Module 1: I, Too, Sing America

(Credit)

I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry

Catherine Clinton, I, Too, Sing America: Three Centuries of African American Poetry. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.

Illustrator: Stephen Alcorn

ISBN: 0-395-89599-5

I, Too, Sing America is like an anthology of African American poetry and extremely rich in history. Immediately you see the acknowledgements where the author thanks the many different people who contributed to this collection. This collection of poems is definitely a great resource for a more mature reader. The text is small and the poetry is lengthy. There is also an explanation and history of the poem on the pages prefacing the poems. These also have mature vocabulary and are intended for a more mature audience.

I really enjoy the beautiful illustrations that reflect each poem. Each illustration is represents a piece of African American history. Each illustration sits reflecting the poem. I really like this- it gives the reader a way to visualize the poem, especially for those students who cannot understand all the text. I rarely find poetry with such serious content that has illustrations. I love it! Throughout these poems, I found rhyming, onomatopoeia, and a rich vocabulary. All of these characteristics help make this book a great learning tool.

Though this is intended for an older audience, I could really do some great things with this book for my younger students. I would love to find a poem in this collection that is appropriate for my younger students. I would show my students the illustration that matches the poem. Students will discuss what they think the picture represents. Then I will read them a stanza or two from the poem and they can discuss whether or not the illustration and their predictions actually represented the poem well. I think African-American history is a wonderfully rich topic and that I, Too, Sing America is an amazing and poetic way of reflecting on the past.

An poem from the anthology I, Too, Sing America:

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--

This debt we pay to human guile;

With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,

And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,

In counting all our tears and sighs?

Nay, let the only see us while

            We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries

To thee tortured souls arise.

We sing, but oh the clay is vile

Beneath our feet, and long the mile;

But let the world dream otherwise,

            We wear the mask!

(The illustration for this poem is on the opposite page. It is an African American, middle-aged woman with brown eyes. She is looking straight forward, holding two masks; one mask is frowning, the other is smiling.)