Customer Reviews

I Am the Darker Brother: An Anthology of Modern Poems by African Americans

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I loved this book, it made me proud to be an African American. It makes you realize that the things you see on TV and the news are covering up the talent and greatness of African Americans. There are poems by various poets, all of them are great!

My mother had a copy of this book in the early 80's and it was one I could not put down. During this time, teachers didn't share information about the "Black" experience. I believe this is a good read for young African Amercans. It will help them appreciate who they are and where they come from.

Not only is this collection poignant and educational for younger readers, but I believe that it is an absolutely essential read for the youth of America. Too quickly people forget about the past, and these poems are necessary in order that history doesn't continue to repeat itself. There are so many phenomenal gems by well-known authors and poets throughout the 20th century, and every single one of them is still relevant to our culture today. The list of poets in this anthology is amazing, and it's an important read for anyone in order to show us a mirror, reflecting the current state of ourselves in hopes that we will grow and expand our understanding of life and humanity.

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Can you imagine a book that can change your emotion with every poem that you read? Well, with I AM THE DARKER BROTHER that is what happens. First, you can be reading a poem that makes you happy then you are reading one that makes you sad. Or a poem that is calm and then an intense one. Also in this book there is a poet that writes a poem in a poem, I will tell you about that later. But if you like poetry this is a perfect book for you.

One of the poems that I really liked was "JACKET NOTES" by Ishmael Reed. I liked this one a lot because Ishmael made me really think about this poem. The thing that it made me really think about was what does the barrel symbolize. He talks about it falling over a water fall. Then at the end of the poem he says, "What really hurt is that you're bigger then the barrel." I thought that the barrel symbolizes a prison and the black man is bigger than it but can not get out if the barrel--the prison. I'll let you read it and try and figure it out for yourself.

Another poem that I liked was "A MOMENT PLEASE" by Samuel Allen. This poem confused me because I did not understand the poem. But even if it confused me for some reason I still like it. That was because there were two poems in one. One poem you had to read every third line. The poem that is italic talks about the earth. The second poem talks about a guy just walking and people asking him if he is Arabian or not.