More to Remember: Poems of Four Decades
[In the following review of More to Remember: Poems of Four Decades, the critic praises Randall's collection as an accomplished expression of black identity.]
Black poetry is fast becoming itself with the work of poets like Dudley Randall, such as his collection More to Remember. Accomplished and capable, he excels in the art of his blackness. Lines like “Lovers and kisses, cruel, careless, light, / Will you remember down the long, deep night?” evidence a soul for people and poetry that is his own best tribute. This third collection of Randall's works is the most representative, containing poems from the 1930s through the 1960s. Growth, direction, and maturity are all there but so is a sure and steady voice. Some poems are more important than others but none is insignificant. The reader will not feel turmoil but a quiet inner sense which revolutionizes. Whether in “Laughter in the Slums” or the haiku-like “Shape of the Invisible,” a peace pervades. The range is limitless, making effective use of rhyme and meter or writing in the freest form. No contemporary American poetry collection is complete without Randall's verse.
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