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Analysis of the Langston Hughes Poem
Analysis of the Langston Hughes Poem
Analysis of the Langston Hughes Poem
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When it comes to Whitfield’s poetry, his tone stands out as a key factor of his writing style. Most of the writing about slavery from black authors in the 1800s features ugly themes and retelling of experiences, but Whitfield excels at bringing his cynical attitude to the surface of his poetry. He also includes redeeming moments that instill hopefulness. His poem America exemplifies his direct tone of writing. He wastes no time to set the tone in his opening passage “America, it is to thee,| Thou boasted land of liberty,
Hughes Essay Langston Hughes, wrote “Refugee in America”, “I, Too”, and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. Hughes lived from February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967 and was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist from Joplin, Missouri. Hughes was also one of the earliest innovators of the literary art form, jazz poetry. My thesis for the connection of these three poems are that they all relate to oppression and the change that is to come one day.
The famous international ideal of the “American Dream” is well desired worldwide. In turn, it acts almost as if it's a magnet attracting new immigrants to America each day. So what exactly is the “American Dream?” Hard to say. It can only be decided by the one in search of it.
In the very last line, the speaker says, “What more could I, a young man, want”(21), this represents the speaker’s youth and how his father should be there to mentor. The sarcasm in the text also creates a upsetting tome where the speaker does not deserve a lonely, and nostalgic life. But, the speaker lives through him and his father’s memories that cause him to forever be alone. In conclusion, Li-Young Lee uses many literary techniques in his poem, Eating Alone.
“There’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free.” America never was America to me! Both poems were written about the American Dream and how it benefited some people, while not so much for other people and the two poets wrote about how America seemed at the time they were living. “I Hear America Singing” and “Let America be America Again” are two popular poems from history and they have their similarities.
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine is a hybrid and communal text constructed out of varying poetic form accompanied by contrasting imagery, and historical events. Rankine, although the author of this text is not necessarily its narrator. She plays with prospective, switching the fundamental meaning of “you” and pulls from the personal experiences of her friends, colleagues, and surrounding community. Rankine is able to incorporate “an emphasis on impressionism and subjectivity in [her] writing”, blur the line between various genres, and “[reject] … elaborate formal aesthetics in favor of minimalist design”, which are the pillars of postmodern works (Klages). She utilizes historical and modern events such as the Jim Crow laws, affirmative
In the two poems, “I Hear America Singing,” and, “I, Too,” there are many similarities and differences that show us that know matter what is happening you have to stand up for yourself and do what you love. We see this in the two poems, “I Hear America Singing,” and, “I, Too” when the authors, Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes, both talk about what America was a like in the 1900s, and how people were doing jobs that they had liked to do. We can see how a African American man would stand up for himself and we see this in the poem “I, Too” because we are able to see how he was able to stand up to everyone else and prove he was able to be treated like anyone else.
In 1964 world famous Motown singer Sam Cooke released a “A change is going to come.” This song included rhythmic melodies and soulful sounding lyrics, but this song contained and obviously deeper undertone of race relations in America. It sounds as a description of Cooke’s life up until this time and how he believes with the tide of civil rights activist a change was evidently going to eventually come. In this song Cooke chooses his lyrics in an ambiguous way to leave it to interpretation. These questions of the lyrical choice center on the American identity and who Cooke was referring to.
He takes the thought that this American dream might not have been all he imagined, but does build up a sense of empowerment towards the ending. “O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, and yet I swear this oath--America will be!” (36-40) As opposed to the beginning of the poem where he felt out of place in his own homeland. In many of these lines his language evokes a sensory mental image that allows the reader to assume what he had felt in writing this.
By stressing that he is equal in society and it is something that people will start to realize is reinforced in the last stanza. The last stanza “I, too, am America,”(18) where the word ‘sing’ from the first stanza is changed to ‘am.’ This is a powerful way to close the poem, reinforces the greater notion that not only is he a voice in society, but he is the very essence that is part of
The second speaker also reshapes the first two lines of the entire poem into a plea to the majority. Beforehand, the first speaker uses those lines as a call for the old American spirit to be revived: “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be” (1-2). Both speakers change the meaning of the lines to express their thoughts on America. As a result, the poem expresses the desire for everyone to be treated equally in the land of freedom. The readers can relate to the speaker because they wish that everyone has equal rights in the country that proclaims itself to be the symbol of freedom.
The couple is grieving the death of their son, each in their own way, and find it hard to relate, while the couple from "Cathedral" struggles to relate in the wife 's relationship with the blind man and her desire to be understood. The phone continually rings with the anxious baker wanting Scotty 's birthday cake to be picked up. Anger towards the anonymous caller is used to unite the couple
Li-Young Lee’s poem “Eating Alone” expresses a son’s loneliness and love for his father that has passed away. He continuously connects the father to all that the speaker does whether it is lifeful or not. Lee does so in a way through imagery, tone, and irony. Li-Young Lee uses imagery in “Eating Alone” through life and death.
The speaker displays his connection to the black heritage by stating that “They’ll see how beautiful I am” (line 16), and the last line of the poem “I, too, sing America” repeats the first line, but this time with more insistent tone. The speaker is stating the fact
Country lovers It might seem as yet another innocent love story, but do not let the title fool you. Nadine Gordimer creates a story after the “and they lived happily ever after” showing that that might not always be the case. As the story sets off, Gordimer presents us a friendship between Thebedi and Paulus, which blossoms into a little more than that. The development of the relationship is throughout several of years until they reach adolescence.
