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The significance of the "Harlem Renaissance
The significance of the "Harlem Renaissance
The significance of the "Harlem Renaissance
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Poetry Analysis "Harlem" was written by Langsatn Hughes. This poem is focusing on the American-African neighborhood "Harlem" in New York City in mid-twenties while the society was filling with discriminations and racism. "My Father as A Guitar" was written by Martin Espada. In the poem, the speaker is comparing his father, who has a heart problem, with a guitar. "Charon 's Cosmology" was written by Charles Simic in 1977. This poem is mainly about a ferryman, whose job is to transfer souls of dead. These three poems have different themes, however, the speaker all used some literary devices to express their thoughts to readers. In "Harlem", the writer is using similes, metaphors and also diction techniques. First, the speaker said "What happens …show more content…
"The heart pills are dices in my father 's hand, gambler who needs cash by the first of the month" from here we can see that the writer is referring his father as a gambler, who is gambling with his health and the crucial reality that he has to work for rent. through comparing his father with a gambler is a great way to show the difficulties his father is going through. the second simile is "Heart hammering like the fist of a man at the door with an eviction notice" here the speaker indicating his father 's heart beating as an angry fist striking the door, which shows the father 's frustration: working under bad heart condition or evicting by the landlord. The last stanza has the father as a guitar being played in the son 's hands. Here the speaker is dreaming his father is guitar which infers the writer 's wish that his father could be a guitar so that he can be the player who decides how and what to do to protect the …show more content…
At first, the speaker is saying the ferryman only has one dim Latern to illuminate his way and he has a mountain of fresh dead body to deal with. "I 'd say by now he must be confused , as to which side is which, I 'd say it doesn 't matter, no one complains he 's got their pockets to go through" here the speaker is saying "it doesn 't matter", however, he didn’t clearly point out what does the pronoun "it" refer to, it allows readers to extend their imagination about the meaning of the pronoun. "Once in a long while a mirror, or a book which he throws" the "mirror" and "book" are symbolic, mirror can help people get a better understanding of who they are and book reflects the outside world, however, the ferryman is throws them away, which could cause readers wonder why is the ferryman throwing away something more important. For the last two lines "overboard into the dark river, swift and cold and deep" create an image of the river in readers ' mind. The writer is trying to convey that although the outside world is huge, fast pacing, and full of unknown dangers which makes human beings seemed insignificant and forgettable, we still need to keep doing our work as
Presentation of Family Relationships in Carol Anne Duffy's Poem Before You Were Mine and in One Poem by Simon Armitage
In Tim Seibles' poem, The Case, he reviews the problematic situations of how white people are naturally born with an unfair privilege. Throughout the poem, he goes into detail about how colored people become uncomfortable when they realize that their skin color is different. Not only does it affect them in an everyday aspect, but also in emotional ways as well. He starts off with stating how white people are beautiful and continues on with how people enjoy their presence. Then he transitions into how people of color actually feel when they encounter a white person. After, he ends with the accusation of the white people in today's world that are still racist and hateful towards people of color.
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
The speaker in “Harlem” is an African-American activist in Harlem who is fighting for rights of the African-Americans who live in Harlem. Although written by the same author, “Harlem” and “Harlem Night Song” have similarities and differences in literary devices, tone and mood. In “Harlem Night Song”, Hughes used non-consistent rhyme. In the poem, it states, “The Harlem roof-tops/Moon is shining./Night sky is blue./Stars are great drops/Of
“My Son the Marine?” was written by John and Frank Schaeffer in 2002. This story was written in the 1st person. It focuses on the struggle a father is having about his son joining the military. “Separating” was written by John Updike in 1972 and is written in the 3rd person. It is about a family going through a divorce and focuses on the emotional toll towards the children during the separation. “Those Winter Sundays” was written in 1966 by Robert Hayden. Written in the 1st person, the focus of this poem is to show the regret of a young boy who never showed the appreciation that his father deserved. All of these stories appeal to “The things They Carry” because of the emotional aspect. In all these stories there are signs of guilt, confusion, and regret.
“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” –Edgar Allan Poe. Poetry is one of the world’s greatest wonders. It is a way to tell a story, raise awareness of a social or political issue, an expression of emotions, an outlet, and last but not least it is an art. Famous poet Langston Hughes uses his poetry as a musical art form to raise awareness of social injustices towards African-Americans during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Although many poets share similarities with one another, Hughes creatively crafted his poetry in a way that was only unique to him during the 1920’s. He implemented different techniques and styles in his poetry that not only helped him excel during the 1920’s, but has also kept him relative in modern times. Famous poems of his such as a “Dream Deferred,” and “I, Too, Sing America” are still being studied and discussed today. Due to the cultural and historical events occurring during the 1920’s Langston Hughes was able to implement unique writing characteristics such as such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues that is demonstrative of his writing style. Langston Hughes use of distinct characteristics such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues helped highlight the plights of African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance Era.
trauma can have on someone, even in adulthood. The speaker of the poem invokes sadness and
While reading the poem the reader can imply that the father provides for his wife and son, but deals with the stress of having to work hard in a bad way. He may do what it takes to make sure his family is stable, but while doing so he is getting drunk and beating his son. For example, in lines 1 and 2, “The whisky on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy” symbolizes how much the father was drinking. He was drinking so much, the scent was too much to take. Lines 7 and 8, “My mother’s countenance, Could not unfrown itself.” This helps the reader understand the mother’s perspective on things. She is unhappy seeing what is going on which is why she is frowning. Although she never says anything it can be implied that because of the fact that the mother never speaks up just shows how scared she could be of her drunk husband. Lines 9 and 10, “The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle”, with this line the reader is able to see using imagery that the father is a hard worker because as said above his knuckle was battered. The reader can also take this in a different direction by saying that his hand was battered from beating his child as well. Lastly, lines 13 and 14, “You beat time on my head With a palm caked hard by dirt” As well as the quote above this quote shows that the father was beating his child with his dirty hand from all the work the father has
When reading a story or a poem, readers tend to analyze, and develop their own opinions. Any content an author or poet produces is up to the reader to question, and identify what the story is trying to say. The point that I am stating is that, stories are like maps that we readers need to figure out. We have to find the starting point, and get to the destination of our conclusion, and the thoughts we have about the story or poem. In the stories that we have read so for throughout the semester, they all have different messages of what they are trying to convey to the reader in a way that can be relatable. Among all the author’s and poet’s works we have read, I have enjoyed Theodore Roethke’s poems. Roethke has developed poems that explore emotions that readers can relate to. I would like to explain and interpret the themes that Theodore Roethke expresses in the poems “My Papa’s Waltz”, “The Waking”, and “I Knew a Woman”.
Harper begins the poem by detailing the start of the speaker’s relationship with a man, developing it through the use of metaphor and concrete diction. From the first few lines of the poem, the reader learns that the relationship was destined to be futile through Harper’s use of metaphor: “If when standing all alone/ I cried for bread a careless world/ pressed
Poetry served as another form of self expression for African-Americans, similar to that of Jazz and the Blues. This form of media served the same (or a very much similar) as music did, Some notable poets include the likes of Langston Hughes, who is considered by some to be one of the most important and influential Harlem Renaissance poets of the time, James Weldon Johnson, and Claude McKay. Most notable of the three is, poet and intellectual, Langston Hughes who, in addition to writing books and plays, served to spread the emotions of African-Americans as well as himself and to make clear the ambitions and dreams of the American people within the United States. As stated by Concordia Online Education, ”Hughes wrote novels, plays and short stories, but it is his emotional, heartfelt poems that expressed the common experiences of the culture of black people for which he is most remembered”.
Robert Creeley, a famous American poet, lived from 1926 to 2005. Creeley was normally associated as a Black Mountain poet because that is where he taught, and spent most of his career. Throughout his life, Creeley wrote many different pieces of poetry. Four great poems by Robert Creeley are, “For Love”, “Oh No”, “The Mirror”, and “The Rain”. The poem “For Love”,was written by Creeley for his wife. In this poem Creeley explains, the love someone has for another person, and how complicated it is making his life because the person doesn’t know how to explain their love. “Oh No” is a poem that is literally about a selfish person who ended up in hell, but this poem has a deeper meaning. Part
In conclusion the poem Harlem uses figurative language to explain the feelings and thoughts of the
In a typical family, there are parents that expected to hear things when their teenager is rebelling against them: slamming the door, shouting at each other, and protests on what they could do or what they should not do. Their little baby is growing up, testing their wings of adulthood; they are not the small child that wanted their mommy to read a book to them or to kiss their hurts away and most probably, they are thinking that anything that their parents told them are certainly could not be right. The poem talks about a conflict between the author and her son when he was in his adolescence. In the first stanza, a misunderstanding about a math problem turns into a family argument that shows the classic rift between the generation of the parent and the teenager. Despite the misunderstandings between the parent and child, there is a loving bond between them. The imagery, contrasting tones, connotative diction, and symbolism in the poem reflect these two sides of the relationship.
The poem entitled “On the Pulse of Morning” is a time-honored piece unrolling the film of time, and featuring humanity and its travel through time. This poem is a requirement for United States History, section 2111, to analyze the poem in your own words. In doing so, you must somehow relate to the poem, channel a moment or two of you past, and conform it to the poem. Accounts of students from various other backgrounds provide the poet with support from genuine evidence. History and evolution is compared with certain elements of nature, specifically the rock, river, and tree. I like the poem. This poem is really interesting, very imaginative, and very inventive. It makes you think a lot. But while reading at the poem you really gaze at the stanzas with such amazement. It is quite a historical piece, discussing how the world was before people arrived, and the great effort they had to put forth till they reached the very day that the author ultimately dawns on the reader. When I first got this assignment, it seemed a bit complicated. You have to think a lot about how you fit into this poem. Constantly contemplating, deep in thought, immersed in my past, I thought maybe I could discuss the time I first moved to the United States. But before I began to write the poem, I thought that I might not much to say, and while saying it just happen it to be more than necessary. Yet the greatest challenge that lay ahead, as with any paper, is making this introduction. While reading this poem, it brought back plenty of information that we may have reviewed in past history and evolutionary courses. The rock is the Earth itself, particularly America in relation to the poem. The river may be the passage between the eastern and wester...