Comparison and Contrast of Two Poems Written by Langston Hughes - Research Paper Example

Comparison and Contrast of Two Poems Written by Langston Hughes Langston Hughes wrote poetry that expressed his experience as a black man from the South. He writes of home but with the knowledge of its deep flaws and harsh histories. In his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” he discusses his belongingness and place in history with indications of his connections to his origins. In “The South” he writes of his very flawed home, also discussing something of his origins in relationship to how he both loves and hates the place where he has grown into adulthood. Langston Hughes wrote meaningful poetry that speaks of the deep shadows that haunt American history. In a comparison of two poems by Langston Hughes race experiences in the South and in the United States are explored for themes of connection and disenfranchisement in the American experience. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” Hughes creates a discussion about origin and roots, placing himself in context with the flow of time and the nature of life. He discusses the great wonders that he and his ancestors raised, the concept of the river showing how time keeps flowing and that it connects all things to all people. The rivers that Hughes refers to in his poem are metaphors for a variety of different concepts. These include rivers of emotion, rivers of time, and possibly even rivers of human blood that is shed through oppressive belief systems and social constructions. It is the essence of connection that he chooses to focus this poem on as it relates how the rivers still exist just as he exists in a flow of generations through time. The rivers that are “ancient as the world and older than the flow/of human blood in human veins” can be a metaphor for the natural order of the world and how that is reflected in the actions of human beings. Human beings do terrible things to one another just as nature is a place of cruelty and death. Shuman writes about this second and third line that “It also connects all the people of the human race with the elemental sweep of natural forces” (742). The poem is about connection, even while it speaks of the ways in which people divide themselves. It is through division that Hughes created most of his works with the belief that race was inextricable from the identity. His work speaks of a natural order in which there is division and where oppression and dominance are a constant struggle. In a paper that he wrote about the idea of race and identity he made it clear that the concept of race was tied to history, oppression, poverty, and the individual identity in a way that could not be separated from art. For Hughes the disregard of race was a desire to be white and to act as if the world was defined by white values. He writes “Whereas the better-class Negro would tell the artist what to do, the people at least let him alone when he does appear. And they are not ashamed of him--if they know he exists at all. And they accept what beauty is their own without question” (Hughes). What Hughes seems to mean is that in creating something that reflects a life that is outside of what he calls the ‘common people’, the artist denies what is essential to his own identity. Cobb writes that “For black writers the imaginative expression of the African theme has had several dimensions. Among them have been the rejection of European cultural values and lament for a land that slavery has robbed blacks of” (44). In bitterness Hughes has written a poem that expresses his desire to be recognized for his culture as it is both connected and defined distinctly the white world. The poems that Hughes writes are steeped in the concept of his identity as it relates to the history of being black in the United States. He wrote during the first part of the 20th century when there was still strong belief systems in the idea of sub-human species and inferiority that divided the races into not just physical differences but species categories. It would have been very difficult to see beyond his race when his status in society was constantly in question for its humanity. In writing about the rivers that have traveled through history he is also writing about the perseverance of survival that even in the changing flow of time, there is no real change. Hughes wrote the poem when he was only seventeen, showing that his understanding of his position in the world was already deeply imbedded in his identity (Hughes, Rampersad, Roessel, and Lewis 2). The existence of ‘race’ will mutate, change and shift throughout the passage of time just as the river is always the same and at the same time never the same even as civilizations grow and diminish in its presence. Once again Hughes establishes his theme in the first two lines of his poem ‘The South’. Hughes takes the discussion of home and the horrors that have occurred in his home further as he discusses the South in the United States for both its beauty and its terrible history. He writes “The lazy, laughing South/With blood on its mouth.” describing both a happy place and a place that still has what is left of devouring his culture on its metaphoric lips (Rampersad and Hughes 26) . Langston establishes that he uses the first two lines of his poem to establish what he is thinking. Smith quotes Langston has having said “Generally the first two or three lines come to me from something I’m thinking about, or looking at, or doing, and the rest of the poem (if there is to be a poem) flows from those first few lines, usually right away” (43). Just as he has establishes his theme of the flow of rivers and connectivity in the first poem discussed, he establishes the theme of both the beauty and horror of the South in this poem. Langston speaks in terms of generations in both poems. When he speaks of the rivers he is talking about the flow of generations as they connect to one another, building and growing human experience as one generation flows into the next. In ‘The South’, however, he is speaking of his love affair with the beauty of the South but that it has rejected him. In order to protect his children he must go to the North where it is cold, but safe. He writes: But she turns her back upon me.     So now I seek the North--     The cold-faced North,     For she, they say,     Is a kinder mistress, And in her house my children May escape the spell of the South (Rampersad and Hughes 26) Hughes speaks of how he desires a place in what he remembers of the beauty of the South but from which he has been rejected. It could be interpreted in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” that he has made a claim to belong, but in “The South” he has declared that he has been rejected. It is interesting how he creates gender in “The South” through defining the North and the South as women who either reject or accept him. There is no gender in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, even though the narrator has the tone of being a male and is Hughes speaking. In “The South” he creates the idea of women without virtue for both the North and the South which suggests that neither has his real respect, but where one rejects him and is diseased the other is kind and allows him to raise his children in his house. Sexualizing the two regions creates a deeper discourse on bias, bringing his own bias about the nature of women into a discussion about those biases that have rejected him. His venom against the South and the way in which it has rejected him is clear in the objectification of women who have been disenfranchised from the human experience in the poem. Even the mother of his children is disconnected from the narrative as ‘his’ children are raised in the house of his ‘mistress’, which is the North. In comparing the two poems the themes as they relate to Hughes’ sense of identity are both rich and explicit. Hughes makes his metaphors clear as he shows his sense of identity that he experiences in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and in “The South”. In contrast, however, he shows his connectivity in the first poem, while in the second he shows that he feels rejected and disconnected from what he remembers of home in the South. He establishes in his writings that his race is a central theme to his identity and does not believe that anyone who is black can exist in a world of truth without expressing their race in their art. His work supports his beliefs and shows how his experiences in a world that rejects him based on the arbitrariness of race. Works Cited Cobb, Martha. ‘Martha Cobb on the Black Artist’s Expression of African Themes’, in Harold Bloom (Eds) Langston Hughes. Broomall, Pa: Chelsea House Publ, 1999, pp. 44-47. Print Hughes, Langston The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain. The Nation. 1926. Web. 19 February 2013. Hughes, Langston, Arnold Rampersad, David Roessel, and Earl B. Lewis. The Negro Speaks of Rivers. New York: Disney, 2009. Print. Rampersad, Arnold and Langston Hughes. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: First Vintage Classic Editions, 1994. Print. Shuman, Robert B. Great American Writers, Twentieth Century. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2002. Print. Smith, Raymond. ‘Raymond Smith on Influences in Hughes’ Poems’, in Harold Bloom (Eds) Langston Hughes. Broomall, Pa: Chelsea House Publ, 1999, pp. 43-44. Print. Read More