The Collected Works of Langston Hughes: The Poems - Essay Example

• The Poetry Paper

Poets use different techniques and/or approaches to differentiate one poem from the other. This practice of adopting diverse methods intends at expressing the poet’s own point of view through using language in a beautiful manner. Apart from these, the poets use variation of words and sound to involve the audiences into the environment. Additionally, poetry is considered as a different form, which allows the poet to increase level of concentration of the audiences towards the fact as compared to other fictions or dramas. In addition, the word ‘absurd’ is often used in several poems to express the condition of nature or the society. It was highly used in fiction or dramatic poems specifically during 1896-1920s for encouraging active involvement of audience (Hudson 63-64).

Concentrating on the dramatic and fictions poems, Robert Frost is an ideal example, who has always presented a different perspective of the common facts such as nature or feelings (Poetry Foundation, “Home Burial”). Correspondingly, the poems of Robert Browning often include own behaviors and words, which differentiate his poems from other literatures. Every poem has its own perspectives and ways of expressing, which together reinforce the meaning and strike the mind of audiences (The Victorian Web, “My Last Duchess”).

Thesis statement. The essay intends to evaluate the poems of different poets such as “Home Burial”of Robert Frost, Browning’s “My Last Duchess” and Hughes’ Poetry, which help to change an individual perspective towards a common view and determine how it has affected the natural structure of things.

• DISCUSSION
• Robert Frost’s “Home Burial”. The poem started with a tense conversation between a poor husband and his wife, whose child had died due to poverty. Considering the style and way of presentation, it can be said that is a dramatic poem. The poem utilizes Free-Form of Dialogue rather including Strict Rhythmic Schemes. In addition, Robert Frost also uses sound effects to create value on the subject based on which the poem is presented to audiences. The lyrics utilized in the poem are comparatively short; however, the poet has also pioneered long-dramatic lyrics as well. One of the reasons behind the short lyrics is that it is easily understandable to the audiences and the setting is considered more vivid. Throughout the poem, the poet has highlighted that marriage of the couple was not successful due to which it ended with the wife leaving alone the family (Poetry Foundation, “Home Burial”).
• Robert Browning’s “My Last Duchess”. “My Last Duchess” was published in the year 1842, which is considered as one the best examples of poems using dramatic monologue by Browning. The poem concentrates on the duke of Ferrara whose daughter was preparing to get married soon. In the beginning of the poem, the duke uncovers a curtain, which reveals the portrait of his duchess. The poem includes various levels such as psychological, historical, ironic, and theatrical among others. The most important element of the poem, which has significantly engaged the audiences into the frame, is the narrator, the duke. The duke is recognized as a monster in the poem, as he killed her wife. However, portraying the scenario from the perspective of poetry it can be stated that it has the ability to involve the audiences within the frame by the sense of beauty and is remarkable (The Victorian Web, “My Last Duchess”). Furthermore, the poem significantly controls the dramatic style starting from the release of curtain to steady description of his tale. Another attractive factor indicated in this poem was that the narrator has total control over the story, whereas Browning acted like audiences in the poem by providing power to the narrator (The Victorian Web, “My Last Duchess”).
• Langston Hughes’ Poetry. Langston Hughes in most of the poems has included his life experiences. For instance, the poem “Sunset—Coney Island”, in which Hughes concentrated on the ugliness of life. In general, people consider sunset as collaboration of color, tropical setting and pleasant mindset. However, in this poem, Hughes has described sunset as rotten egg and sick tomato (Hughes 186-193). Thus, it can be understood that Hughes through his poem has described that life is not that beautiful or easy, which it generally seems to be. Besides, Hughes has further expressed love as poison in “Nonette”, which is one of the essential works of the poet (Hughes 194-201).

Additionally, the use of music and sound is another important element of Hughes's poem among which several poems have identifiable beat. The music in most cases includes sorrow, anger and lost love, among others. Besides, American Dream is one of the inspiring themes of certain poems of Hughes. The Americans Dream defined in 1931 has further been included in the Hughes's poems after the perspective of different countries’ disenfranchised. Hughes has also portrayed equality and liberty by concentrating on the racial factor (Hughes 211-216).

Langston Hughes has always portrayed the forgotten aspiration by elaborating that the American and African people do not have the capability to access American dream due to differences in their race. One such scenario has been presented in “Mother to Son” where the mother describes the transformation faced by her due to the color of her skin and discrimination in the society due to race. It can be affirmed that the poet has focused on highlighting the increasing concern evident in the society with time, which is mainly faced by poor people. Another example is “On the Road” which is also known as one of the renowned short story of Hughes concentrating on racism. Furthermore, the background of Hughes in which he used live enabled him focusing on expressing the reality of discriminatory environment within the society (Hughes 201-205).

ANALYSIS

Based on the above discussion of the poems of Hughes, is can be affirmed that the themes of the poems mainly include death, dreams, ugly-life, and love as poison. Additionally, parallel to the racial concern, Hughes has highlighted hope that the society might develop afterward, where racial factor will not be a concern. Most of the poets start the poem with joy, happiness, and love; however, Hughes has always focused more on portraying hopelessness and despondent situations. Additionally, each poem of Hughes presents different perspectives of life such love, discrimination in society, and struggle faced by people for developing own identity among others (Hughes 150-155).

On the other hand, Browning has been able to express his message regarding the change condition of urban-living in a better manner (The Victorian Web, “My Last Duchess”). Apart from the theme discussed, many poets also prefer using and portraying societal problems in poems. In the late 19th century, due to industrial revolution, poverty and incidents of violence increased significantly. Compared to the smaller community in the previous era, people started to face huge problem regarding the stated issues, which on the other hand increases the requirement of safety in the society. Thus, due to this factor violence became an aesthetic choice for several writers among which Robert Browning has successfully been able to portray the situation in many of his poems. Throughout the poems of Browning, certain questions are always highlighted such as the contradictory factors between ethics and aesthetics, immoral condition of art, and art with a moral message could be more valuable or effective among others (The Victorian Web, “My Last Duchess”).

While addressing the above stated facts into his poetry, utilizing the dramatic monologues by Browning has been a preferable concept. Dramatic monologues can be defined as the poem in which the narrator does not indicate any specific audience. Browning’s poetry has always been evident of dramatic monologue with the intention of expressing controversial concepts. Another positive element of Browning’s poem is associated with developing the characters and for this, he puts extra effort in developing historic specificity (The Victorian Web, “My Last Duchess”).

Conversely, Frost’s poems have always concentrated on becoming perfect from every aspect for which the poet has always put effort on developing the scenario. In Frost’s poem, the lyrics or contents play a vital role in developing attention of the audiences towards the poem. Apart from this, music and/or sound also play an important role in the poem to express the opinion of the poet regarding certain views portrayed in the poem (Poetry Foundation, “Home Burial”).

CONCLUSION

From the overall discussion, it is apparent that the poems during 19th century were not only focused on a single perspective such as love or nature but also highlighted the increasing concern of that period such as racism, nature and complicated life among others. In case of Browning’s poem, he assured the presence of increasing rate of concern due to industrial revolution and always maintained differences from other literatures by developing high rate of historical view. This helps the audiences to develop a connection with the environment or the scenario of the poems more effectively. While on the other hand, Frost’s poem focused more on love and nature related aspects. His perspective of nature was considered the most essential element of poems. Based on the stated facts, it is therefore apparent that every poem or literature has their own perspective however the poem specifically in the 19th century concentrated on revealing the condition of the society.