The poem that garnered my interest is “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”‚ authored by Langston Hughes. Hughes was one of the first black men to support himself through writing. The afore-mentioned is a huge deal‚ considering the timeframe Hughes was brought up in. Langston Hughes was born in Joplin‚ Missouri‚ on February 1st‚ 1902‚ and died on May 22‚ 1967‚ in New York‚ New York. It was always an uphill battle for Hughes in the writing world‚ due to all of the slavery issues and racial rights involving
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The poem‚ “Love Song for Lucinda” by Langston Hughes is about love and what it takes to be in love. Hughes uses a lot of metaphors and only three stanzas to talk about love in the poem. In the first stanza his poem states‚ “And the spell of its enchantment / Will never let you be” (5-6). Hughes puts this in his poem because love is supposed to always be there‚ and isn’t supposed to die. You are supposed to fall so in love that you are almost under a spell‚ and you can’t see which way is up. In the
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American poet and social activist Langston Hughes is renowned for his unique depictions of African American life in the United States throughout the 1900s. Through his work he portrays the sadness‚ happiness‚ and love in their culture. Hughes once said‚ “We Negro writers‚ just by being black‚ have been on the blacklist all our lives. Censorship for us begins at the color line.” In other words‚ his and other African American writers’ work was criticized simply because of their ethnicity‚ so they
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The poem discusses Hughes’ background and identity as a person of mixed race‚ a white father and a black mother. To go about how he feels about it‚ he uses both literal and implied definition of words. When he states that “My old man’s a white old man” and “And my old mother’s black” he simply states his parents’ identity. He uses the literal definitions of the words “white” and “black” and describes his parents with color and no other way. The title of the poem‚ “Cross‚” however‚ can be used to
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Harlem Analysis Langston Hughes short poem‚ “Harlem‚” seeks to understand what happens to a dream when it is put on hold. Hughes uses vivid imagery and similes to make an effort to describe what the consequences are to a dream that is lost. He attempts to bring to the attention the life of a Negro and how so many dreams are put off to the side because of prejudice against African Americans. The tone‚ imagery‚ and diction of Langston Hughes poem‚ “Harlem‚” will be discussed in this paper. “Harlem”
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My poem will imitate “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes. The context of my re-written poem is gender inequality‚ whereas Hughes is racial inequality. My Poem explores the hardships women have to face and how they still stay determined. This has led me to my thematic statement of “despite the challenges in life‚ females need to stay determined and fight for equality in order to achieve their goals”. I have a personal connection to this poem because as a female I have to overcome many challenges and
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Dreams “Hold fast to dreams/ For if dreams die /Life is a broken-winged bird/ That cannot fly.” There are many ways to interpret Langston Hughes in this poem‚ but it is clear that he is saying that we‚ as people‚ need dreams to keep on going. Throughout this unit‚ we have seen many different cases in which dreams can come true‚ even if not all of them do. While dreams can seem truly impossible to accomplish‚ they are worth pursuing because it gets through the days of hopelessness‚ there is lot to
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Compare and Contrast Essay In Theme for English B‚ Langston Hughes shows that even though the student is black and his instructor is white‚ they are both similar. For example‚ Hughes wrote‚ "you are white.-yet a part of me‚ as i am a part of you." (Mc Dougal Littell 468) Hughes is stressing that even though they have different skin colors‚ we are the same inside. On the other hand the writer has a completely different theme from the english B. The theme for The Writer‚ Richard Wilber shows that
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you imagine what it looked like to be there with the writer. In his short story “Salvation‚” Langston Hughes uses this part of narration to describe the elderly of his church. “A great many old people came and knelt around us and prayed‚ old women with jet-black faces and braided hair‚ old men with work-gnarled hands.” Even this small description is enough to help a reader start to put themselves in Hughes’ shoes. Visualization is the beginning of understanding another
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In Lorraine Hansberry’s play‚ A Raisin in the Sun‚ she tells the value and purpose of dreams and how oftentimes dreams do get deferred. Hansberry got the title for the play based off of Langston Hughes’ famous poem A Dream Deferred. The language Hansberry uses reflects the deeper meaning of Hughes’ poem. Although the Younger women have lived in the same apartment for generations‚ they each face their unique trials and tribulations. Mama is faced with the decision of how to spend the money she received
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