Grew Older Diction

432 Words2 Pages

“ Help me shatter this darkness ” is a quote from As I Grew Older, by langston Hughes. The poem explains how difficult it was for the author to reach his dream. His dream kept getting farther or there would be an obstacle standing between him and his dream. Langston Hughes used imagery, syntax to catch the attention of his readers and paint a picture of the poem. Imagery was added in very well into Langston Hughes’s poem As I Grew Older. In his poem, he painted pictures of what he went through. Langston Hughes explained very well how he was trying to get to his dream but had some obstacles to go through. Some of the obstacles he had to face was getting through the wall. Langston Hughes said that he was in the darkness and he needed to break a wall to get into the light, which was where his dream was. Langston Hughes painted a clear picture of his obstacles. Syntax is very important because it separates the sentences and stanzas. Some examples of syntax in the poem where the commas he …show more content…

In the beginning of the poem there are sad, depressing words like shadow, dark and forgotten. A few of the uplifting words toward the end. For example sun, bright, dream and light. The diction of the poem varies from positive to negative throughout the whole poem. Langston Hughes had a short range of word choice. Many words were repeated in the poem like shadow, walls, sun, rose, and dark. As I Grew Older, by Langston Hughes, is a great poem that can capture a reader’s attention with imagery, syntax, and diction that is used throughout the poem. Langston Hughes used Imagery, syntax and diction in his poem to explain the challenge of overcoming many obstacles in order to reach his dream. This poem, although it was sad and depressing, became very uplifting towards the end as he found a way to break through the darkness and reach his dream in the