Joseph Seamon Cotter Jr.: Complete Poems

An important addition to collections of twentieth-century American poetry.

This is a historical compilation of poems that from opening to closing exemplifies this significant black American poet's interest in his own early 20th-century times. Cotter mostly articulated by using a directness of details and unforced rhyme. Witness these lines from 'Sonnet to Negro Soldiers': 'They shall go down unto Life's Borderland,/ Walk unafraid within that Living Hell,/ Nor heed the driving rain of shot and shell/ That 'round them falls; but with uplifted hand . . . /'. The reader sees the sensibility of the poet sharpen with each poem. Highly recommended.