Langston Hughes Poems Analysis - Essay Example

Your Number 12 May 2007 Langston Hughes Langston Hughes was a member of the New Negro Renaissance, agroup of black writers living in Harlem in the late 1920s, which eventually gave birth to the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Missouri in 1902, Hughes's love of writing became apparent early in life. His first poem was published in 1921; he published his first collection, The Weary Blues, when he was twenty-three. Embracing his culture, he "steeped himself in the language, music, and feeling of the common people of Harlem. Proud of his folk heritage, Hughes made the spirituals, blues, and jazz the bases of his poetic expression" (Lauter 1611). Reading his poetry, it's easy to hear the musical rhythm of the meter and the rhyme. Langston Hughes was also a tireless voice for social change and civil rights. Himself the victim of racism, he kept an open mind and a quick sense of humor. His poetry, read chronologically, can show the development of his perspective on race and class relations in America, from optimistic, to revolutionary, to frustrated. The poem "I, Too" represents a powerful statement of hope for equality. This short poem expresses the state of dark-skinned people in America, and his belief that the situation will naturally improve due to the inherent wisdom of human nature. He represents race relations with a domestic metaphor, saying "They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes" (Lauter 1618), as if black men are merely unattractive members of the household, a problem to be hidden away from the neighbors, although they too are America. However, the speaker can still maintain a positive attitude in the face of discrimination, and the short lines express mirth and quick wit in their staccato beats. Hughes hypothesizes that he will "laugh, And eat well, And grow strong" (Lauter Lauter 1618) at which point no one will be able to keep him away from the banquet that is freedom in America. His dream for the future, that black people will be embraced by their country, is obvious, but at this point in his career, he does not believe that force will be required. At the poem's end, he adds, "They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed-" (Lauter 1618). From this perspective, he feels that hatred can be reversed with love, and that white Americans will simply open their eyes and recognize the folly of prejudice. The poem unrolls just as simply as the solution, sounding as natural as if the words were spoken in conversation; if not for the line breaks, it would read like prose. Later, he wrote the darker and angrier poem, "The Same," which also discusses the plight of people of color, but now the scope is larger and the hope for peaceful transition is fainter. The offense is no longer so petty as being made to sit in the kitchen when company comes. Instead, he points out that to be black anywhere in the world is to be "Exploited, beaten, and robbed, Shot and killed" (Lauter 1615) and it is no longer a matter of not being seen clearly. Now he understands that the cycle of violence is not simply a misunderstand, but part of a vast economic system that represses minorities "For the wealth of the exploiters-" (Lauter 1615). This poem uses repetition and lists to make its point about exploitation. He repeats the place names where people are being oppressed by different industries, and he repeats the lists of currencies for which they are oppressed. The word that is repeated most often in this poem is "blood," which sets the tone. The image is that of blood being stolen from the poor. It currently runs into the coffers of the rich, but he suggests that it should more appropriately run into "the deep channels of Revolution" (Lauter 1615) and the poem becomes a call to revolution. The voice tells "the Red Armies of the International Proletariat Their faces, black, white, olive, yellow brown, Unite" (Lauter 1616) showing a shift in tone from earlier work. Now he sees all oppressed people as one, regardless of race, and incites them to band together against the forces of greed he now believes to be the greatest oppressor of all. But later in his life, Hughes seemed to give up on the idea of organized revolution, as seen in the poem "Harlem." Now the voice, while still hoping for some kind of extreme reaction, sounds weary and frustrated, as if he has waited a long time for change, which he refers to as "a dream deferred" (Lauter 1619). He uses some wonderful imagery to suggest the possibilities for what has happened to his dream. Perhaps it has dried "up like a raisin the sun" (Lauter 1619) but he also compares it to a festering sore and rotten meat. Most of this poem is written in rhyme, and it gives the piece a playful air imposed over its serious subject. At the end of the poem, Hughes asks of the dream deferred, "does it explode" (Lauter 1619) and this line seems to sum up all his work. It is as if he sees, throughout his entire life, the potential of the world to be a better place. It might change naturally, through understanding, or it might change violently, through uprising, but since these things haven't happened, perhaps change will come suddenly, due to a terrible pressure, and with more chaos and less intelligence than he had hoped. Langston Hughes used his considerable skill in writing to "undermine the bourgeois pretentions of our society while pointing out the hypocritical nature of American racism" (Lauter 1612). He used language to express powerful feelings and desires, but also to express pride in who he was and where he came from. Even at its darkest, his poetry presented a "vision of the just society with a spiritual transcendence and ever-widening horizon of joy and hope" (Lauter 1612) and even forty years after his death, it continues to inspire us to create a more equal America. Work Cited Lauter, Paul (Ed.) The Heath Anthology of American Literature. New York: Houghton Mifflin. 1998. Read More