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Jean Toomer (26 December 1894 – 30 March 1967 / Washington D.C.)
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Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. His first book Cane is considered by many as his most significant.
Life and Career
Early Life
Toomer was born Nathan Eugene Pinchback Toomer in Washington, D.C. His father was a prosperous farmer, originally born into slavery in Hancock County, Georgia. Nina Pinchback was also of mixed ethnic descent. Her father was Louisiana Governor P. B. S. Pinchback, the first African American to become governor of a U.S. state. (Both of Toomer's maternal grandparents had white fathers. Pinchback's father was a planter and his mother was a mulatto slave who was ... more »
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Popular Poems
- A Certain Man
- A Poem from Transatlantic
- A Portrait in Georgia
- Banking Coal
- Conversion
- Cotton Song
- Evening Song
- For M.W.
- Georgia Dusk
- Harvest Song
- Her Lips Are Copper Wire
- November Cotton Flower
- People
- Portrait in Georgia
Quotations
more quotations »-
''Meanwhile, the men, with vestiges of pomp,
Jean Toomer (1894-1967), U.S. poet. Georgia Dusk (l. 17-20). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. ...
Race memories of king and caravan,
High-priests, an ostrich, and a juju-man,
Go singing through the footpaths of the swamp.''
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''O singers, resinous and soft your songs
Jean Toomer (1894-1967), U.S. poet. Georgia Dusk (l. 25-28). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. ...
Above the sacred whisper of the pines,
Give virgin lips to cornfield concubines,
Bring dreams of Christ to dusky cane-lipped throngs.''
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''some genius of the South
Jean Toomer (1894-1967), U.S. poet. Georgia Dusk (l. 6-8). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2...
With blood-hot eyes and cane-lipped scented mouth,
Surprised in making folk-songs from soul sounds.''
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''Superstition saw
Jean Toomer (1894-1967), U.S. poet. November Cotton Flower (l. 11-14). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Cl...
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year.''
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Largely obscure now, but a very fine poet in his day.