SOURCE: Thomas, Lorenzo. “Authenticity and Elevation: Sterling Brown's Theory of the Blues.” African American Review 31, no. 3 (autumn 1997): 409-16.

In the following essay, Thomas discusses Brown's incorporation of the blues tradition in his poetry, maintaining that he was able to “identify the authentic poetic voice of black America.”

Every poet must confront a serious problem: how to reconcile one's private preoccupations with the need to make poetry that is both accessible and useful to others. A failure in this area does not, of course, prevent the production of poems. Indeed, some poems—like many of T. S. Eliot's—may be records of this struggle, while others have the disturbingly eloquent beauty of Church testifying or 12-step program witness. One manner of reconciliation is an embrace of what may be called tradition, but even this is problematic.

The idea of tradition made Eliot uneasy; at best he saw it as...