Essay On Lucille Clifton's Poetry

“Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.” By Lucille Clifton. Poets, Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou wrote poetry based on their experiences in life and during their own time period. Langston Hughes was a social activist and a poet, he wrote about his personal experiences and is the author of “Dreams” and “Mother to Son.” Maya Angelou, the author of “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” and “Still I rise” was a civil rights activist and her poetry was mainly about autobiography, in connection with her life story. “Still I rise” , “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”, “Mother to Son”, and “Dreams” are being analyzed, showing similarities and differences between the poems. Each poem is trying to tell us about how racial segregation
affected the poet’s life. The poems all have a story and express their emotions through writing poems. Poetry expresses meaning behind their words.
Hughes’s poem “Mother to son” is a mother talking to her son about her struggles in life but she continued to persevere, he uses metaphor to compare her trials in life to stairs. His other poem “Dreams” is a short poem that uses metaphor to compare a broken-winged bird to a dream that has been let go. The poem is referring to how letting go of your dreams is just like giving up on life. Angelou’s poem, “Still I rise” talks about the people who tried bringing her down but she continued to come back up. Poetic devices such as repetition, simile, and metaphor were used throughout the poem.“I know why the caged bird sings” also written by Angelou talks about her past experiences about racism and segregation, in addition to this symbolism and metaphor were used in this poem. The poems that were analyzed are similar to each other in many
ways. Each of the poems, by Angelou and Hughes resemble each other because of the elements and devices used in the poems.
Angelou’s poem, “Still I rise” and Hughes’s poem “Mother to son” share common comparisons. In “Still I rise”, she says, “I rise” meaning she continues to get back up even after all the negative force pushing her back down. In “Mother to Son”, the mother says, “I’se still climbin’,” she actually means that even though life is tough you shouldn’t let it bring you down and continue to move forward. The two poems resemble each other because they explain that even with the negative forces, they continue to “rise” or “climb” and not give up. Both poems are in first person point of view and they wrote it as if they were talking to a specific person(s). In “Mother to son” the mother is talking to her son, “Well, son” and in “Still I rise” “you” are the negative force or the people who tried to bring her down. The mood for the two poems are alike because both are empowering. The phrase, “don’t you turn back” is said by the mother because she is trying to motivate her son to not give up. The speaker in “Still I rise” says, “Still I’ll rise” this gives an empowering and motivational mood because even after all the negative surroundings she continues to stay optimistic. Yet the poems that were presented are alike in many ways but they also differ from each
other. Hughes’s poem “Dreams” and Angelou’s “Still I rise” contrast from each other because of the literary devices used in the poems. In “Dreams” Hughes only uses metaphor to compare two things in the poem, on the contrary Angelou uses simile. “Life is a broken-winged bird”, Hughes is comparing life to broken-winged bird if dreams die. “But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” Angelou uses simile to and compares herself to dust. In Hughes’s poem, “Dreams” there is no specific point of view because there are no “I, we, she, her, him, he, they, or it.” Unlike “Dreams”, “Still I rise” is a first person point of view because of, “My and I.” The mood for both poems contrast, one is empowering and motivational mood while the other poem is unemotional. The phrase “But still I rise” is motivational and contrasts with the phrase “life is a barren” from the poem “Dreams”, barren means unemotional and gives a cold mood. Each poem differs from each other whether be it the mood or the literary devices used by the poet. The poems “Still I rise”, “Dreams”, “I know why the caged bird sings”, and “Mother to son” share similar themes and stories. Hughes and Angelou’s poetry were about experiences of racism and struggles they had to face in life. The mood for each poem differed, one would be pessimistic while the other was optimistic. Each poem used different ways of literary devices such as metaphor and simile. Each poem was analyzed, compared and contrasted, they were used to show that the poems were written to explain how both of the authors lives were affected by their surroundings. Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes expressed their emotions about their experiences through poetry. Robert Frost once said, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thoughts and the thought has found its words.”

Works Cited

Angelou, Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, 1970. Print.
Angelou, Maya. Still I Rise. New York: Random House, 1978. Print.
Hughes, Langston. Dreams. Oak Park, IL: A.P. Kennedy, Jr., 1992. Print.
Hughes, Langston, and Martin Wittfooth. Mother to Son ; Harlem Night Song. Oakville, Ont.: Rubicon, 2009. Print.