Authors
Michael S. Harper (b. 1938)
Bibliography
Biography
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Questions for Discussion and Writing
The Harper selections in NAAL show considerable range and a kind of experimentation also seen in some contemporary minority prose writers: an attempt to energize and expand the literary voice by drawing upon musical traditions and forms. However, Harper is acutely aware that all poetry, including his own, converses with other poetry, including verse from American traditions which are both "other" and close kin. His own collections go to literary journals and bookstores, where they are commonly shelved in alphabetical order somewhere between Dickinson and Pound as well as in the shelves devoted to African American writers. Harper knows, in other words, that to be an American minority poet is to be both a "minority" and an American, and in his work Harper claims the dignity of both literary identities.
1. The title Nightmare Begins Responsibility (1975) invokes Yeats and Schwartz, both of whom were artistic rebels in their respective historical moments, but both of whom were also members of a white poetic tradition. Describe ways in which this poem echoes and resists that tradition. Why does Harper frequently use italicized phrases and lines in this poem? What do those moments suggest to you?
2. Tongue-Tied in Black and White (1975) is addressed to Berryman, who had committed suicide three years before this poem was published. Is the poem an elegy? A tribute? A quarrel with a dead artist? Describe the tone and viewpoint of this poem and its overall intention.
3. Deathwatch (1970) is about a private experience, the loss of a child. Martin's Blues (1971) and Bird Lives: Charlie Parker in St. Louis (1972) are both addressed to well-known public figures. Each of the poems ends with repeated phrases. Why? What is the effect in each case? Is it musical? Thematically important? Do these final words actually end their respective poems -- or leave them open-ended?