SOURCE: Tidwell, John Edgar. “Two Writers Sharing: Sterling A. Brown, Robert Frost, and ‘In Divés' Dive.’” African American Review 31, no. 3 (autumn 1997): 399-408.

In the following essay, Tidwell considers the influence of Robert Frost's “In Divés' Dive” on Brown's verse.

It is late at night and still I am losing, But still I am steady and unaccusing. 

As long as the Declaration guards My right to be equal in number of cards, 

It is nothing to me who runs the Dive. Let's have a look at another five. 

(Robert Frost, “In Divés' Dive”)

In the recent proliferation of conference papers, critical articles, and books discussing the pioneering innovation and enduring significance of Sterling A. Brown's poetry, literary critics and historians have enthusiastically shown a propensity toward tracing the resonance of “influence” in his work. The persistence of this practice can hardly be faulted because, starting in...