilt
- pp. 201-248
- The Crystal Palace
- pp. 202-249
- The House of Prayer
- pp. 203-204
- Small Black World
- pp. 205-206
- Black Magic
- pp. 207-208
- The Labyrinth of Life
- pp. 209-256
Additional Information
ISBN
9780820342399
MARC Record
OCLC
861200137
Pages
256
Launched on MUSE
2015-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No