James A. Emanuel is a poet who vividly captures black experience and sensibilities. With academic and racial integrity, he has sought in both prose and poetry to preserve and expand the heritage of black American writers. His personal and poetic development, especially during the 1960s and 1970s, reveals a growing consciousness of the roles of the black American poet and a maturing vision of the racial fire that informs his work. To date, Emanuel's poetry has been afforded insufficient critical attention, and for many scholars his reputation continues to depend upon early and very competent critical works. However, his keen, sensitive perceptions of youth and love and heart-rending images of pain and racial oppression have made his poems favorites of those who have read them, and the thematic variety and technical skill that characterize the body of his poetry promise his eventual recognition as an indispensable figure in...