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Langston hughes harlem renaissance poems analysis
Langston hughes harlem renaissance poems analysis
Langston hughes poem essays
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Mother To Son In the poem “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes a mother is speaking directly towards her son. This poem has an upbeat feeling to it “so boy, don’t you turn back.” (Hughes, 14-15) Which sets the mood for the poem. It includes a variety of assonances and other literary devices. Imagery is also being used to describe the pain and difficult path the mother has taken “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” (Hughes, 2-3) Mood While recognizing the theme of the poem and having some background knowledge on the author (Research in African Literatures, 37(1), 154-155), it can be inferred that the poem is a black women speaking to her son about life and how harsh it has been on her. Lines like “And sometimes goin’ in the dark”/ “Where
there ain’t been no light.” (12-13) Embraces the despair and hopelessness once felt by the mother at some point in her life. Literary Devices A variety of literary devices are being conducted in the poem as well. Alliteration like “And splinters”/ “And boards torn up”/ “And places with no carpet on the floor” (4-6) emphasizes harshness and uses splinters to set an imagery on the reader’s mind of horrible life conditions. At the end of the poem “And life for me aint been no crystal stair.” (20) repeats itself like in the beginning of the poem is being used in a form of imagery. Hughes wants us to use a crystal stairs and compare it to a life of luxury and how it has not been the case for the mother. Objective There is a purpose and a meaning behind every poem just like this one has one too. The mother is influencing her son to not give up on anything that may come his way. “Don’t you fall now”/ “For I’se still goin’, honey” (17-18) She is explaining to him to not fall and surrender yourself when things in life are not sunny and bright. “I’se still climbin” (19) she served this line to show that even she has not still had a perfect smooth life with crystal chairs. That even she is still climbing metaphorically in life to reach her goals. The mother uses all of these motivational phrases to influence the audience with her mindset.
The descriptions and words used create the most vivid images of a mother’s escape to freedom with her son. This poem takes you on both a physical and emotional journey as it unravels through the treacherous demands of freedom. A beautiful example of her ability to rhyme both internally as well as externally can be seen here,
Women are equated with water and the greatness that it possesses. In both poems Hughes displays African-American’s view of women and how they the key to maintaining a family. R. Baxter Miller states “her symbolic yet invisible presence pervades the fertility of the earth, the waters and the rebirth of the morning.” (35) Women are like rivers, they continue to flow, even when they cannot be seen. In Mother to Son the speaker reminisces on what his mother told him, which shows how powerful a woman really is. Water is also a very powerful source and contributes to everything. Just like water women contribute to life and the upbringing of children. The Negro Speaks of Rivers states “My soul has grown deep like the rivers” ( Norton Line 4, 2027.) In that one line Hughes demonstrates the likeness between women and water. Females contribute to the strengthening of one’s soul. Water is used as simile to compare the depth of the water, to the human soul.
When writing poetry, there are many descriptive methods an author may employ to communicate an idea or concept to their audience. One of the more effective methods that authors often use is linking devices, such as metaphors and similes. Throughout “The Elder Sister,” Olds uses linking devices effectively in many ways. An effective image Olds uses is that of “the pressure of Mother’s muscles on her brain,” (5) providing a link to the mother’s expectations for her children. She also uses images of water and fluidity to demonstrate the natural progression of a child into womanhood. Another image is that of the speaker’s elder sister as a metaphorical shield, the one who protected her from the mental strain inflicted by their mother.
Another fitting quote from the text is something the mother says at the end of the poem, ¨So boy, don’t you turn back. [...] Don’t you fall now For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair¨ (Hughes lines 14-20) This shows the Mother's purpose in telling this story. The mother says to the son, using her stair metaphor, to keep persevering through life, as she had.
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is broken winged bird that cannot fly.” -Langston Hughes The struggle in America that African Americans face throughout America’s history is a saddening story where it can apply to any type of people facing the same problems of inequality. The poem I, too and Mother to Son are both similar with the message that it represents but different in the way the message is said. Mother to Son highlights the struggles that Americans who are poverty stricken may face.
Lanston Hughes focuses more on rhythm then on rhyme, for example, the poem "The Weary Blues" reads like a blues song, which is what the poem is about. "Mother to Son" is a conversation a mother has to a child about what era life has been, and that no matter how hard life may seem, one should never give up climbing the "stairs". The poem seems to shift from good English to Black English and then back again, which to me shows...
First, the author uses Figurative language to develop the theme by the mother uses a metaphor to describe her life and how difficult it was. It says, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters. And boards were torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare.“This shows the author use Figurative language to develop the theme of You have to rise above the obstacles because life is going to throw obstacles at you and you have to try to avoid them. This shows the theme because instead of going back down the staircase where there are no problems you have to push through to get over the problem. Second, the author uses Symbol to develop the theme by using the staircase that represents life and life is hard and there will be a ton of thing that try to push us down and just try to stop us It says, “ I’ve been a-climbing’ on, And reachin’ landings, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark Where there ain’t been no light. “This shows the author used Symbol to develop the theme of You have to rise above the obstacles because the mother kept going non-stop. This is important to notice because there will be a ton of thing that try to push us down and just try to stop us. To, sum up, the author of “Mother to Son” revealed the theme through Figurative language and
In “Mother to Son,” Hughes uses a worn staircase as an extended metaphor to parallel its flaws to the struggles of African Americans. The poem begins with a mother speaking to her son about the pressures of reality and telling him not to succumb. She tells her son, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” (Mother to Son “MS” line 2) to portray that her life is far from perfect like the stair of a white person. She describes her life as having “tacks and splinters….with boards torn up” (Hughes lines 3-5). These defects symbolize the problems in her life whether they were caused by her race or gender.
Furthermore, the opening “I stand” sets e assertive tone in the [poem. The speaker never falters in presenting the complexity of her situation, as a woman, a black [person], and a slave. The tone set at the beginning also aid the audience to recognize that the speaker in the “white man’s violent system” is divided by women, and black by whites. The slave employs metaphors, which Barrett use to dramatized imprisonment behind a dark skin in a world where God’s work of creating black people has been cast away. To further illustrate this she described the bird as “ little dark bird”, she also describes the frogs and streams as “ dark frogs” and “ dark stream ripple” Through the use of her diction she convey to readers that in the natural world unlike the human one, there is no dark with bad and light with good, and no discrimination between black and white people.
The main metaphor in the poem, Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes is the comparison between the speaker's life to not being a crystal stair. She has to power through the conflicts and obstacles she is faced with in her life. In the poem, the speaker is talking about how there have been tacks, splinters, and torn up board representing the obstacles that she has faced in her lifetime. Another example would be how the speaker says that there are “places with no carpet on the floor-Bare” (Hughes 6-7). This means that at times, there was nothing good ahead of the speaker’s life. It was completely bare. It connects to the main metaphor because a crystal staircase is a beautiful, flawless, unique staircase where the one that the speaker is climbing
The poem Mother to Son is about a mother trying to teach her son perseverance to life, this is demonstrated by her comparing stairs to life
Robert Frost is able to capture the intensity and sadness that accompanies this type of event by paying great attention to the detail and word choice. He is able to tell the story in a manner that the reader is immediately able to understand, but he also makes the reader think about what is going on. He makes the reader wonder why the characters are acting the way they are. He forces the reader to question the complex nature of grief and sadness that ultimately leads to the feeling of abandonment. The characters of the mother and father in this poem react to their son's death in their own ways, and these ways do not merge with each other.
In one of his earliest poems, Mother to Son, Langston Hughes tells his readers that one must have courage and determination to overcome the hurdles of life. This poem is most well known for its dramatic usage of monologue and symbolism of “crystal stairs.” However, the poem also uses other literary devices such as metaphors, repetition, and dialect to create a certain characteristic, impression, and image. Of all the different techniques and literary devices manipulated by Langston Hughes, I would like to discuss his use of age, gender, and memory in uncovering multi-layered meanings of Mother to Son.
The poem The Little Black Boy is a poem from William Blake's Songs of Innocence. Blake believed in the equality of all people. The poem is about a little Black boy’s struggle with his identity. Blake's black persona views himself in a negative way. It takes an explanation from his mother to make him understand that the reason his skin is black is because the sun is the love and warmth of God. The poem highlights the theme of one realizing that although people may not be connected by their culture or the color of their skin, their lies something common in all, and in this poem it is the lo...
Form and meaning are what readers need to analyze to understand the poem that they are evaluating. In “Mother to Son”, his form of writing that is used frequently, is free verse. There is no set “form”, but he gets his point across in a very dramatic way. The poem is told by a mother who is trying to let her son know that in her life, she too has gone through many frustrations just like what her son is going through. The tone of this poem is very dramatic and tense because she illustrates the hardships that she had to go through in order to get where she is today. She explains that the hardships that she has gone through in her life have helped her become the person that she has come to be. Instead of Hughes being ironic, like he does in some of his poems, he is giving the reader true background on the mother’s life. By introducing the background, this helps get his point across to the reader in a very effective way. In this poem there are many key words which help portray the struggles that the mother is trying to express to her son. The poem is conveyed in a very “down to earth” manner. An example of this is, “Life for me ain’t been a crystal stair (462).” This quote shows the reader that the mom is trying to teach the son a lesson with out sugar coating it. She wants her son to know that throughout her life has had many obstacles to overcome, and that he too is going to have to get through his own obstacles no matter how frustrating it is. Her tone throughout the poem is stern telling the boy, “So boy, don’t turn your back (462).” The poems tone almost makes the reader believe that the mother is talking to them, almost as if I am being taught a valuable lesson.