Sterling Brown's poetic voice: a living legacy

African American Review, Fall, 1997 by Joanne V. Gabbin

Brown's poetic sensibility experiments with diverse elements in literature and culture, amplifies understanding through performance, confronts the tragic-comic conditions of life, and attests to the continuity of black creativity. In "Ma Rainey," one of Brown's finest poems, he skillfully brings together the ballad and blues forms and, demonstrating his inventive genius, creates the blues ballad. In this brilliant portrait of Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, the husky-voiced mother of the blues, Brown allows us to see her make her entrance on stage with a sequined gown hugging her short, stocky frame; an elaborate gold necklace encircling her cleavage; tasseled earrings; and a brilliant, gold-toothed grin. But even more than giving us a vivid portrait of the venerated blues singer, he draws an emotional portrait of the people who flocked to hear "Ma do her stuff."

An' some jokers keep deir laughs a-goin' in de crowded aisles, An' some folks sits dere waitin' wid deir aches an' miseries. . . . (Poems 62)

Brown effectively frames these portraits with a performance. Ma Rainey is on stage articulating the pain and suffering of her people. She sings "'bout de hard luck / Roun' our do' / . . . 'bout de lonesome road / We mus' go. . . . "Her power over her audience emanates from her ability to translate the chaos and uncertainty of their lives into terms that can be understood and confronted. When she sings "Backwater Blues," she catches" 'hold of us, somekindaway'" (63).

In the final analysis Brown's poetry, too, has the effect of getting "hold of us dataway" (63). Through his poetry, Brown offers us a kind of clairvoyance, a sure vision, that gives guidance, warning, admonishment, and encouragement. When we flounder in confusion, fear, and divisiveness, Brown offers us in "Sharecroppers" the images of blacks and whites who became comrades in mutual struggle. When our children cast their heads down in collective shame upon first learning that their ancestors were slaves, Brown's "Strong Men" speaks to them of endurance, resilience, and strength of character. When we find it comfortable to forget our past and expedient to deny who we are, Brown shows in "Children's Children" the tragic emptiness and falseness of the "babbling young ones" who "have forgotten / What had to be endured" (104). Even when we take ourselves too seriously and view life as through a veil of tears, Brown sends us Ole Slim Greer:

Talkinges' guy An' biggest liar, With always a new lie On the fire. (Poems 77)

Remarkably balanced in his approach, Brown brought to American literature a voice rich in racial memory and resonant with messages of struggle and strength. When he died on January 13, 1989, I lost a dear friend and mentor, and the literary world lost a champion. Now what remains is his voice resonating with dignity and truth. His poetry is his legacy to all of us.

Brown, Sterling A. The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown. 1980. Chicago: TriQuarterly P, 1989.

-----. "Folk Literature." The Negro Caravan. Ed. Brown, Arthur P. Davis, and Ulysses Lee. 1941. New York: Arno, 1970. 412-34.