A YOUTH'S THOUGHTS
Slain Rights Worker's Poem to be Published
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Title
A YOUTH'S THOUGHTS
Slain Rights Worker's Poem to be Published
Slain Rights Worker's Poem to be Published
Description
Article reporting on a poem written by Andrew Goodman being published.
Subject
Goodman, Andrew, 1943-1964
Poem
Queens College (New York, N.Y.)
Creator
Goodman, Andrew, 1943-1964
Source
ArthurGattiCollection.Box1.F5
Publisher
Queens College Department of Special Collections and Archives (New York, N.Y.)
Date
1964
Date Created
2014-6-10
Rights
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Is Part Of
Format
Image
JPEG
Extent
236 KB
Language
English
Type
Text
Spatial Coverage
Queens (New York, N.Y.)
Massachusetts
Text
A YOUTH’S THOUGHTS
Slain Rights Worker's Poem to Be Published
Andrew Goodman, whose body was found Aug. 24, in a shallow grave near Philadelphia, Mississippi, was a quiet young man.
He seldom expressed in words how he felt about the civil rights movement, and about Negroes who had died in its behalf.
But a poem written by Andy Goodman, found recently among the papers of one of his teachers at Queens College, expresses those feelings in a way so eloquent that they will be published in the University of Massachusetts Review.
The poem, written as part of a class exercise in a course in writing , was found by Professor Mary Doyle Curran of Manhattan. It was a corollary to a poem by A.E. Housman entitled “To an Athlete Dying Young,” and was titled simply “Corollary to a Poem by A.E. Housman.”
One stanza sums up the young civil rights rights worker’s views. It says:
“He shows us babies crying.
We see the blackboy dying.
We close our eyes and choke our sighs
And look into the dreadful skies.”
When Prof. Curran found the poem among papers from other students she was struck by its literary quality and asked the slain youth's parents' permission to have it published. The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goodman of Manhattan, gave their consent.
The poem, which will appear In the Dec. 28 issue of the literary quarterly, is as follows:
How dismally the day
Screams out and blasts the night.
What disaster you will say
To start another flight.
See how heaven shows dismay
As her stars are scared away;
As the sun ascends with might
With His hot and awful light.
He shows us babies crying.
We see the blackboy dying.
We close our eyes and choke our sighs
And look into the dreadful skies.
Then peacefully the night
Puts out the reddened day
And the jaws that used to bite
Are sterile where we lay.
Slain Rights Worker's Poem to Be Published
Andrew Goodman, whose body was found Aug. 24, in a shallow grave near Philadelphia, Mississippi, was a quiet young man.
He seldom expressed in words how he felt about the civil rights movement, and about Negroes who had died in its behalf.
But a poem written by Andy Goodman, found recently among the papers of one of his teachers at Queens College, expresses those feelings in a way so eloquent that they will be published in the University of Massachusetts Review.
The poem, written as part of a class exercise in a course in writing , was found by Professor Mary Doyle Curran of Manhattan. It was a corollary to a poem by A.E. Housman entitled “To an Athlete Dying Young,” and was titled simply “Corollary to a Poem by A.E. Housman.”
One stanza sums up the young civil rights rights worker’s views. It says:
“He shows us babies crying.
We see the blackboy dying.
We close our eyes and choke our sighs
And look into the dreadful skies.”
When Prof. Curran found the poem among papers from other students she was struck by its literary quality and asked the slain youth's parents' permission to have it published. The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Goodman of Manhattan, gave their consent.
The poem, which will appear In the Dec. 28 issue of the literary quarterly, is as follows:
How dismally the day
Screams out and blasts the night.
What disaster you will say
To start another flight.
See how heaven shows dismay
As her stars are scared away;
As the sun ascends with might
With His hot and awful light.
He shows us babies crying.
We see the blackboy dying.
We close our eyes and choke our sighs
And look into the dreadful skies.
Then peacefully the night
Puts out the reddened day
And the jaws that used to bite
Are sterile where we lay.
Original Format
Newspaper clipping
Collection
Citation
Goodman, Andrew, 1943-1964, “A YOUTH'S THOUGHTS
Slain Rights Worker's Poem to be Published,” Queens College Civil Rights Archives, accessed May 23, 2022, http://archives.qc.cuny.edu/civilrights/items/show/244.