Analysis Of Mother To My Hearing Aids By Langston Hughes

Welcome to my comparative poetry analysis. The two poems that I will be discussing are ‘Mother to Son’ by Langston Hughes and ‘Ode to My Hearing Aids’ by Camisha L Jones. I will be comparing and contrasting the ways each poet uses various poetic techniques to communicate their ideas on the themes of life’s challenges and risk taking.

Both Hughes and Jones explore the themes of life’s challenges and risk taking, but Hughes uses metaphor to do so, Jones uses assonance. Firstly, Hughes uses metaphor in the quote “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair”. It is metaphorical because the quote means that life wasn’t easy or as clear as a crystal stair. Normally, a crystal stair seems shiny, perfect, clean and privileged. The speaker uses metaphor

Additionally, Hughes also uses metaphor to strengthen his message in another quote - “It’s had tacks in it, And splinters”. This quote conveys the theme of life’s challenges appropriately. It illustrates that throughout the mother’s life, it has had imperfections and “roughness”. It also figuratively implies that the path/road in her life was not soft and smooth. This quote is another example of a metaphor as it conveys an important message through the comparison of reality and an unrealistic standard. By these two quotes, it is clear that the poet's message/key idea about this theme is that life is not easy, and there are challenges, but we have to keep on persisting to reach our goal and “walk through the path of life”. In ‘Ode to My Hearing Aids’, Jones conveys a similar theme of life’s challenges - but by using assonance. The quotes “let there be overflow” and “the voices, the annoyances, the noise” accompany each other when conveying the main theme. The first quote shows the action that God takes to create lots of sound in the world, the second quote then shows that the result of the action was not a good one. The assonance helps to add a rhythm to the poem.The next few lines of the poem show

To start off, Hughes uses analogy in the quote “and sometimes goin’ in the dark, Where there ain’t been no light”. This shows analogy as it compares two similar things in reality that might not seem too close in relation. This means that the speaker eventually had to take risks in her life even where there was no assurance/hope or “light” in this sense. She also encourages her son to take risks. Furthermore, Hughes also uses colloquial language in the quote “So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps, ’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard”.This quote shows the theme of risk taking suitably. It again conveys that the mother is telling her son to resist, persevere and to take risks. She also tells him not to turn back or “set down on the steps” on every challenge just because he finds it hard. The colloquial language in this quote helps create an appropriate connection in the language used between a mother and her son. It helps to show the main theme in a different form of language. The poet’s idea about the theme is that we should always take risks in life and never turn back just because of one hard situation. In ‘Ode to My Hearing Aids’, Jones uses auditory imagery and pathos to convey the message of risk taking. First of all, the quote “phones ringing & plates clattering,