By: Konjit Richards-Johnson

 Sterling Allen Brown was born on January 13 th, 1901 in Washington, DC to Sterling Nelson Brown and Adelaide Allen Brown.  Sterling graduated from Williams College in 1922 as the only student awarded final honors in English.  Sterling accepted a Clark Fellowship for graduate studies in English at Harvard University where he completed his MA in English in 1923, then headed south to teach at Virginia Seminary and College in Lynchburg, Virginia.  Sterling Brown used folk tales and the African American idiom in his writings to spread the knowledge of the amazing things ordinary people did.  Sterling also wanted the African-American reader to learn all of the representations of other African-Americans in his writings as well.

 Sterling Brown had poems in magazines such as The Crisis, the New Republic, and the Nation.  Sterling was rediscovered as a poet later in his life and Southern Road, The Last Ride of Wild Bill, Eleven Narrative Poems, and The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown were all republished because of it.  In 1937 Sterling Brown was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and was named poet laureate of the District of Columbia in  Sterling Brown died in Takoma Park, Maryland, at the age of eighty-seven on January 13 th, 1989.

 Nat Turner was an African-American slave who led a revolt in Southampton County, Virginia.  August 21, 1831, Nat Turner killed his slave owner and family, jump starting the slave revolt.  The following days, Nat Turner and 75 others murdered 60 whites in Southampton County.  Soon after, the slave revolt was sustained causing Turner and his followers to be captured or killed.  Nat Turner was hanged in Jerusalem, Virginia on November 11 th.

 Theme: -The poem is about African- Americans who visit Virginia to see where Nat Turner commenced his slave revolt. -Brown is trying to convey that African-Americans should learn about their past to understand about other African-Americans legacy.  Tone: -The mood of the poem is very uplifting, happy, and informal ; almost as if the author wanted us to learn about Nat Turner. -The feeling I get from this poem is historical, learning about the past can help the present type vibe.  Technique: - This poem has no form and it isn’t written like a normal poem; it’s almost written like a story. -Th poet uses second person, as if him and some friends went to Virginia. Also, the poet uses the broken English again for the African-Americans. -The poet uses allusion in the whole poem when talking about Nat Turner and uses ellipsis in lines when giving the African-Americans the broken English accent.

 This poem is based off of “Frankie and Johnny” the ballad.  Frankie is a sadist who isn’t very smart and has an abusive father.  Johnny is a slave who works in a sugar corn field who gets flirted on by Frankie.  When Frankie’s father finds out she’s in love with Johnny, he lynches him while Frankie laughs in the background.

 Theme: -The poem, “Frankie and Johnny” by Sterling Brown is about a black man and a white woman who fall in love and the consequences that comes with it. -The message Brown conveys is that slaves were treated unjustly and white people during the time were cruel, malicious people.  Tone: -The mood from this poem is very folk tale like, twisted and scary. -The feeling I get from this poem would be creepy and disgusted but also like I should learn something from it.  Technique: -The poem is twenty eight lines long and uses rhyme scheme through out the whole poem. -The language Brown uses is simple but when he gets to Johnny, he uses broken English to depict that Johnny has an accent. -The poet uses connotation in line 1 with the n word because it goes past it’s meaning and adds all the pain and suffering in history that has to do with it. The poet also uses juxtaposition in line 21 by making Frankie and Johnny lovers because during the time of this poem, white and black people could never be seen equals. Also, if a white and a black person were in love, it usually ended with someone being killed.

 Sterling Brown was important to the Harlem Renaissance because he pushed the African-American culture and knowledge to a higher level. Sterling didn’t write about the typical love or symbolism you’d see in other poems, he wrote about folk tales and historical stories. Sterling Brown used the genre of poetry to educate fellow African-Americans of other African-American stories who have gone unrecognized through American history.  The Harlem Renaissance was a time to break free of the black stereotypes and racism to create a new African-American. Without Brown, the new African-American couldn’t have been formed without retrospect.