Pulitzer Prize Poetry Winner
Thomas and Beulah
by Rita Dove
Summary
A linked sequence tells the lives of a married Black couple from the Great Migration through the civil rights era, with each side of the story given its own voice. Dove works in compressed, image-rich lyrics that treat ordinary domestic moments as windows onto twentieth-century history. The book broadened the lyric sequence into an instrument of African American family memory.
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Historical Context & Significance
Dove was only the second African American poet to win the prize and later became the youngest U.S. Poet Laureate.