Thomas and Beulah

Thomas and Beulah is a book of poems by African American poet Rita Dove that tells the semi-fictionalized chronological story of her maternal grandparents, the focus being on her grandfather (Thomas, his name in the book as well as in real life) in the first half and her grandmother (named Beulah in the book, although her real name was Georgianna) in the second. It won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for poetry.

Thomas and Beulah

Author	Rita Dove
Cover artist	Ray A. Dove
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Poetry
Publisher	Carnegie Mellon University Press
Publication date	1986
Media type	Print
Pages	80 pp.
ISBN	0-88748-021-7 (Paperback)
OCLC	24955131
Dewey Decimal	811/.54 20
LC Class	PS3554.O884 T47 1986
Preceded by	Fifth Sunday
Followed by	Grace Notes

Contents

I. Mandolin The Event[1] Variation on Pain[1] Jiving[1] Straw Hat[2] Courtship[1] Refrain[1] Variation on Guilt[1] Nothing Down[3] The Zeppelin Factory[1] Under the Viaduct, 1932[2] Lightnin' Blues[4] Compendium[1] Definition in the Face of Unnamed Fury[1] Aircraft[5] Aurora Borealis[1] Variation on Gaining a Son One Volume Missing[2] The Charm[1] Gospel[6] Roast Possum[2] The Stroke[1] The Satisfaction Coal Company[4] Thomas at the Wheel[3]

II. Canary in Bloom Taking in Wash[7] Magic[8] Courtship, Diligence[5][9] Promises[2] Dusting[10][11][12] A Hill of Beans[3][13] Weathering Out[14] Motherhood[2] Anniversary The House on Bishop Street[2] Daystar[14] Obedience[5] The Great Palaces of Versailles[10] Pomade[10][11] Headdress Sunday Greens[8] Recovery Nightmare[2] Wingfoot Lake[4][13] Company[2] The Oriental Ballerina[9][10]

III. Chronology

Notes and references

1. Also featured in a chapbook titled Mandolin in Ohio Review 28
2. Also featured in Callaloo.
3. Also featured in The Reaper.
4. Also featured in Paris Review.
5. Also featured in CutBank.
6. Also featured in Georgia Review.
7. Also featured in Ploughshares.
8. Also featured in Nimrod.
9. Also featured in New England Review & Bread Loaf Quarterly.
10. Also featured in New American Poets of the Eighties, Wampeter Press, 1984
11. Also featured in Poetry.
12. Also featured in Pushcart Prize: VII, Pushcart Press, 1984, Museum, Carnegie-Mellon University Press, 1983, and The Morrow Anthology of Younger American Poets, 1985.
13. Also featured in The Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, University Press of New England, 1985
14. Also featured in Agni Review.

External links

• Online poem, Straw Hat, from Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove at alittlepoetry.com