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Thomas and Beulah

1986 poetry collection

Summary

1986 poetry collection

FieldValue
nameThomas and Beulah
imageThomas and Beulah.jpgauthor = Rita Dove
cover_artistRay A. Dove
countryUnited States
languageEnglish
genrePoetry
publisherCarnegie Mellon University Press
release_date1986
media_typePrint
pages80 pp.
isbn0-88748-021-7
isbn_note(Paperback)
dewey811/.54 20
congressPS3554.O884 T47 1986
oclc24955131
preceded_byFifth Sunday
followed_byGrace Notes

Thomas and Beulah is a book of poems by American poet Rita Dove that tells the semi-fictionalized chronological story of her maternal grandparents during the Great Migration, the focus being on her grandfather (Thomas, his name in the book as well as in real life) in the first half and her grandmother (named Beulah in the book, although her real name was Georgianna) in the second. It won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for poetry, making Dove the second African American to win the award after Gwendolyn Brooks won in 1950.

Contents

I. Mandolin

  • The Event
  • Variation on Pain
  • Jiving
  • Straw Hat
  • Courtship
  • Refrain
  • Variation on Guilt
  • Nothing Down
  • The Zeppelin Factory
  • Under the Viaduct, 1932
  • Lightnin' Blues
  • Compendium
  • Definition in the Face of Unnamed Fury
  • Aircraft
  • Aurora Borealis
  • Variation on Gaining a Son
  • One Volume Missing
  • The Charm
  • Gospel
  • Roast Possum
  • The Stroke
  • The Satisfaction Coal Company
  • Thomas at the Wheel

II. Canary in Bloom

  • Taking in Wash
  • Magic
  • Courtship, Diligence
  • Promises
  • Dusting
  • A Hill of Beans
  • Weathering Out
  • Motherhood
  • Anniversary
  • The House on Bishop Street
  • Daystar
  • Obedience
  • The Great Palaces of Versailles
  • Pomade
  • Headdress
  • Sunday Greens
  • Recovery
  • Nightmare
  • Wingfoot Lake
  • Company
  • The Oriental Ballerina

III. Chronology

Critical Engagement

Malin Pereira has argued that one of the central functions of Thomas and Beulah is to redefine what "home" means in a cosmopolitan context, such as the kind in which many African Americans found themselves after the Great Migration.

Notes

References

References

  1. (2006). "Understanding Rita Dove". University of South Carolina press.
  2. "Rita Dove's Thomas and Beulah: Breaking down barriers and keeping stories alive".
  3. (1989). "Coming Home: An Interview with Rita Dove". The Iowa Review.
  4. (2003). "Rita Dove's cosmopolitanism". University of Illinois.
Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

american-poetry-collections 1986-poetry-books books-published-by-university-presses-of-the-united-states pulitzer-prize-for-poetry–winning-works
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