Thomas and Beulah (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The poems in this unusual book tell a story, forming a narrative almost like a realistic novel. Read in sequence as intended, they tell of the lives of a married black couple (not unlike Dove's own grandparents) from the early part of the century until their deaths in the 1960s, a period that spans the great migration of blacks from rural south to urban north. But this is merely the social backdrop to the story of a marriage. Two separate sequences offer two views of the couple's lives: the first, "Mandolin," consists of 23 poems giving Thomas's side, and "Canary in Bloom" gives Beulah's in 21 poems. Together they paint a detailed, poetically dense portrait of two lives in all their frailty, dignity and complexity. The collection was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987.

Review

A remarkable book. . . . Dove has planed away unnecessary matter: pure shapes, her poems exhibit the thrift that Yeats called the sign of a perfected manner. -- New York Review of Books

Product Details

• Paperback: 79 pages
• Publisher: Carnegie-Mellon University Press; First trade paperback printing, first issue. edition (June 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887480217
• ISBN-13: 978-0887480218
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #503,094 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous., May 17, 2004

By	Robert P. Beveridge "xterminal" (Cleveland, OH) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Rita Dove, Thomas and Beulah (1987, Carnegie Mellon)

Rita Dove won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry with Thomas and Beulah, and it's pretty easy to see why. Dove's poetic biography of her ancestors is hyperkinetic, jazz-infused poetry rooted in the Depression, full of life, sass, and vinegar. Nothing is sacred, from motherhood ("She dreams the baby's so small she keeps/misplacing it") to death ("Later he'll say Death stepped right up/to shake his hand, then squeezed/until he sank to his knees."), and some contemporary jabs mixed in ("...Joanna saying/'Mother, we're Afro-Americans now!'/What did she know about Africa?"). Dove has been one of America's shining poetic voices for two decades now, and there's never not a right time to go back and revisit this stunning collection. Perhaps her strongest work. ****

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Review for Thomas And Beulah, April 20, 2004

By	Jamee (College Station, TX USA) - See all my reviews

I thought this book was superb! Rita Dove is a master at laying out the lives of Thomas and Beulah in an enchanting and thought provoking way. As a reader, I became so enamored with the lives of these two negros, I read the book over and over again to uncover new and subtle details of their fascinating journey finding each other. I fell in love with these characters, and have never been so involved in my reading as when I read this small book of narrative poetry. Firstly, the book is in such an understandable way- the first section being Thomas's perspective and the second being Beulah's. Sometimes the poems coincide and give the two different perspectives that parallel to the viewpoints of man and woman on the same subject- and this is especially interesting. Items such as the yellow scarf, the mandolin, the lost Lem all contribute to threads of themes, interwoven symbols that are subtly distributed throughout the text. You recognize the recurring themes and it makes you feel almost as if you are part of the story and that you know these characters and can identify with them. My favorite poem from Thomas' point of view is "Variation on Pain", when he is lamenting the loss of his best friend Lem. Most touching is the lines "There was a needle in his head but nothing fit through it." The poet has so accurately captured the desolation of death, the burden of survivors. You can feel the pain of Thomas as he "lay on the bunk, mandolin in his arms". Another favorite from Thomas' perspective is "Variation on Gaining a Son", where he is marrying off one of his daughters. It is such a stirring moment as "he watched the bridegroom swallow. For the first time Thomas felt like calling him son." My preferred of Beulah's would be "Courtship, Diligence" where she describes her courtship with Thomas. Whenever she says "Cigar box music! She'd much prefer a pianola and scent in a sky colored flask", I can't help but laugh. After all, who hasn't on a first date rolled their eyes at something the other party did in an attempt at impressing them? Another favorite from Beulah's section is "Motherhood". It still astounds me how the poet was able to capture the feelings of being a mother, "She dreams the baby's so small she keeps misplacing it...it disappears with his shirt in the wash...Then she drops it and it explodes like a watermelon, eyes splitting." These feelings are so real and true to life that the reader is forced to remember when these events happened in their own lives and confront the feelings that these events conjure. I am new to the concept of poetry but I would recommend this small book to anyone whether new or familiar with the genre.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What is Left Out, October 24, 2000

By A Customer

What I find particularly appealing in this collection of poetry is what moments, memories, or emotions get left out. Thomas's perspective of an event is often undercut by Beulah's rendition of the same event. Situations that Beulah reflects on painfully have even been omitted entirely in Thomas's section of poems and vice versa. These omissions work to expose the "limitedness" of the individual perspective, how two people can function in a relationship as a unit and alone. Dove writes of longing, shame, hope, and love without reverting to nostalgic reminiscence. Each of the poems sparks with immediacy created by the brillance of Dove's language, at once common and suductive.