Once

by Alice Walker

Book Overview

This first volume of poetry established Walker as a poet of unusual sensitivity and power. All of the poems in this collection were written either in East Africa, where Walker spent the summer of 1965, or during her senior year at Sarah Lawrence College. "Brief slashing poems-young and in the sun" (Muriel Rukeyser).

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156687453
• ISBN13: 9780156687454
• Release Date: March 1976
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A poetic journey with Alice Walker

The back cover of "Once" notes that this was Alice Walker's first volume of poetry; the text has a copyright date of 1968. This volume contains poems about the Civil Rights movement in the United States, love, despair, and other topics. Particularly interesting is a sequence of poems describing Africa as seen through the eyes of an African-American.Walker's poems are written in a clear, smooth, often striking language. Some standout pieces are as follows. "African Images": a sequence of 45 haiku-like stanzas. "Karamojans": an ironic and tragic portrait of the "proud people" of the title. The title poem: illuminates the ugliness of American racism and the beauty of those who stand against it. "Compulsory Chapel": shows a welcome touch of dry humor. "Mornings / of an impossible love": a sequence of prose poems. "Johann": a striking, visually evocative poem that explores the possibility of interracial love.I have great admiration for Walker's skill as a novelist and essayist. "Once" shows her to also be a poet of sensitivity and grace.