Sterling Brown's Poetic Life
Sterling brown was born in 1901 on May 1st. sterling Brown was
the youngest of six children and he was also the only boy. His father was a
former slave, however when sterling brown was born his father was a pastor
and a professor at Howard University. He was born and raised in Washington
D.C. on the Howard University campus. Growing up, sterling brown was
surrounded by the professors at Howard University and was inspired by the
poems of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow at his home when his mother read them
aloud. When sterling brown started to work he became an English teacher for
Howard University and became very close with the students and staff.
Sterling brown died in 1989 on January 13 from leukemia.
Sterling brown was an African-American poet who was inspired by the friends and people around him. One of the poems that sterling brown wrote was inspired by a waiter that enjoyed telling stories and tails, his name was “Slim”. The poem that was inspired by “Slim” was the poem a Slim Greer in Hell. Many other poets such as Mark Patrick enjoyed the poems because of the history behind them. “Brown’s poems managed to synthesize traditional poetic forms with the dialect of working-class African-Americans” (www.eng.fju.edu.tw). In 1922 sterling brown received a second prize from Opportunity magazine for poem "Roland Hayes". In1927 he received first prize from Opportunity magazine for poem "When de Saints Go Ma’ching Home". In 1927 he received third prize (shared with Frank Horne) from Opportunity magazine for an essay, "The Plight of Certain Intellectuals".
List of Published Works
1932 - Southern Road
1937 - The Negro in American Fiction
1939 - Negro Poetry and Drama
1941 - The Negro Caravan
1975 - The Last Ride of Wild Bill,
and Eleven Narrative Poems
1980 - The Collected Poems
List of Published Poetry
1. The Collected Poems of Sterling A. Brown.
2. The Last Ride of Wild Bill and Eleven Narrative Poems.
3. Southern Road.