Character guide

Moses

major

Moses stands between a God who speaks in thunder and a people who chode with him the moment Pharaoh tightens their burdens. He protests his own inadequacy — 'Lord, you know I'm slow of tongue' — yet goes down anyway, rod in hand, while plagues fall and Pharaoh's heart hardens. His troubled mind is the poem's human center: a leader learning that deliverance costs more than he bargained for.

Noah

major

Also known as Old Man Noah, Old Noah, Man

Noah preaches repentance with his long white beard flying while the crowd jokes that he's got water on the brain. He builds, he warns, he is mocked — and when the flood comes, the same sinners who pleaded at the hull are shut out by his own hand. His weeping face in the new grass makes him the poem's image of survival's strange grief.

Pharaoh

supporting

Also known as Poor Old Pharaoh, Old Pharaoh

Pharaoh looks at Moses and asks, 'Who is this Lord? I know all the gods of Egypt.' His power is real — overseers, drivers, six hundred chosen chariots — and his heart hardens with each plague until the Red Sea closes over his host. He is the poem's study in how mastery of everything visible can blind a man to the one thing that matters.

Jesus

major

Jesus prays 'not as I will' while the three disciples doze, then endures Pilate's washed hands, the purple robe, the crown of thorns pressed down. The poems return to him as 'my gentle Jesus,' 'my darling Jesus' — intimate, wounded, addressed directly by a grieving speaker. He anchors the collection's turn from Old Testament deliverance to New Testament suffering and rest.

Satan

supporting

Also known as Old Satan

Satan opens with a compliment — 'Eve, you're surely good looking' — and works his way from flattery to the forbidden fruit with a devilish little laugh. He is less a cosmic adversary than a conversational one, and the poem's warning is plain: 'Don't ever get friendly with Satan.' His brief, seductive scene sets the whole arc of fall, flood, and judgment in motion.

Death

supporting

Also known as bony Death, Old Death

Death waits in a shadowy place with his pale white horses until God's voice breaks like thunder and calls his name. He gallops down past suns and moons, and though his arms are icy, Sister Caroline smiles — he looks to her like a welcome friend. He is the collection's strangest comfort: not a terror but a courier, carrying the weary to rest in Jesus' arms.

Sister Caroline

supporting

A devout soul whose death becomes a summons, she is the beloved the Lord sends His angel to carry home in Go Down Death.

Sam

minor

Also known as Sam den, Wen Sam, Wen dat darky riz

A plantation character in dialect poems.

Adam

supporting

The first man, shaped from clay by a lonely God who stoops and breathes into him the breath of life in The Creation.

Gabriel

minor

Angel who blows the trumpet on Judgment Day.

De Little Pickaninny

minor

Also known as De little pickaninny

A sleeping child in a dialect lullaby poem.

Lize

minor

Also known as Miss Lize

A woman addressed in plantation dialect poems.

Mother

minor

Also known as The Young Warrior Mother

Mother of the young warrior in a poem of loss.

Brudder Possum

minor

Also known as Brudder

A possum character in a dialect animal poem.

Eve

minor

First woman created from Adam's rib in The Creation.

Lawd

minor

God addressed in dialect prayer poems.

Bird

minor

A bird addressed in a dialect poem.

Venus

minor

Goddess of love appearing in a classical poem.

Mary

minor

Mother of Jesus present at the crucifixion.

Father Abraham

minor

Also known as Father

Biblical patriarch addressed in a poem.

Simon

minor

Also known as Black Simon

A character in a biblical poem.

Daddy

minor

Father figure in a dialect poem.

Ole Eph

minor

Also known as Ole moon, Eph

A character in a dialect poem.

Deacon Brown

minor

Ghostly deacon appearing in a humorous poem.

Brer Rabbit

minor

Trickster rabbit character in a dialect poem.

Miss Liza

minor

Also known as Liza

A woman mentioned in plantation dialect poems.

black-hearted Judas

minor

Betrayer of Jesus mentioned in the crucifixion poem.

Great Pilate

minor

Also known as Pilate

Roman governor who condemns Jesus to crucifixion.

The Temptress Old Devil

minor

Also known as Old Devil

Temptation figure in a poem.

Brer Wolf

minor

Also known as Brer Fox

Predator animal in a dialect poem.

Brer Lion

minor

Lion character in a dialect animal poem.