It is no easy matter to determine the specific share of the poet in the work of Jean Toomer, for the whole process of his thinking, and his art as a narrator, obey the behests of his poetry. His poetic inspiration spreads far beyond his verse writings, and Jean Toomer could neither think, nor tell a tale, nor describe except as a poet. So any attempt to cling to the traditional distinctions between the literary genres would be vain in the case of a writer who, like many other creative artists of his generation, subjects form to ceaseless experimentation in his endeavors to forge a truly fitting instrument of expression for himself. (p. 259)

It would be easy enough to paint the portrait of Jean Toomer as a child of the "Lost Generation." But in so doing one must take care not to overdraw certain features. "The postwar writers...