"Rebellion in Rhyme" John Henrik Clarke (Decker Pres 1948)

Most of the poems of this volume were written when I was between the age of 18, in the summer of 1933, and the age of 26, in the summer of 1941. These poems reflect my early beginnings as a social thinker and as a young man, straight out of the South during my early years in Harlem reflecting on the African condition and the awareness learned from associating with a diversity of politically-left movements I was a member of the Harlem History Club then functioning out of the Harlem YMCA on 135th street. (...)

I was discovering the world and social change and wondering what role my people would play in the change for a better world. The writing of these poems at this juncture in my personal development was a form of therapy, a ventilation of my inner-self, an airing of my grievances and a celebration of the fact of my being alive. I developed a possessive love for my own people and their place in history at this time that was to stay with me for the rest of my life. (...)


In having love and commitment to my own people i have developed the same feeling for the whole of humankind – it was not difficult for me to learn that no one people’s freedom is safe while another people’s freedom is in danger. Most of these poems were written on the spur of the moment, with little re-writing.

When one is young and quit a few years away from thirty, this is how one approaches things. Except for two poems, Sing Me A New Song and Meditation Of A European Farmer, all of these poems were written before I was introduced into the army in 1941, where i spent four years, two months and 26 days.

The significance of the republication of these poems at this time is that a large number of my students, friends and colleagues do not know that I ever wrote poetry and are curious to know what kind of poetry i did write if needed I did write poetry. The final reason is that the republication of these poems allows me to observe the progression of my thinking over the last fifty years-measuring the distance between where I started and where I am now as a Teacher, Intellect and a committed African Freedom Fighter.

JOHN HENRIK CLARK
October, 1990

(The text was taken from introduction of this book, p. xi-xii)

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Title: Rebellion in rhyme: The early poetry of John Henrik Clarke
Author: John Henrik Clarke
Publisher: Africa World Press, Inc
Year: 1991 (1st edition published by the Decker Press in 1948)
Number of pages: 98
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%