Bussey is an independent writer specializing in literature. In this essay, she explores the relevance of musical form and content in Young's “Chorale.”

Young's 2003 poetry collection, Jelly Roll: A Blues, showcases the poet's particular expertise in music as it relates to poetry. Although the poems include a wide range of subjects and tones, they are held together by the influence of American music. Young's comfort with the form is evident in the intimacy of his poems and his willingness to explore personal and sometimes painful musings. In “Chorale,” he expresses loneliness and hope within the twin contexts of blues music and the chorale. These two musical forms are very different, yet the poem is cohesive and the voice sympathetic. Somehow, Young draws on these disparate musical influences in a way that works for the poem.

The collection Jelly Roll bears the subtitle A Blues. It is fair...