“There is an influence more mystical than the average critic gives credit for being which is reshaping the foundation of our poetic ideals and visions.”

Recognising cultural forces in poetry that resist straightforward critical explanation · Introduction, Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1921

• Criticism
• Mystery
• Poetry

“Indeed, the Negro novel is one of the great potentialities of American literature.”

Expressing confidence in the future importance of Black American fiction · Essay, The Negro in American Literature

• Culture
• Hope
• Literature

“Here a new literary generation begins; poetry that is racial in substance, but with the universal note, with the conscious background of the full heritage of English poetry.”

Describing a generation joining particular cultural experience with universal poetic expression · Essay, The Negro in American Literature

• Identity
• Poetry
• Tradition