Raymond Garfield Dandridge, called by one critic "the adopted son of the lyric muse," wrote most of his poems from an invalid's bed in Cincinnati. In his short and poignant career as a writer, which began in 1912 and ended with his death in 1930, he revealed himself to be a modestly talented poet with a sensibility that was sincere and reflective. Although Dandridge was not a great poet, it is useful to view him as a gauge of the literary temperament of one of the most tumultuous and stimulating periods in American history. In his work, Dandridge responded to the persistent and strong appeal of the traditional dialect poetry of the Dunbar school and the equally strong pull of the literary and cultural forces of the New Negro Renaissance. His poems, with varying degrees of skill and depth, mirror a man reading clearly the vicissitudes of his audience and...