At first sight, Cane seems to be a collection of poems, sketches, stories, and dramatic passages…. The loose structure of the book has induced many critics to discuss the pieces that fit into one of the accepted genres and forget about their function within the whole. In a few cases the tendency to separate Toomer's prose from his poetry led to evaluations of the comparative merits of each, which in turn encouraged discussions whether Toomer should better become a poet or a novelist. In this way, the impression of the work as a whole was ignored, and with it the particular effect that the blending of the different genres produced.

A close reading of Cane reveals that Toomer's contribution to Negro literature is the experiment. His concern for language, his interest in creating a new idiom, which would allow him to express the complexities and intricacies of the...