Since the poem is a Blues, the phonological structure of the text is of great importance and at the same time it cannot be expected to find many regularities. This assumption can be validated at first glance: There is no veritable rhyme scheme. On the other hand, there two dysillabic internal rhymes {\tql}bunch, hunch{\tqr} (l.1) and {\tql}sputter, gutter{\tqr} (l.2-3). Still the author uses a lot of other sound patterns as for example Alliteration, Consonance, Assonance and Onomatopoeia. For each only one or two examples are given due to their high occurrence. Alliterations can be found in the sixth line: {\tql}\underline{p}ass \underline{p}estilence{\tqr} or the seventh:{\tql}\underline{b}ent, \underline{b}lack{\tqr}. The two internal rhymes …show more content…
G.E. Clarke often uses syntactic rhetorical figures for they provide adequatly to the Genre of Blues. The Asyndeton is applied when words or phrases succeed one another without conjoining them. For example, the first stanza is only one sentence where the happenings on the street are listed and ten commas and semicolons are used to seperate all the information. This feature continues in the second and third stanza although less incisive. Another example is to be found in line 14 {\tql}and cry beautiful darkness --{\tqr} where an abrupt cessation of the sentence is aplied which is called Aposiopesis. The application of these figures expressly underline its impact on the semantics of this poem: It disrupts the flow of reading and thus again is connected to the method of \textit{Syncopation} and strengthens its position as a Blues poem. However, on a more subtle level the use of these figures underscores the tension and the emotional atmosphere of the situation the poem depicts. It appears that the lyric I is taking stock of its surroundings and happenings that accompany the course of the timespan that the poem claims for itself. Last yet certainly not least are the semantic and rhetorical figures or the imagery, of which only the most important will be studied due to reasons of space. The most meaningful simile is written in line 7: {\tql}The harbour crimps \underline{like} a bent, black cripple{\tqr}. Here, the harbour is likened to a {\tql}bent, black cripple{\tqr} who combines two social minority groups, namely cripples and black people. It is clear that the harbour is 'squeezed' and 'curled', albeit it is in 'frail health' like a 'cripple', too\footnote{ Frail health also matches the picture of the harbour that is depicted in the first stanza}. The adjective {\tql}black{\tqr} is ambiguous: It may represent the
(European Graduate School) In Sonny’s Blues Baldwin shows both his influence of from Black people and drug addiction to the loneliness that situations create and how isolation occurs during troubling times. Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin is a story of struggle and redemption through others. James Baldwin uses the narrator the story from a first person point of view which leads to a sense of disorientation in the reader and contributes to the stories theme of forgiveness.
In Sonny’s final concert scene in James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, music allows Sonny and his audience to move from suffering to freedom. Throughout the story, suffering is present in all the characters. Living on “the vivid killing streets” (490) of Harlem, two brothers, Sonny and the narrator, were raised in an environment where pain took most of their childhood. Sonny and his brother grew up to see their mom and dad die when they were still children. The narrator’s daughter “died and suffered” of polio as a two year old girl.
(5 & 6) The poem is 46 lines, one stanza and flows like a song or is conversational. Alliteration used is the “s” and “b” sounds in phrases “I snapped beans into the silver bowl” (1), “that sat on the splintering slats” (2) and “about sex, about
The controlling image of the poem is a simile: the comparison of blackberries and words. Each element of the simile, however,
Since the 20th century , the slavery has been broadly understood as forced labor. Slavery an based on a relationship of submission where one person sees another person and can exact from that person labor. African American got very hard time because they were seen as less than other people through their skin color and culture or low material. As they did not took their civil rights like other civil. From the 1600s, African Americans were treated as slaves for white people.
Sonny’s Blues incorporates racial frustration, self-expression, avoidance, lightness/darkness and symbolic nature of music. Baldwins descriptive mental images gives readers a sense of the time frame the characters are in. With our understanding of the setting we are able to understand how life was like in the 1940s and why the theme of racism plays a factor in these characters lives. Through this short story Baldwin manages to show pain ,and hardships and the journey that is needed to transcend from
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin is a short story that has many significant parts to it. The narrator gives readers insight on how his relationship with his brother was like, how his brother was suffering from a heroin addiction. The narrator also gives the readers insight on his own problems. Due to Sonny’s heroin addiction, he suffered quite a lot as what was implied in the story. The narrator implies and describes so many themes in this short story.
There are many ways that symbolism is used to show things that are unique to each story that James Baldwin writes including “Sonny’s Blues”. The main symbolism surround music. One thing that it symbolizes is hope. Music gives Sonny hope that he can travel away from Harlem and those who doubt what he can do using blues music and his piano skills. This is not just used as symbolism in the story, but in what was really happening during this time.
Form Blues songs use a twelve-bar form, twelve measures, in a 4/4-time signature, four beats per measure. The reason as to why Blue songs use the twelve-bar with a 4/4-time signature is because it is simple to listen to, play, and sing. The twelve-bar form can be divided in to three groupings of four bars to form a verse, this is known as a AAB form, Blues common song structure. The AAB is simple to understand, both the first four bars, measures one through four, and the next four, measures five through eight, are the same with little to no change between them thus why they are called A; while the last four, measures nine through twelve, are different from the earlier measures thus being called B. The AAB form allows for a call-and-response inside the song allowing for A being the call, and B being the response. The 4/4-time signature is simplistic and versatile, because it has four beats per measure which can be divided into two or more chords.
The literary device that seems ubiquitous in this poem is alliteration. The first one found in lines 633-634, “ still brave, still strong/ And with his shield at his side, and a mail shirt on his breast.” The “S” sound is repeated. Another example of alliteration shown is on lines 717-718.
“His hard legs and yellow-nailed feet threshed slowly through the grass, not really walking, but boosting his shell along”(14). These symbols, likely personification or animal imagery, that induce pathos on the reader feel almost as if
is written in iambic pentameter with heroic rhyming couplets. However, there are several instances in which Wheatley deviates from her original rhyme scheme. Naturally, this makes those particular sentences stand out when reading. For instance, Wheatley writes: “And may the charms of each seraphic theme Conduct thy footsteps to immortal fame!” (lines 11-12) and calls Moorhead’s paintings “deathless glories (line 8).
Regardless of this, the poem is famous for its unique rhythm and meter of poem. The poem flows very smoothly but does not have a specific poetic foot. Consonances were used to help the rhyme scheme sound more pleasing to readers. The poets diction was exclusive and out of the ordinary.
Blues music as a genre and form was developed by African Americans in the south of the United States at the end of the 19th century. The genre has origins in many cultures such as in African music, African-American work songs and European-American folk music. Blues music incorporates field hollers, shouts, chants, etc. The blues form, found in jazz, rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is characterized by the call-and-response pattern, and also the twelve-bar blues structure, which is the most common feature. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times.
Biography/Context: Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is widely considered as one of the most successful African-American poets of all time. He was also a columnist, playwright, novelist, and social activist for African-American rights. Consequently, Hughes wrote all sorts of literature about 20th century African-Americans living in Harlem--a major black residential within the Manhattan borough of New York City--and soon became an extremely influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the rebirth movement of African-American culture in the arts during the 1920s. Hughes also had great admiration for music, and was inspired by a variety of genres/musicians such as boogie, Bach, jazz, and blues. His special love for blues music caused