Langston Hughes uses imagery in his poems in order to convey his ideas of hardships and difficulty people dealt with at his time. For example in the poem “The Backlash Blues” Hughes writes, “You give me second class houses/Seconds class schools/ Do you think colored folks/Are just second class fools?” (lines 4-8).
The main themes of Langston Hughes’ poetry is using simple language to bring his point across about politics and equality. The accessibility of his poetry allowed for, at a time where education was still a privilege and very much segregated, for people of every background to understand the message he was
One thing I would like to compare about these two very inspirational African Americans would be there sense of genuineness. Jesse Jackson talks about in his speech how he does not care who you are, what color you are, or who you love. He wanted to just help the people in need. He wanted to help the poor, the gays, and the colored. He wanted peace, and for people to all have insurance, while not being treated differently for not making as much money, being colored, or being gay.
The poem “Coal” written by Audre Lorde uses figurative language to elaborate on how words are open. Leaving the meanings open to interpretation for the reader. The poem “Harlem” created by Langston Hughes expounds the correlation between between dreams and objects that eventually fade in value. Using rhetorical questions to allow the reader to come to their own conclusion. Understanding the time period of which they’re written helps understand point of view of each poem more vividly.
First, they are written around the same time period and both about blacks being discriminated. Both the poems gave African Americans a little bit of hope that one day they will be allowed to be around whites and looked at as the same. These poems may be different, but they both have the same meaning. If anyone is going through a rough time in their life, they can overcome it. Blacks were treated terribly and went through some of the roughest times, but they never stopped fighting and never lost hope.
However, they use different strategies to show their perspective. Langston Hughes uses first person point of view and analogy. Sojourner Truth uses word choice and repetition. In the first place, the authors of the poem
Poems can be analyzed in various ways ranging from their complexity to the emotions they convey to readers. The poems, “The Weary Blues” by Langston Hughes and “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay will be analyzed based on their similarities and differences to name a few. The poems may describe different events; however the overall connection between the two can be identified by readers with deeper reading. Comparisons between the poems may easier to analyze and identify compared to the contrasts based on the reader’s perception. Overall, the concept and much more will reveal how the poems are connected and special in their own way.
Society was very unjust to not only African American people but to their cultures. One theme evident in most of Hughes poems is rhythmic beats and instruments. In The Cat and the Saxophone there is a certain beat that relates to Jazz culture. Hughes gained his inspiration from this culture which was suppressed at times. As Vogel explains “Hughes tried his best showing African American culture by adding Journal ideas to his poems” (“Closing time: Langston Hughes and the queer poetics of Harlem nightlife.”).
In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, he recalls a time from his childhood when he was at church. All the children of the church were being “saved” until he was eventually the last one who wasn’t. Feeling tired and pressured, Langston stood, declaring he had been saved. He felt horrible for lying, but the pressure placed upon him by the entire church outweighed the feeling of guilt. Similarly, people of all types experience a feeling similar to Langston’s; something called peer pressure.
Both poems shed light on the true feelings of African Americans everywhere and show that these people are tired of being treated differently and that these people know that things will change. Hughes’s poem has a laid back approach, almost expecting things to get better on their own. But Angelou’s poem is a bit more attacking. Instead of accepting that things are the way they are and that they’ll get better, Angelou tries to make her oppressors seem less oppressive to her and more scared of her by saying things such as “Do you want to see me broken” and “Does my sexiness offend
But they also both deal with choices and endurance of consequences from that choice. One of several particular elements in each of the stories that best emphasize the theme is the usage of figurative language in each text. Some of the different types of figurative language each author used is simile, personification, and metaphor’s. Another way that the author expressed the theme is in the story is the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. Whereas in the poem, the author used sort of a cause and effect scenario.
In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.
Cullen uses less visual description and more of a mental description. He pushes a happy feeling with a box of gold wrapped in a silken cloth and then makes the reader sad when he says that he has laid them away. Hughes and cullen both are descriptive but they don't describe in the same way. The poem by Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen are very different in the way they portray emotion, how they should be read and the way in which they are written but they are very similar in the main theme and that is
Some of the significant subjects were music, literature, poem, and art. The poets Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were some of the most influential poets from the renaissance. The poems “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes will be used to compare and show how two poems form the same era could be similar yet different based on their subject, purpose, style, tone, and rhythm. “I, Too” creates the world where people are treated equally. With so much discrimination and segregation occurring in the 20th century, it was a world that people wished for.
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.