The Ballad form of Poetry

River Bank Blues

The poem “River Bank Blues” is written by Sterling Brown is one of the most popular poems of its time. Sterling Brown poetry sheds light on the Afro American Culture which is saturated to its limit. His course of poetry tells about the formal Anglo American tradition found in Vestiges. It also includes the tradition of Sandburg, Frost and Masters and Robinson. He did poetry in these contexts too, but his main focus was on the Afro American culture and he believed that it was more expressive. Through his poetry, we can perceive that as he was more focused on the African American culture, so it is a blend of it, it tells about how this culture prevails (Ehrlich, 50).

According to Brown, music of the Black Expressive culture is indisputably the most moving, pervasive and dramatic. These are romantic more of a kind and are most typical. Apart from other parts of poetry blues are most charged and they are reality based. These express the feelings of lost love and hard times. At one end, the spectrum of blues resonates the on the same frequency but in a separate space. Hope lies at the end which supports the one who suffer from hardships which are making his life useless. Among these views hope is predominant as it expressed in Brown's poetry. Blues are also the poetry related to the feelings of sadness.

In the poem “River Bank Blues”, his emphasis is on mood as blues mood. As expressed in the first stanza (Rowe, 247).

A man gets his feet set in a sticky mud bank,

A man gets this yellow water in his blood,

No need for hoping, no need for doing,

Muddy streams keep him fixed for good

Similarly in this part of the poet tells about the seductive insolence which is created by the description of the riverbank. The poet also explains about the danger and threat which is associated with the blues (Pickard, 597-615).

Towns are sinking deeper, deeper on the riverbank,

Taking on the ways of dear sulky Ole Man--

Taking' on his creepy ways, taking' on his evil ways,

"Bes' gift way, a long way . . . whiles you can."Man got his

Sea too lacks de Mississippi . . . Ain't got so long for a whole lot longer way,

Man better move some, better not get rooted Muddy water fool you, of you stay

In this poem, two things are quite clear here that Blues as described before in this poem reflects the mood created by the description (Ehrlich, 50). Blues are a poetry and music confrontation, and the poet here personifies the river. The persona is despair and the poet expresses here:

Went down to the river, sat down and listened,

Heard de water talking quiet, quiet lack and slow:

"Ain't no need for hurry, take your time, take you . . .

Time . . ." Heard it saying'----"Baby, yeah de way life goes . . ."

The entire poem defines the traditional situations of the blues poetry. As expressed in this stanza ...