Preview

Langston Hughes Poems Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
592 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Langston Hughes Poems Analysis
Langston Hughes purpose of these sets of poems was to outline the current condition for African Americans at that time, and also to display his desires and present the ideal conditions for African Americans. Below are several of his poems that has symbology and reflects and demonstrates his desires and ideals.

In my opinion, Dream Variations demonstrates Hughes desire for African Americans to be able to enjoy the pleasures of life as white people did. When he says “to whirl and to dance till the white day is done” he is speaking of being able to be free, dancing and “flinging your arms” is demonstrative of freedom and an open expression of freedom. Then be able to rest at night and have a sense of peace of mind, knowing that African Americans have the same opportunities that White Americans experienced.

In Hughes’s poem Prayer Meeting, he displays a sense of hope and longing for improvement in African Americans lives and wanted African Americans to be free from oppression. “Glory! Hallelujah! The dawn’s a-comin” demonstrates that freedom from oppression is on the horizon and that African Americans should rejoice. The setting of this poem in religion also demonstrates a sense of hope since religion is often sought after to achieve a sense of hope.

In Song of the Revolution, this poem uses the symbology of the American Revolution as another call for freedom from oppression, however this is freedom from the oppression of White America. “Marching like fire over the world, weaving from the earth its bright red banner” uses fire as a symbol for hope and courage and the use of a red banner as conviction and steadfastness. In the third stanza, which states “Breaking the bond of the darker races, breaking the chains that have held for years, breaking the barriers dividing the people, smashing the gods of terror and tears” This stanza serves as a call to arms for African Americans. This stanza is less symbolic and cryptic than the others. “smashing the gods of
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks Of Rivers
    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis Of Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks Of Rivers

    Langston Hughes was considered one of the principal and prominent voices of Harlem Renaissance during the 1920s and 1930s. His poetry encompasses heterogeneity of subject matters and motifs concerning working African-Americans who were excluded and deprived of power. His choice of theme was accentuated and manifested through the convergence of African-American vernacular and blues forms. My attempt is to analyze the implications of the most significant poems by first introducing the author, examining the relevance of the poems and then, contrast them with Richard Wright’s antagonistic perspective.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analyzing W.E.B Dubois Langston Hughes and Richard Wright
    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Analyzing W.E.B Dubois Langston Hughes and Richard Wright

    Langston Hughes advocates for the negro artist to be themselves and express individuality. He preaches this message because he believes the negro artist should be confident and not have to question who they are or what they represent. Hughes wrote in the 1920’s which was the Harlem Renaissance, so in a time in which African American art was becoming popular I believe this is an important message. “One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, I want to be a poet--not a Negro poet, meaning, I believe, I want to write like a white poet; meaning subconsciously, I would like to be a white poet; meaning behind that, I would like to be white."…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Langston Hughes Contribution To The American Voice
    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Langston Hughes Contribution To The American Voice

    Hughes’ writings generally focused on African-Americans and the opportunities that they deserved to have. In “Let America be America Again”, Hughes believes “there’s never been equality for me, nor freedom in this homeland of the free” (Hughes 14-15) and if he did not do anything to try and change that then he failed the goal that he set. America as a country was created on the basis that all men shall be equal, however African-Americans did not share that right. In the same poem, Hughes said that he wanted for the people to “Let America be America again / Let it be the dream it used to be.” (Hughes…

    • 776 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Harlem Langston Hughes Analysis
    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Harlem Langston Hughes Analysis

    This short poem is one of Hughes’s most famous works; it is likely the most common Langston Hughes poem taught in American schools. Hughes wrote "Harlem" in 1951, and it addresses one of his most common themes like the limitations of the American Dream for African Americans. The poem has eleven short lines in four stanzas, and all but one line are questions.In the early 1950s, America was still racially segregated. African Americans were saddled with the legacy of slavery, which essentially rendered them second-class citizens in the eyes of the law, particularly in the South.Hughes was intimately aware of the challenges he faced as a black man in America, and the tone of his work reflects his complicated experience. He can come across as sympathetic, enraged, and hopeful. Hughes titled this poem “Harlem” after the New York neighborhood that became the center of the Harlem Renaissance, a major creative explosion in music, literature, and art that occurred during the 1910s and 1920s. Many African American families saw Harlem as a sanctuary from the frequent discrimination they faced in other parts of the country. Unfortunately, Harlem’s glamour faded at the beginning of the 1930s when the Great Depression set in that left many of the African American families who had flourished in Harlem…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did Langston Hughes Contribute To The Harlem Renaissance
    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How Did Langston Hughes Contribute To The Harlem Renaissance

    The Harlem Renaissance and personal experiences, being main inspirations, motivated Hughes to take new and creative approaches such as folk and jazz poetry. Langston Hughes was a voice that got across the unfair treatment and limited opportunities that many African Americans experienced throughout their lifetime.…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Literary Critique of Langston Hughes Essay Example
    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Literary Critique of Langston Hughes Essay Example

    Langston Hughes's writing showcases a variety of themes and moods, and his distinguished career led his biographer, Arnold Rampersad, to describe him as "perhaps the most representative black American writer." Many of his poems illustrate his role as a spokesman for African American society and the working poor. In others, he relates his ideas on the importance of heritage and the past. Hughes accomplishes this with a straightforward, easily understandable writing style that clearly conveys his thoughts and opinions, although he has frequently been criticized for the slightly negative tone to his works.…

    • 847 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Langston Hughes
    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Langston Hughes

    The Harlem Renaissance was a huge cultural movement for the culture of African Americans. Embracing the various aspects of art, many sought to envision what linked black peoples’ relationship to their heritage and to each other. Langston Hughes was one of the many founders of such a cultural movement. Hughes was very unique when it came to his use of jazz rhythms and dialect in portraying the life of urban blacks through his poetry, stories, and plays. By examining 2 poems by Langston Hughes, this essay will demonstrate how he criticized racism in Harlem, New York.…

    • 1048 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Langston Hughes Poetry Analysis
    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Langston Hughes Poetry Analysis

    From my point of view I felt Hughes put more of his focus on the importance of culture. He wanted the present day african-americans to be proud of their culture. For one he states numerous times where he has witnessed people denying their own racial identity. We hear about this when he tells us about a time a young poet told him “I want to be a poet--not a negro poet”(para 1). As we read on we…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Did Langston Hughes Impact Society
    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages

    How Did Langston Hughes Impact Society

    This research paper has been conducted to evaluate James Langston Hughes, a man revered for his powerful words written and vocal view, his contributions into Harlem Renaissance as well as his effects on today’s American Society. Langston Hughes was a significant presence through the Harlem Renaissance which was the coming up of all African-American arts from jazz to poetry that all dealt with hardships of the community. Additionally, he brought power to the today’s point of view, how African-Americans lived, and with simple words he made them strikingly strong and made them loud enough for the world to hear through his poems and writings. One could argue that his literary works helped shape American literature and politics significantly.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis
    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Let America Be America Again By Langston Hughes: Poem Analysis

    Throughout the poem, Hughes “Pleads for fulfillment of a Dream that never was” (Presley). Hughes discusses what America is supposed to mean, but then states “It was never America to me” (189). It was never America for him because the moral beliefs and social liberties that are granted by simply being American did not apply to him because of his race. However, the social neglect does not only apply to the African American community, but to all communities that are not deemed as the upper class white American community. Therefore, Hughes presents that “The American Dream is bruised and often made a travesty for Negroes and other underdogs” (Presley). Hughes writes “I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars. I am the red man driven from the land. I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek” (190). As Hughes ironically depicts, the American Dream built upon the hopes of foreigners and American minorities should be remanded to the Rich White Male Reality, for they are the sole group that can attain such dream in America. The majority of America, poor farmer, African Americans, Native American, and immigrants from all around the world, are stepped on and pushed to the side so that the minority can reach success and attain the glory that beams with the American…

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Jamell Grimes 1

    • 1858 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Jamell Grimes 1

    Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, and novelist who also was the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He was well-known for his poetry in the early 20th century, in which most of his work reflected the oppression experienced by blacks in the south. Such as poems “crossed” and “song from a dark girl”, in which the two poems are similar in tone, language, and symbolism. The tone in both poems are of distress and confusion which derived from the discrimination towards blacks in the early 1900’s. Both poems expresses a great amount of sorrow due unjust racial discrimination imposed on blacks at the time. Lines such as “they hung my black lover” and “I wonder where I’m gone die, being neither white or black” exemplifies the distressfulness in the tone of both poems. In the poem “a song for a black girl” a African American girl expresses her sorrow over her dead black lover, who was hung, which we can assume was done by whites; because of the racial discrimination and segregation between blacks and whites in the south. Similar to the distress the author of the poem “cross” is experiencing, in which the writer is “mixed” with a white father and black mother. The author is angry and confused about his racial identity because of the heavy racial basis and segregation in the south, placing him in a purgatory area, not knowing if he’ll die as a white man or black man.…

    • 1858 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes Compare and Contrast
    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes Compare and Contrast

    Langston Hughes, in his poem “The Weary Blues“, he puts forth images of African-Americans, jazz music, and many more topics that have been a part of his life. These elements are what influenced him, and shows it in the works that he has written. He uses jazz and blues styles for subjects and for structure in this piece of literature. In Hughes' poetry, he would try to bring out the sound, cadence, and rhythms from blues and jazz music. He would also use humor, loneliness, and despair, to imitate the sound of blues and jazz music with words. Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language…

    • 327 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    I Too Sing America Again Analysis
    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages

    I Too Sing America Again Analysis

    Langston Hughes, a famous author in the early 1900’s, depicted what the times were like in regards to copious amounts of controversies over race and the hardships that America was experiencing. Three of his poems, “I, Too, Sing America”, “Let America Be America Again”, and “Dream Deferred”, all reflect these struggles.…

    • 348 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Harlem Renaissance Outline
    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Harlem Renaissance Outline

    Langston Hughes believed that black artists should focus on the widespread and create individual “Negro” art. He famously wrote about the period that “the negro was in vogue”. Considered among the greatest poets in U.S. history, Hughes was one of the earliest innovators of jazz poetry, poetry that “demonstrates jazz-like rhythm”. His works often portrayed the lives of middle class African Americans. Hughes was a proponent of creating distinctive “Negro” art and not falling for the “urge within the race toward whiteness”…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Langston Hughes Definition Of The American Dream
    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Langston Hughes Definition Of The American Dream

    In Langston Hughes poem “I, Too, Sing America” he taps into the the American dream from a slave’s point of view. His poem is about an equal America and an America where whites weren’t seen superior to African Americans. He is assertive that is he also an American and that it is just as much his country. He envisions and believes in a more hopeful future and says…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics