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Langston Hughes works
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” analysis
Analysis of The Negro Speaks of Rivers Langston Hughes
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One thing I would like to compare about these two very inspirational African Americans would be there sense of genuineness. Jesse Jackson talks about in his speech how he does not care who you are, what color you are, or who you love. He wanted to just help the people in need. He wanted to help the poor, the gays, and the colored. He wanted peace, and for people to all have insurance, while not being treated differently for not making as much money, being colored, or being gay.
In Northup’s account of being denied the basic human right of water, lips parched, he could think of “nothing but water—of lakes and flowing rivers, of brooks where I [Northup] had stopped to drink, and of the dripping bucket, rising with its cool and overflowing nectar, from the bottom of the well” (Northup 36). He describes the agony of being deprived of any form of hydration and the intense craving his body develops as time passes. By painting such a romanticized image of thirst, Northup effectively conveys the desperation that overwhelmed him while being punished for defying his slavemaster. Northup builds up the figurative language describing water, and appeals to the readers’ visual, sensory, and gustatory senses. Through imagery of the flowing rivers and the cold, overflowing nectar of water, he effectively appeals to the emotional response of fellow black americans and sympathetic white citizens who can relate to the fundamental human need for water.
Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Zora Neale Hurston, Marcus Garvey, AaronDouglas PART 2: POETRY IN MOTION: Langston Hughes was a famous Harlem Renaissance poet. Like others, he developed themes that connected the African-American heritage to the present. The website for this activity is: https://studies.tripod.com/ENGL2328/negro_speaks_rivers.htm 1. How old was Langston Hughes when he wrote this poem “Negro Speaks of Rivers” ?
There are so many writers and people who do not write also that look up to him. He accepted the challenge of expressing the heart and soul of African Americans. Keenly aware of racism, Hughes visioned a nation where domestic problems could be realized. Hughes in his poetry, expressed his own reactions to incidents in his life and in the world at large. Langston Hughes left such a lasting impression on poetry , black culture, and the people in his life, that he changed the way they lived with the spirit and soul he put into his
The Harlem Renaissance was a “outpouring of writing, music, and social criticism” (Baker, 1987) aimed at destroying the ever-present racism of the 1920s. Langston Hughes, an artist of the Harlem Renaissance, was a big contributor to change, inspiring those of his own time and later on to stand up for African American rights. Penning the 1926 manifesto The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, Hughes encapsulated the thoughts of Harlem, and urged African Americans to be proud of their own culture, “without fear or shame” (Hughes in Bernard, 2011).
The culture of most blacks was unwanted during this time. For this reason Hughes desired to make a change and illustrate such cultural identities in his poems. In doing this he caused a shift in ideas among all people. Although the change didn’t happen immediately it did eventually occur. With that said the African American people were given less of an opportunity at jobs, schooling, and most importantly culture.
Poems can be analyzed in various ways ranging from their complexity to the emotions they convey to readers. The poems, “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay will be analyzed based on their similarities and differences to name a few. The poems may describe different events; however the overall connection between the two can be identified by readers with deeper reading. Comparisons between the poems may easier to analyze and identify compared to the contrasts based on the reader’s perception. Overall, the concept and much more will reveal how the poems are connected and special in their own way.
In the poem “Theme for English B” by Langston Hughes many Literary elements are being used and there is a meaning behind the poem. within the poem. One of the elements is allusion. Hughes uses many allusions throughout the poem such as, Durham, Harlem, New York, Eighth Avenue, Bessie, and Bach. These allusions reference the schools Hughes went to and where he lives.
He writes, “The Negro said: “We can’t go downtown and sit and stare at you in your clubs While whites got the pleasure to enjoy everything that was offered to them, Negros had the deal with other end of frustrating place of unfairness. Hughes also feels that people made it seem like Negros were given opportunities (“Langston Hughes and Alain Locke’s Harlem Renaissance; African American Black Renaissance Harlem Poetry”). With trends toward interdisciplinary, internationalist, and cross-race scholarship dominating American studies at the end of the twentieth century, subsequent work attends to the journalists, sociologists, historians, and performance artists who were often financed by the patrons, prizes, and grants that have been analyzed only as they affected literary work (“Harlem Renaissance – Credo
The only source of symbolism in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” comes from the line saying, “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”(CITE STORY). This statement
In the poem, Langston Hughes outlines the African American, as not being recognized as having a place within society, and being an oppressed group of people. This is shown in the first line of the poem when he says “I, too, sing America. ”(Hughes, 1) By saying, “I, too, sing America,”(Hughes, 1) the audience can interpret that, Langston Hughes sees society as a choir, all ‘singing’ together. This is saying that he, is also part of that ‘choir,’ and has an equal voice within this society. The audience can also see how he is not equal, as he is
Langston Hughes uses images of oppression to reveal a deeper truth about the way minorities have been treated in America. He uses his poems to bring into question some of Walt Whitman’s poems that indirectly state that all things are great, that all persons are one people in America, which Hughes claims is false because of all the racist views and oppression that people face from the people America. This oppression is then used to keep the minorities from Walt Whitman in his poem, “Song of Myself”, talks about the connection between all people, how we are family and are brothers and sisters who all share common bonds. He says, “ And I know that the spirit of God is the brother of my own,/ And that all the men ever born are also my brothers,
In contrary though, they sometimes write about matters happening around them. The poet Terrance Hayes from South Carolina, has a very literal poem called “Talk”. The poem “Talk”, is about a young African American boy in middle school. This boy is on his school’s basketball team.
Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.
In the poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langton Hughes uses rhetorical devices such as allusion and imagery to develop the theme of the poem. Starting in stanzas four to six, Langston uses four very famous rivers to trace back on where it all began. Throughout these stanzas he develops allusion because he traces back on to history and state that everyone are historically equal. “My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
