SOURCE: "Evolution of Style in the Poetry of Melvin B. Tolson," in Black American Poets Between Worlds, 1940–1960, edited by R. Baxter Miller, University of Tennessee Press, 1986, pp. 1-18.

In the following essay, Russell analyzes the progression of Tolson's thought and style throughout his career.

The consideration of Melvin Tolson's evolving style concerns the maturation of his thought. Here I concentrate on his epic form and his developing perspective. I shall first generalize about his worldview and then trace the development of the hero figure, for both processes set into relief the stylistic growth. The examination includes less the discussion of metrics and figurative language than the concern for poetics in the deepest sense.

Tolson writes: "A great preacher is a great artist. Words are his tubes of paint. Verse, his brush." These sentences go far to explain the poetics of the speaker. He does not belong to that...