ipl-logo

How Did Langston Hughes Use Poetry During The Harlem Renaissance

557 Words3 Pages

Poetry During the Harlem Renaissance

Poetry was one of the most well-known and defining aspects of the Harlem Renaissance. Because the main themes of art during the Harlem Renaissance were the influence of slavery and racial pride, it should come as no surprise that poems developed from the Harlem Renaissance focused on these themes. African American poets utilized their poems as a way to portray the feelings of the African American race as a whole. An example of this is the work of Langston Hughes, one of the earliest innovators of jazz poetry and considered to be a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. One of the many poems that Langston Hughes wrote about the influence of slavery was The Negro Mother. According to Poemhunter.com, the speaker of The Negro Mother states “I am the woman who worked in the field …show more content…

I am the one who labored as a slave, Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave”. Langston Hughes uses the brutalities of slaveholders and overseers to describe the consequences of slavery on the current generation of African Americans. However, one of Hughes’ decisions that came close to destroying his career as a poet was when he decided to collaborate with the Soviet Union on a movie titled Black and White. Hughes and many African Americans had felt that the Soviet Union treated them as equals despite their skin color whereas the people of the United States would respect that African Americans had equal rights yet never cease to ridicule them. According to Jennifer Wilson, “It was this promise of a creative solidarity unhindered by racial segregation that propelled Thompson, Hughes and the cast to invest their hopes in ‘Black and White.’”. Despite the failure of the production of Black and White, other African American cast members decided that the Soviet Union was a better place to live in than the United States. Examples of writers and poets who thought this

Show More
Related
125 Words | 1 Pages

In his writing piece, “That Word Black” (1958), Langston Hughes accentuates the issue over the negative connotation of the term ‘black’, and how its usage associates black individuals with immoral concepts, implying that they are terrible people. By providing imagery, a series of examples of black’s adverse use, and juxtaposition between that of the white’s, the writer heightens pathos. Langston Hughes’ purposes is to reveal the abysmal correlation of the word ‘black’ in order to demonstrate the underlying racism and disparity between black and white people. Because the author uses AAVE to show the ethos and sincerness that he is a black person, and discusses an educational, racial topic, he appeals to the white people who hold a cultural stereotypes

Read More
153 Words | 1 Pages

According to this video, Langston Hughes was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. He was a pioneering African American poet, novelist, playwright, and social activist. In the 1920s in Harlem, New York, this cultural movement celebrated African American background, history and artistic expression. Langston Hughes's work focused on the struggles of black life in America. He did this by using jazz rhythms and colloquial language to show the joys and sorrows of the black community.

Read More
1057 Words | 5 Pages

Public and private acts of violence towards “coloreds” was not only the norm but justified. Langston Hughes addresses these issues in many of his works through the time period. Hughes’s poem, “Let America be America again” speaks volumes to the African American experience socially, economically and culturally; and his hope for America to transform. Langston Hughes writes, “O, let my land be a land where Liberty, is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, but opportunity is real, and life is free, equality is in the air we breathe (Hughes).” Throughout this piece of literature, Hughes’ continually confesses his desire for America to be as promised.

Read More
345 Words | 2 Pages

Both ideas collide as Hughes sees human agency as something that will be achieved with time, and Du Bois states that race is seen as a problem in America, even today making it hard for some races to get along and get around. The speaker in Hughes’ poem at the end states that “I, too, am America”, where Du Bois just wants the African American race to have a standpoint within the world, but it is too hard for them with the discrimination. This impact on race in America may have been a problem, but as it improved it could connect with Hughes and the reach for human agency. In “Poem for the Young White Man”, Lorna Dee Cervantes argues on the difficulty of managing a balance between race and human agency.

Read More
891 Words | 4 Pages

Whenever a group of like-minded people are allowed to congregate, it tends to be that the result of their collective minds leaves the world forever changed. Examples of this widespread of ideas can be found in the renaissance, the age of enlightenment, and most recently, the Harlem Renaissance. This marvellous movement was a time of great appreciation for African-American culture and heritage, which began in the slums of Harlem, New York, around 1920. This specific change in cultural tempo came about as less of a re-birth, and more of a first light for the brilliance of black poets who had been, and to some extent still were being, buried under the immense cover of the white majority in America. Each poet of this time contributed something unique and incredible to the rising movement, starting with a man named Langston Hughes.

Read More
505 Words | 3 Pages

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great diverse culture. However, the acts of segregation, discrimination, and inequality between blacks and whites was still very alive. Poets of the Harlem Renaissance used their voices and writing skills to send a message of the importance and desire for freedom and identity at the time. Three poems that used imagery to express these themes are “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” by Arna Bontemps, “I, Too” by Langston Hughes, and “Any Human to Another” by Countee Cullen.

Read More
1852 Words | 8 Pages

Serving as a chance for African Americans to develop their own cultural identity through music, art, poetry and more, the Harlem Renaissance instigated a newfound creativity among twentieth century black Americans. Motivated by politics, economics, and the need for more creativity in the African-American community, the Renaissance showcased inspiration from the community, whether from painters, musicians and theatrical performers, or from writers such as Langston Hughes. One of the foremost creators during the renaissance, Langston Hughes was lauded as “the poet laureate of Harlem” (Berry). Hughes used his voice to showcase black culture and racial pride to the greater American public without compromising his belief in “the low-down folks”

Read More
781 Words | 4 Pages

The modern African American, according to Hughes, feels the discrimination and hate against themselves just as their ancestors did, how they are ‘lynched still’ in the United States, which further connects past Africans to present African Americans (16). In addition to connecting the modern African American to their ancestors, this idea of unity among other modern African Americans can be felt with the commiseration due to the universal suffering from discrimination. Hughes wrote this poem in the 1920s, which, while a time of postwar celebration, still contained heavy racial tension and discrimination against African Americans. By contributing to the Harlem Renaissance and resisting the racial prejudice in this era of segregation, Hughes’ narrator in “Negro” also unifies isolated and downtrodden African Americans of the 1920s, and many African Americans today, through a universal pain felt in African Americans. The historical context and personification combined also emphasize the unity between African Americans of the 1920s through a universal understanding of pain and

Read More
1409 Words | 6 Pages

Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

Read More
501 Words | 3 Pages

Despite their age, gender, nationality, or color, artists are free to express themselves. The article “The Black Artist and the Race Mountain," by Langston Hughes, argues the value of black creative expression in the early 20th century. Hughes urges black artists to embrace their racial identity and use it to forge a distinct and genuine creative voice in this article as a response to the repression and suppression of black artists in society. Hughes's ideas went against prevailing conventions of his time and encouraged black artists to take charge of their artistic expression, they had a huge influence on artists of all racial and ethnic origins. “No great poet has ever been afraid of being [themself]”

Read More
2100 Words | 9 Pages

Many privileged people in America were still looking down at the black people and many young black poets writing reflects this. Langston Hughes “Let America Be America again”, tells us of the way the blacks wanted to be treated and how they were promised their America when the civil war ended and they were no longer slaves. In the poem the lines 31-35 speak of how black were still being treated, “I am the farmer, the bondsman to the soil, I am the worker sold to the machine. I am the Negro, servant to you all. I am the people, humble, hungry, mean-Hungry yet today despite the dream”.

Read More
529 Words | 3 Pages

But Hughes wasn’t using this to bash the blacks, he was using it to make people aware. He used black dialect, mixed with his rhythm of the blues in a way to present the emotional scenery of the urban black community. He loved the street life of the Harlem neighborhoods, and often he wrote people he met into his works. He wasn’t just speaking as himself anymore, he was speaking as his mother, as the weary man who lived on Lenox Avenue, he spoke as the house servant, he spoke as a brother, and he spoke as the Negro community.

Read More
480 Words | 2 Pages

Langston Hughes was one of these famous writers, in fact he was one of the most celebrated poets during the Harlem Renaissance. His poem “A Dream Deferred” talks about what occurs to a dream that is suppressed, as well as how that dream will either break free or “... dry up / like a raisin in the sun?” (2-3). Many African Americans, including Langston, realized that their civil rights were being quenched by Caucasians. Many African Americans were worried that this problem would “... fester like a sore-- / and then run?”

Read More
1089 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More
1413 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout much of his poetry, Langston Hughes wrestles with complex notations of African American dreams, racism, and discrimination during the Harlem Renaissance. Through various poems, Hughes uses rhetorical devices to state his point of view. He tends to use metaphors, similes, imagery, and connotation abundantly to illustrate in what he strongly believes. Discrimination and racism were very popular during the time when Langston Hughes began to develop and publish his poems, so therefore his poems are mostly based on racism and discrimination, and the desire of an African American to live the American dream. Langston Hughes poems served as a voice for all African Americans greatly throughout his living life, and even after his death.

Read More

More about How Did Langston Hughes Use Poetry During The Harlem Renaissance

Related Topics

Open Document