Poppa Chicken (Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Margaret Walker
- First Published: 1942
- Type of Work: Poem
- Genres: Poetry
- Subjects: African Americans, United States or Americans, Crime or criminals, Prostitution or prostitutes, Victims, Violence, Heroes or heroism
“Poppa Chicken” is a caricature of a pimp. He has style. He is a commodifier of sex. He is violent. He is an outlaw who has paid off the authorities to shorten the prison time he ultimately must serve. Then he gets old. He has sinister heroic status. The ballad has twelve four-line stanzas, rhymed abcb, with lines from five to eight syllables.
Poppa Chicken was a “sugar daddy” in his time, with a stable of many women. He made lots of money, and he harried his women “employees,” who said he was swell (probably out of well-grounded fear of reprisal for...
[The entire page is 547 words long]
