Ballad of the Landlord

Ballad of the Landlord is about an African American tenant whose apartment is falling apart and doesn't want to pay the rent until the landlord fixes the problems. At the end of the poem, the landlord calls the police and they take him away to jail for refusing to pay the rent. The speaker in this poem is a poor African American tenant. He is angry that the landlord won't fix anything yet still wants him to pay the rent. I would characterize the speaker as someone who doesn't want to be cheated out of his money and wants to be treated fairly. The speaker reveals his true feelings about paying the rent in stanza four where it says, "Ten Bucks you say is due? Well, that's Ten Bucks more'n I'll pay you, will you fix this house up new." The language used in this poem is fairly easy to understand. The word "eviction" means to force out by legal process. This word contributes the most to the poem, because it makes the reader understand that the landlord is serious, and the disagreement isn't just between two neighbors. The imagery in the poem includes "You gonna take my furniture and Throw it in the street?" and "Copper's Whistle! Patrol Bell! Arrest." The images collectivly suggest that the landlord is being harsh on the speaker and will throw his furniture out and call the cops just to make him pay the rent. This poem uses figures of speech. It uses apostrophe when the speaker calls out, "Landlord, landlord." The poem doesn't use metaphor or simile; instead it tells the story straight forward. The apostrophe in this poem greatly contributes to the feeling and meaning. It shows that the tenant is telling the landlord these problems, and almost pleading or begging him to fix his apartment. One major detail of language that contributes to the poem is the dialect of the speaker. He uses the ebonics that are common among African Americans, such as "These steps is broken down." This shows that that tenant is probably poor and uneducated, so the landlord is taking advantage of him. There is no allegories used in this poem. The syntax that Langston Hughes uses in the poem is short sentences. The shortness of the speakers' sentences also displays that the tenant is possibly uneducated. The poems structure is set up into quatrains. Each stanza talks about one problem, such as the "leaky roof" or the "broken stairs." The third and fourth stanzas are where the speaker asks the landlord what he is going to do to him if he doesn't pay the rent. The last half of the poem talks about the consequences; the police coming and "taking the negro to the county jail." The poem rhymes with the A B A B pattern in each stanza. It uses repetition of "Landlord, landlord" to signify that the tenant is pleading with the landlord. The poem also shows several examples of alliteration, such as "landlord landlord, my roof has sprung a leak." The rhythm of the poem is consistent, until line 25, when it switches to triplets and the rhyme then changes to A B C D B C E F F. The poetic devices convey that the speaker is a poor uneducated negro by using things like ebonics and alliteration. I think there is only one theme in this poem; that a poor negro is being cheated out of his money by havbing to pay the rent on an unkept apartment. The theme is explicit, because it doesn't use any metaphors. The voice of the poem helps me to understand the poem the best, because I can understand who is speaking and what their situation is. The poem slightly contradicts my beliefs. I believe that the landlord has a duty to fix the apartments that he owns. But I also believe that the tenants should have to pay the rent, or they should be punished for it. Both people have to work together.