Point of View

There are two major points of view in this book. The first is the first person point of view. In many poems, Tolson employs the "I" form to recite the poem. However, in the same poem, there is also a third person omniscient point of view. This view comes from a outside voice telling the tale of the poem. As Tolson uses both points of view interchangeably, the effect is one stanza told from a very close first person perspective and one stanza told from a third person, outside narrator perspective. For example, in "Harlem Gallery" the perspective of the narrator is told both first and third person. The poem begins in third person, giving a general description of the Gallery, but then as it continues on, Tolson uses the first person and we find out The Curator is the narrator. The Curator tells his story...