[The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown] reveals Brown as a master and a presence indeed. Although he is not a lyricist of any distinction, and although his effective range is narrow, he is a first-rate narrative poet, an eloquent prophet of the folk, and certainly our finest author of Afro-American dialect. His bindlestiffs, criminals, ramblers, gamblers, and "bad niggers" grow out of an unself-consciously revolutionist folklore, which he is determined to make both explicit and heroic, and his characteristic note of protest may remind us that the bulk of his verse was composed during the 1930's. His anger, however, does not censor his ear, which is sensitive and hospitable, and he makes use of many other voices as well. He elicits a generous comedy from the Anglified inflections of West Indian speech, and one of his most successful poems celebrates the triumphant piety of rural women. He...