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Langston hughes contributions
Langston hughes works
Life and work of langston Hughes
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“Fantasy in Purple” is a short poem that consists of nine lines in which Hughes writes about a music motif to describe the depression African Americans went through at the time of racial segregation. Hughes wrote this poem to make the readers show empathy for what the African Americans went through in the 1900s. In the lines one, two, and six the words “Beat the drums of tragedy,” is repeated as a repetition. This repeated line talks about the beating and depression the speaker went through during the time. The poet uses a lot of imagery to express the speaker’s feelings in a more poetic tone. “And let the choir sing a stormy song/To drown the rattle of my dying breath,” is an example of a line that declares the pain and agony the speaker …show more content…
The speaker suggests in line 3 to allow the choir to sing a bittersweet song to drown out his/her shaken outcries. The speaker in this part of the poem is either showing anguish or enduring some type of beating. Line 5 says three words, “Beat the drums,” as a continuation of the motif music depression. However, the next line line is a continuation of the repeated line from line 1. The poet advises the drums to obliterate the outcries and objections like I stated earlier. On the other hand, the poet demonstrates a new instrument, a violin in the next line of the poem. “And let the white violins whirl thin and slow,” makes a reference that the violin is compared “white people.” Moreover, that would mean the main instrument in the poem, the drums would refer to African Americans. Also, when stating that the “white violins whirl thin and slow,” explains the fact the segregationists, “white people” rarely attempt to make some sound or obliterations. The speaker then talks about a final demonstration, such as a trumpet that will blow him/her away. The trumpet is used in this metaphor to describe the loud and blaring noise that debuts out to the world. Further, the poet brings the word “sun” in line 8 to exemplify the speakers strive for light and happiness to come with
Although Langston Hughes’ “Why, You Reckon?” is a short story, it encapsulates differences between races and classes in American society. The story highlights the desperate and hopeless lives of poor African-Americans in Harlem, New York, who would do anything just so they can fill their stomachs. Hughes adds a contrast by putting in a white man who uses his money and privileges to try to experience the exuberance of Harlem but fails to do so. Written in 1934, during the peak of racial divide in America, Langston Hughes’ “Why, you reckon?” shows that real experiences, not money, contribute to happiness.
The poem, “My Great-Grandfather’s Slaves” by Wendell Berry, illustrates the guilt felt for the sins of a man’s ancestors. The poem details the horror for the speaker’s ancestors involvement in slavery and transitions from sympathy for the slaves to feeling enslaved by his guilt. Berry uses anaphora, motif, and irony, to express the speaker’s guilt and provide a powerful atmosphere to the poem.
The poem “Likewise” by Langston Hughes is about Jews living and selling products in Harlem. But looking deeper into the writing reveals references to the creeping increase of antisemitism in the 1930’s and 1940’s.
Have you ever heard the expression money isn’t everything? Well it’s true and in Langston Hughes short story, “Why, You reckon,” Hughes reveals his theme of how people aren’t always as happy as they seem when they have lots of money.
Early America was a very racist country and some argue that it still is today. Racism has been an ongoing conflict in this country but it has gotten better in the last fifty or so years. African Americans are often times the target of racism and have had to persevere through slavery, segregation, and discrimination. During this discrimination and segregation, many African Americans embraced their talents and began what is known as the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Renaissance started in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. Many new artists, musicians, and writers emerged in this renaissance. Writers such as Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, and Colleen McElroy were especially important in this time. Langston Hughes, Lucille Clifton, and
The instruments utilized by the songwriters in “Bullet the Blue Sky” created a chaotic vibe for me as I was reading the poem. The big intro before the first verse of U2’s song helped me feel the tension in the song before the lyrics even commenced. I noticed that “Bullet the Blue Sky” kept referring to the tune of “The Ants Go Marching In.” I thought it was an excellent fit to the lyrics of the song, the tune symbolizing the United States military marching into the country of El Salvador. In “Minority Poem,” I enjoyed how Lum integrated tone, active voice, and explosive consonants into his poem to catch the audience’s attention. The symbols he utilized in his poem, such as apple pie, caught my attention. I was impressed with how Lum was able to convey a sarcastic tone in the poem merely by using certain words. The fact that Lum writes his poem in an aggressive tone gave me a sense that he was describing the hostility in which Caucasian Americans treat minorities in the U.S. in the active form. The words themselves in “Minority Poem” imply assertiveness and demonstrate the fact that Caucasian-Americans really dislike minorities. Overall, the poetic techniques and figurative language utilized in both poems set up a tone that helped me emotionally relate with the
due to Hughes, as a modern figure, writing about his own personal experiences; his bitter sadness is bound up with the bright side of love and positivity that has come in the wake of their relationship. ‘Pink Wool Knitted Dress’ references this happiness, as he recalls Sylvia “you sobbed with joy”. The use of the word ‘pink’ in the title is deliberate, denoting femininity, innocence, and happiness, things that are all destroyed eventually. There is contrasting motivation to write this text compared to the other two, as this appears to be Hughes way of dealing with his feelings of sadness following Plath’s suicide. The journey through their relationship from the happiness of their marriage in ‘Pink Wool Knitted Dress’ starkly contrasts some of the later poems. For example the poem ‘Epiphany’, with the title meaning sudden moment of realization, shows the deterioration of their relationship, as Hughes epiphany is that “our marriage had failed”. The use of the word ‘had’ shows the certainty that the marriage was finished, and they were no longer right for each other.
“Most things I write, I do for the sheer love of the music in them. Somehow or other, however, I find my poetry of itself treating of the Negro, of hi...
This poem, brimming with sudden and broken rhythms, is characteristic of jazz riffs popular in the 1920s. In “Subway Rush Hour,” Hughes uses the musicality of his poetry and incorporates it with an important social statement regarding the relation status between blacks and whites.
line of the poem “Or does it explode” is a warning that the population was so frustrated that there
Chaos and drudgery are common themes throughout the poem, displayed in its form; it is nearly iambic pentameter, but not every line fits the required pattern. This is significant because the poem’s imperfect formulation is Owen making a statement about formality, the poem breaks the typical form to show that everything is not functioning satisfactorily. The poem’s stanza’s also begin short, but become longer, like the speaker’s torment and his comrades movement away from the open fire. The rhyming scheme of ABABCDCD is one constant throughout the poem, but it serves to reinforce the nature of the cadence as the soldiers tread on. The war seems to drag on longer and longer for the speaker, and represents the prolonged suffering and agony of the soldier’s death that is described as the speaker dwells on this and is torn apart emotionally and distorts his impressions of what he experiences.
A situation can be interpreted into several different meanings when observed through the world of poetry. A poet can make a person think of several different meanings to a poem when he or she is reading it. Langston Hughes wrote a poem titled "I, Too." In this poem he reveals the Negro heritage and the pride that he has in his heritage and in who he is. Also, Hughes uses very simple terms that allow juvenile interpretations and reading.
The poem “Negro” was written by Langston Hughes in 1958 where it was a time of African American development and the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Langston Hughes, as a first person narrator tells a story of what he has been through as a Negro, and the life he is proud to have had. He expresses his emotional experiences and makes the reader think about what exactly it was like to live his life during this time. By using specific words, this allows the reader to envision the different situations he has been put through. Starting off the poem with the statement “I am a Negro:” lets people know who he is, Hughes continues by saying, “ Black as the night is black, /Black like the depths of my Africa.” He identifies Africa as being his and is proud to be as dark as night, and as black as the depths of the heart of his country. Being proud of him self, heritage and culture is clearly shown in this first stanza.
This poem/song relates to history because in this poem it shows how black people or African-Americans were tortured. In history blacks had been tortured for a long time. They were first tortured as slaves and if they didn’t obey their owner they would be killed. Later they had gotten freedom but there were rules permitting blacks to certain things like white people do what they want while blacks had to move and do tasks for whites. Next African-Americans were given freedom to do everything that whites could do.
Hopes and Dreams The oppression and discrimination used among people leads to an unequal and wrongful society. Dream Variations is a poem by Langston Hughes written in 1926 which describes the joyous dreams and hopes of people who are enslaved. The speaker in the poem seems to be an African American slave working under a white person. All throughout the poem, the speaker describes his dream where he is free and able to do what he pleases.