The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer

by Robert B. Jones (Editor), Margot Toomer Latimer (Editor)

This volume is the only collected edition of poems by Jean Toomer, the enigmatic American writer, Gurdjieffian guru, and Quaker convert who is perhaps best known for his 1923 lyrical narrative Cane. The fifty-five poems here -- most of them previously unpublished -- chart a fascinating evolution of artistic consciousness.

The book is divided into sections reflecting four distinct periods of creativity in Toomer's career. The Aesthetic period includes Imagist, Symbolist, and other experimental pieces, such as "Five Vignettes," while "Georgia Dusk" and the newly discovered poem "Tell Me" come from Toomer' s Ancestral Consciousness period in the early 1920s. "The Blue Meridian" and other Objective Consciousness poems reveal the influence of idealist philosopher Georges Gurdjieff. Among the works of this period the editor presents a group of local color poems picturing the landscape of the American Southwest, including "Imprint for Rio Grande." "It Is Everywhere," another newly discovered poem, celebrates America and democratic idealism. The Quaker religious philosophy of Toomer's final years is demonstrated in such Christian Existential works as "They Are Not Missed" and "To Gurdjieff Dying."

Robert Jones's clear and comprehensive introduction examines the major poems in this volume and serves as a guide through the stages of Toomer's evolution as an artist and thinker. The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer will prove essential to Toomer's admirers as well as to scholars and students of modern poetry, Afro-American literature, and American studies.

Genres: Poetry, African American, American, Classics, Art, Literature

148 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

Reviews

[ernest (Ellen) · Rating 5 out of 5]

a thimble of agony, the glow of barrel-keeling lamplights, the skyscrapers emitting a milky way, a mouse and a reaper, the anviled beauty which broke his heart.

Toomer's every poem gave a glimpse of a different universe: ABBA rhyming, 3-line vignettes and 25-page "Blue Meridian", sound and lyrical poetry; the Harlem renaissance, ecclesiastical poems, aesthetic era. It's clear that in his early life he wrote simply as an appreciation for words and poetry, the earth, fire, love -- the aesthetics. Then he glimpses the ancestral history of segregation: the reapers, honey, a mouse's life in the fields

"Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year."

And his final message is that of modernist perception and human beauty, a world without arbitrary divisions and pentameters:

"O people, if you but used
Your other eyes
You would see beings."

[Dave H · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Toomer in a couple anthologies; something about his imagery and rhythm stuck with me. Beyond the anthologies, the stuff is quite uneven. Toomer has a few very nice poems and you should absolutely hunt those down (look for him in Norton).

[birdbassador · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gods Are Here

This is no mountain,
But a house,
No rock of solitude
But a family chair,
No wilds
But life appearing
As life anywhere domesticated,
Yet I know the gods are here,
And that if I touch them
I will arise
And take majesty into the kitchen

In addition to some imagist stuff that I'm always a sucker for, there's this cool kind of urgency for change that I got from a lot of these poems. Then he sort of calms down and writes about the vibrant inherent energy that derives from how we Americans are all brothers and the infinite mercy of the Divine etc. etc. and I'm like, cool it Jean, get back to the bits where the sun is setting and there are barking dogs and it seems like somebody is going to stir up trouble.

[Aolund · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit I skipped "Blue Meridian," because it felt so dated and mythologizing of a lot of problematic aspects of US American history, but generally I really enjoyed reading this book of Jean Toomer's poems. I particularly appreciated the contextualization of the introduction, which helped me better understand Toomer's mysticism/existentialism.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Look, The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer is a gut punch wearing a cardigan. Robert B. Jones keeps the tone gentle and the language simple, then drops something devastating when you're not braced for it. The emotional payoff is earned, no cheap tricks. Great for readers who don't mind crying, skip if you're not up for it this month.

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer and honestly just sat there. Not because it was heavy, but because Robert B. Jones made something so ordinary feel so strange. It's quiet, odd, and a little unforgettable. Great for readers who like books that linger, a pass if you need something to happen.

[Seth Arnopole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Toomer’s collected poems fill about 100 pages and fall into four distinct periods: an experimental, Imagist-influenced phase, an explicitly African-American aesthetic (encompassing the poems that were included in Cane), a period of Gurdjieffian influence, and a phase shaped by Quakerism.

[Ahmed Addnan Negim · Rating 1 out of 5]

Never heard of this writer , then i read this collection, i seek a unique poetry to blow my mind , what a waste then

[Gracie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Mostly poems about nature and American symbolism / radical consciousness

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection demonstrates Toomer’s mastery of lyric forms and the art of crafting vivid images with a modernist flair, from describing the environment and gritty urban scenes during his Aesthetic Period (“Skyline,” “Gum”); to depicting fieldwork, the natural beauty and seasonal changes, a lynching, and the “soul sounds” of the “cornfield concubines” and the “dusky, cane-lipped throngs” during his Ancestral Consciousness Period (“Reapers,” “Georgia Dust,” and “Portrait in Georgia”); to waxing philosophical during his Objective Conscious Period (“Honey of Being,” “Angelic Eve,” The Blue Meridian”); to ruminating on religion and the meaning of life during his late Christian Existential Period (“Vague Opening”). Toomer’s epic manifesto, “The Blue Meridian,” is definitely the poet’s masterpiece.

Favorite poems:
“Skyline”
“Gum”
“Banking Coal”
“November Cotton Flower”
“Georgia Dusk”
“Portrait in Georgia”
“Honey of Being”
“Angelic Eve”
“Unsuspecting”
“The Blue Meridian”
“Vague Opening”
“Not for Me” (a writer’s credo)