Langston Hughes Poems

The poem called I Look at the World by Langston Hughes takes a unique approach to show how people have insecurities and depression through poetry devices and symbols. It This particular poem is about an African American man realizing that he has been pushed into a corner. What he means is he feels that his freedom is limited because of the color of his skin. Even though this representation may be hard to understand at first glance, such as lines 13 and 14 where it says, “And I see that my own hands can make, the world that is in my mind.” Langston Hughes lived through the oppression that African American people were experiencing in the 50s and 60s. Therefore, he created “I Look at the World” to show how African Americans felt oppressed

One of the devices he uses is a symbol. Hughes takes the idea of a wall of oppression by using it as a way of explaining the divide between African American people and the Caucasian community through segregation. This wall is also used as a form of imagery to explain what this oppression not only feels like, but looks like as well. Another form of imagery used is when Hughes speaks of the man’s “fenced-off narrow space” (line 4). This brings to mind a house with a chain link fence around its

It has a rhyming scheme but the rhyming scheme isn’t very consistent. In the first two stanza’s, the 3rd and 5th line’s ending word rhymed together. Whereas, in the last stanza, the 2nd, 4th, and 6th line’s ending word all rhyme together. There is also a repetitive in the way it uses the phrase “I look.” The poem also takes on a rather somber approach to it because of the seriousness Hughes wants to convey. There is, however, no exact form or type of category it can be placed in. Therefore, it is a free verse poem. Lastly, the poem provides a good sense of shift. In the beginning, the poem is gloomy and sad because the African American man doesn’t feel in tune with society. Then, the shift comes and he decides that he isn’t going to be shaken by what his surrounding community thinks and is going to make the best of it and try to get other people to follow him in his stand against