SOURCE: Stuckey, Sterling. Introduction to The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown, selected by Michael S. Harper, pp. 3-15. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.

In the following essay, which was originally published in 1974, Stuckey considers the critical reaction to Brown's poetry.

Unlike the others, the poet had not introduced himself. He had simply said, “Ma Rainey,” and continued in a way that indicated an unusual affinity between author and poem, between voice and word. It seemed the most natural and impressive delivery I had ever heard:

I talked to a fellow, an' the fellow say, “She jes' catch hold of us, some kindaway. She sang Backwater Blues one day …” 

“An' den de folks, dey natchally bowed dey heads an' cried, Bowed dey heavy heads, shet dey moufs up tight an' cried, An Ma lef' de stage, an' followed some de folks outside.” 

And then those lines which say so...