【单选题】

The making of classifications by literary historians can be a somewhat risky enterprise. WhenBlack poets are discussed separately as a group, for instance, the extent to which their work reflects the development of poetry in general should not be forgotten, or a distortion of literary history may result. This reminder is particularly relevant in an assessment of the differences betweenBlack poets at the turn of last century (1900--1909) and those of the generation of the 1920s. These differences include the bolder and more forthright speech of the later generation and its technical inventiveness. It should be remembered, though, that comparable differences also existed for similar generations of White poets.

When poets of the 1910s and 1920s are considered together, however, the distinctions that literary historians might make between "conservative" and "experimental" would be of little significance in a discussion ofBlack poets, although these remain helpful classification for White poets of these decades.Certainly differences can be noted between "conservative"Black poets such asCounteeCullen, andCluade McKay and "experimental" ones such as Jean Toomer and Langston Hughes.ButBlack poets were not battling over old or new styles; rather, one accomplishedBlack poet was ready to welcome another, whatever his or her style, for what mattered was racial pride.
However, in the 1920sBlack poets did debate with specifically racial subjects. They asked whether they should only write aboutBlack experience for aBlack audience or whether such demands were restrictive. It may be said, though, that virtually all those poets wrote their best poems when they spoke out of racial feeling, race being, as James Johnson rightly put it "inevitably the thing the Negro poet knows best" .
At the turn of the 20th century, by contrast, mostBlack poets generally wrote in the conventional manner of the age and expressed noble, if vague, emotions in their poetry. These poets were not unusually gifted, though Roscoe Jamision and G.M. McClellen may be mentioned as exceptions. They chose not to write in dialect, which, as SterlingBrown has suggested, "meant a rejection of stereotypes of Nero life," and they refused to write only about racial subjects. This refusal had both a positive and a negative consequence.AsBrown observes, Valuably insisting that Negro poets should not be confined to issues of race, these poets committed (an) error.., they refused to look into their hearts and write. "’These are important insights, but one must stress that this refusal to look within was also typical of most White poets of the United States at the time. They, too, often turned from their own experience and consequently produced not very memorable poems about vague topics, such as the peace of nature.
Why does the author quote SterlingBrown in the last paragraphA．To present an interpretation of someBlack poets that contradicts that of the author’s.
B．To introduce a distinction betweenBlack poets using dialect and White poets who did not.
C．To suggest the effects of someBlack poets’ decision not to write only about racial subjects.
D．To prove thatBlack poets at the turn of the century wrote less conventionally than did their White counterparts.