Reviews

had to read the poem 'turner' for a class but I decided to finish the collection because it was quite interesting, some poems I liked more than others but generally I liked the collection well enough!

valentinetx's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5/5

birdbeakbeast's review against another edition

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3.0

I liked 'Turner' a lot (especially part XXII; I'd give Turner 4/5 moose). As for the other poems; I would probably not have borrowed/bought this collection based on them (then again, I borrowed it on the basis of Turner's painting, which is one of my favourites). Even though I found the language (from rather heavy AAVE that required a translation to a more subtle -but still very present- Afro-American variant) very interesting to read, it was exhaustive and slowed the reader down (which was probably the poet's intention, so I'll shut my yap).
Most appealing to me was the perspective of the lyrical I, usually a young black man. It is the first (and thus far only) poem collection from this perspective I have read and even though I have read a fair amount on colonisation &c (for colonisation/emigration was the main theme of the collection), this collection offered new insights and interesting observations/images.