“Only gradually through the dull purgatory of the Age of Discussion, has Negro life eventually issued forth to an Age of Expression.”

Describing the movement from being discussed by others towards creative self-expression · Essay, The Negro in American Literature

• Freedom
• Identity
• Literature

“With each new figure somehow the gamut broadens and the technical control improves.”

Seeing literary development as both an expansion of range and an increase in craftsmanship · Essay, The Negro in American Literature

• Growth
• Poetry
• Skill

“These new talents were new roots in a soil not too richly fertilized by the chemistry of original song.”

Using organic imagery to describe the emergence of new American poets · Introduction, Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1924

• Growth
• Originality
• Poetry