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Black Vernacular (AAVE)

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Sometimes referred to as "dialect poetry," the use of African American Vernacular English was a common but also controversial feature of African American poetry of this period. Popularized by Paul Laurence Dunbar in the 1890s and 1900s, the use of AAVE was widespread amongst Black poets during and immediately after he passed away in 1906. The use of AAVE became less common in the 1910s and 20s, as a new Black aesthetics emerged. 

See William Stanley Braithwaite's 1919 essay (extended and republished in 1925 in Alain Locke's anthology) for a starting point on the conversation about AAVE in African American poetry.  

Contents of this tag:

  1. Maggie Pogue Johnson, "Virginia Dreams" (Full text) (1910)
  2. Langston Hughes, "Fine Clothes to the Jew" (1927) (Full Text)
  3. Langston Hughes, "Negro Dancers" (1925)
  4. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "The Dunbar Speaker and Entertainer" (1920)
  5. Lucian B. Watkins, "Voices of Solitude" (Full Text) (1903/1907)
  6. William Stanley Braithwaite, "The Negro in American Literature" (1925)
  7. Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues" (1925)
  8. Langston Hughes, "To Midnight Nan at Leroy's" (1926)
  9. Langston Hughes, "The Cat and the Saxophone" (1925)
  10. Langston Hughes, "Song for a Banjo Dance" (1922)
  11. Langston Hughes, "Blues Fantasy" (1926)
  12. Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" (1922)
  13. Zora Neale Hurston, "Color Struck" (Full text of one-act play) (1926)
  14. Sarah Lee Brown Fleming, "Clouds and Sunshine" (Full Text) (1920)
  15. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Majors and Minors" (Full Text) (1895)
  16. Fenton Johnson, "A Little Dreaming" (Full Text) (1913)
  17. Langston Hughes, "Ma Lord" (1927)
  18. Fenton Johnson, "Visions of the Dusk" (Full text) (1915)
  19. Edward S. Silvera, "Happiness" and "Death" (1926)
  20. Waverly T. Carmichael, "'Taint No Need O' Women Worrin' "(1918)
  21. Elliott Blaine Henderson, "Humble Folks" (full text) (1909)
  22. Zora Neale Hurston, "Drenched in Light" (1924)
  23. Joseph S. Cotter, Sr., "Dem Phillupeeners" (1909)
  24. Clara Ann Thompson, "Songs from the Wayside" (Full Text) (1908)
  25. Rosalie Jonas (Rosalie M. Jonas), "Brother Baptis' On Woman Suffrage" (1912)
  26. Annie Virginia Culbertson, "The Origin of White Folks" (1920)
  27. Poems by Alex Rogers in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  28. Matthew D. Bennett, "Bell Boy in the Clock" (1906)
  29. Daniel Webster Davis, Poems included in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  30. Poem by Theodore Henry Shackleford in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  31. Sterling A. Brown, "Long Gone" (1927)
  32. Silas X. Floyd, "Wayside" (1907)
  33. Dora Lawrence, "Round de Fireplace Wid Rindy" (1906)
  34. Poems by James Weldon Johnson in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  35. Sterling A. Brown, "When De Saints Go Ma'ching Home" (1927)
  36. Fenton Johnson, "The Creed of the Slave" (1915
  37. Clara Ann Thompson, "A Lullaby" (1908)
  38. Margaret P. Lorick, "When Grandpa Spent De Night" (1907)
  39. David C. Lee, "Dem Tales Wot Gran-pa Tells" (1902)
  40. Poems by John Wesley Holloway in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  41. Robert J. Laurence, "The Christmas Sermon" (1912)
  42. Lucy Ariel Williams, "Northboun'" (1926)
  43. A. Ashburn, "Uncle Joe on Shakespeare" (1907)
  44. John Frederick Matheus, "In the Night" (1920)
  45. Poems by Ray G. Dandridge in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  46. Fenton Johnson, "Songs of the Soil" (1916) (Full text)
  47. Powell W. Gibson, "The Diamond Ring" (1907)
  48. Katherine D. Tillman, "Uncle Ned's Story" (1902)
  49. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "When Malindy Sings" (1903)
  50. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "A Death Song" (1899)
  51. James D. Corrothers, "An Awful Problem Solved" (1903)
  52. Katherine D. Tillman, "Seeking the Lost" (1902)
  53. Roy Reginald, "Rastus' Soliloquy" (1909)
  54. Langston Hughes, "Elevator Boy" (1926)
  55. Roasalie M. Jonas, "Crowded Out" (1924)
  56. Angelina Weld Grimke, "The Ways O' Men" (1927)
  57. W.E. Dancer, "De Negro Problem" (1909)
  58. Elma Ehrlich Levinger, "Carry Me Back to Old Virginny" (1924)
  59. Stanford E. Davis, "Hights Uv Ambishun" (1909)
  60. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Poems included in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  61. Poems in Jean Toomer's "Cane" (1923)
  62. Langston Hughes, "Prayer Meeting" (1923)
  63. T. H. Malone, "The Song of the Rain" (1905)
  64. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Christmas" (1906)
  65. James Edwin Campbell, Poems included in "the book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  66. Robert Kerlin, Chapter 6, "Dialect Verse"
  67. Poems by John Wesley Holloway in the "Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  68. Will H. Hendrickson, "Lazy" (1905)
  69. Matthew D. Bennett, "Caanian" (1906)
  70. James D. Corrothers, Poems included in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)