Negro Folk Rhymes Wise and Otherwise: With a Study

About this book

Negro Folk Rhymes Wise and Otherwise is a scholarly anthology compiled by Thomas W. Talley of Fisk University, published by Macmillan in 1922. The volume opens with a meticulous transcriber’s note that preserves the original spelling, punctuation, and phonetic markings, followed by an extensive introduction that frames the collection as a rare record of African‑American secular verse emerging from the nineteenth‑century experience of bondage. Talley’s preface acknowledges the crude language and “child‑like naivete” of the material, yet argues that the songs’ rhythmic vitality and occasional lyrical grace reveal a resilient artistic impulse. The book then presents the folk pieces themselves, dance chants, love rhymes, animal verses, and narrative ballads, each rendered in the vernacular dialect of the singers, with occasional musical cues noted as “[music]”.

The voice is unmistakably that of an early‑twentieth‑century academic steeped in the ethnographic concerns of his era, combining earnest admiration with a paternalistic tone typical of contemporary scholarship. Its style blends dense, reflective prose with the raw, oral qualities of the songs, preserving the original dialect and rhythmic patterns. Readers interested in African‑American cultural history, folklore, or the development of American poetry will find the collection valuable, as will scholars of comparative literature and musicology who wish to explore how oppressed communities expressed their worldviews through song and rhyme.