Theme For English B Analysis

Theme for English B is a free verse poem by Langston Hughes with no set rhyme scheme or meter. Despite this, the poem does tend to rhyme at certain parts, noticeably at the beginning and the end. The only time a rhyme scheme and meter can be establish is in lines 2-4 and the rhyming couplet at the end. The rhyme scheme for lines 2-4 is B B C C and the meter is iambic.

The visual appearance of the poem reminds me of a short draft for an essay. It’s long and broken up into “paragraphs” with a concluding line. In that sense, it’s not an altar or concrete poem because the words do not form a picture. The temporal setting is during the Harlem Renaissance and the spatial setting is a college on a hill, overlooking Harlem. It also takes place in his

room. The poem is told in the first person view of a twenty two year old black college student. In terms of sensory imagery, Hughes uses a lot of references to color, specifically black and white. When he mentions the two colors, he uses them to describe himself, the professor and the paper.
The situation in the poem is racism.

The tone is doubtful because the speaker questions if the assignment is really when there are so many factors that makes writing the paper difficult. The narrator is worried that his race will affect the truth of his work. The narrator completes the assignment using his doubt as a way of getting the truth by asking honest question and making valid points. In that sense, he completed the assignment flawlessly.

While this poem may seem like it has lot of devices in it, the poem is actually missing quite a lot. Out of the terms we learned so far, this poem does not have onotompheia, similes, antomasia, or double entente. It’s also not a occasional verse, elegy, epithalamion, epicedium, aubade, or pastoral.

Irony is slightly present because the assignment seems very simple and easy. However, due to its vagueness, the speaker doesn’t quite know how to tackle the assignment. He also worried that the teacher will not be able to see the value of his poem because of their different races. This makes the assignment extremely complex and hard. Line 27 could be considered a euphemism because he is asking if his paper will be judged as colored because of the author who wrote it. The poem could also have some personal heresy in it because it could be a reflection of Langston Hughes as he was also a black student in a predominantly white school studying English. The poem could also be argued as a protest poem about

racism.
Syntax can be found throughout the poem. It is found in Lines 8-9, 16-20, 25-28, and 32-40. Line 24 shows both allusion and alliteration Bessie, Bop and Bach. Lines 18-20 have examples of assonance with the long “e” and “o”. There is an eye rhyme in line 7 and 9 with the words Salem and Harlem and an internal Rhyme in line 19-20.