Browse Items (33 total)

In this poem, freshman J. Isaiah Bailey expresses his deep frustrations with being Black and attending the University of Richmond. He describes it as “being imprisoned with rich kids in a system.” He goes on to list numerous aspects about…

This poem is titled with a racial slur to elaborate that it not only depicts slavery, but also speaks for black people generally. The poem is a description of enslaved blacks which calls them a "dead race." In discussing slavery, it contrasts their…

The title of this poem uses a derogatory racial slur to describe its main character. The narrator of this poem relays the time he saw a black man in heaven. This black man is dressed in "crimson satin things" with "golden teeth" and with "jeweled…

The poem "John Brown's Body" was written by Stephen Vincent Benet in 1928 and is described in a book review by a Richmond College student. John Brown was an abolitionist who eventually was hanged for his assistance in freeing slaves and especially…

These five poems are titled "Adaptations From the Chinese." It's unclear if these poems have any significant meanings behind them, but the tone of each of these poems appears to be negative. In "The Flowerless Garden" there is only a shadow and no…

This poem reinforces ideas of hopelessness and permanence, repeating many lines and ultimately lamenting, "but you are trapped, hung in one spot / dangling over water, lost / to one world, lost in the other[.]" "Bugger" is a homophobic slang term.…

A short poem written by Alice Richardson that describes the decoration adorning a Chinese vase, specifically the serpent dragon. Richardson notes that serpents play a positive role in Chinese culture history that is betrayed on the Chinese vase, as…

The narrator of this poem expresses his identity as part of a "colossal being" of black people, preferring the collective 'we' to the singular 'I.' He explores slavery as "the torture that was endured for years and still / Silently exists today"…

This article defines the "literary quality" mentioned in student handbooks given to freshman (called "Rats" by the author). Gibson claims that literary realism is sometimes "vulgar" and "obscene" just to be shocking, which makes it "pornographic…

This sketch (a brief, abstract descriptive poem) begins with the "fear of a black" that is then related to the prevention of typhoid, which "results in the American Army." The three words of "Negro / Mister / Coffee" follow the words "They mystify."…