SOURCE: Gabbin, Joanne V. “The Poetry of Sterling A. Brown: A Study in Form and Meaning.” In African American Literary Criticism, 1773 to 2000, edited by Hazel Arnett Ervin, pp. 247-58. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1999.

In the following essay, Gabbin assesses the influence of blues, spirituals, and work songs on Brown's poetry.

With the same literary perspective used in recreating folk subjects and themes, [Sterling] Brown adopted the language and form of Black folklore. In his poetry the language of Black folk—the dialect, the idioms, the imagery, the style—retains its richness and verve. Likewise, the spirituals, blues, ballads, work songs, tall tales, and aphorisms achieve another level of expressiveness as they are absorbed and integrated. Not once doubting the efficacy of folk speech to express all that the people were, Brown brought the use of dialect in poetry to new respectable heights, despite a debate over its value...