Harlem Renaissance Poets - Research Paper Example

On the one hand, Johnson poem “Let Me Not Lose My Dream” features her seminal background in Rome, Georgia. The poem carries well recitations of the ancient culture and the need for blacks to take on the challenges of the community, while embracing stoicism. The inclusion of entertaining humor in the literary content was largely impacted by her skills of playing musical instruments and natural history. The creation of the poem was largely influenced by William Starkey Braithwaite work, an author who highlighted the socio-economic and political challenges that minority communities faced in the United States, and the need to remain steadfast in the quest for a free America.

Considered to be one of the founding women poets, who based their literature on the new role of African Americans, Johnson’s poem “Let Me Not Lose My Dream” was laced with a feeling of sadness and optimism that blacks faced in their effort to assume prominence in the society. On the other hand, Gwendolyn Bennett was another significant poet of this period. The poet was born in July 1902 in Giddings, Texas. Her parents were Joshua and Maime Bennett. Bennet’s poem “Heritage” features her life as a young woman in Brooklyn’s Girls High, through her adulthood.

The nature of treatment she received was characterized by benignly cold reception from the mainstream white community. Through the poem “Heritage,” particular practices such as the intellectual capabilities of the blacks during Harlem Renaissance were tolerated without question, and without meticulous thought. The poem highlighted the future role of the blacks, in social and political circles. “Heritage” is illustrative of a keen intellectual mind, which Bennet summoned during the Harlem Renaissance period to articulate the social change in the American society; that democratic transformation in the society was inevitable, and that art and literary genre had become a significant avenue used to communicate the much needed change in the society (Hull 13-15).

Despite the significant, but the largely different titles of the two poems, Johnson’s “Let Me Not Lose My Dream” and Bennet’s “Heritage,” are two literary works that indicate the need to conserve fruitful society norms of the blacks such as social democracy, fair representation in all aspects of the society and justice for all. Whereas the former poem served to motivate the rising blacks not to be cowed in their effort to assume socio-economic and political significance in the society; the latter holds that not all new developments may yield positive outcomes.

The poems by Georgia Douglas Johnson and Gwendolyn Bennett are, thus, illustrative of the enormous skills and resourcefulness that inspired the change empowerment of blacks during the Black Arts Movement. By reexamining the contribution of these poets, one can have a glimpse of delight of the blacks during Harlem Renaissance, despite the enormous social challenges they faced . Themes present in the two poems Ethnic Pride Featuring the historical Black Arts Movement was an explicit ethnic delight that was captured in the philosophy of the empowerment of the community, who through scholarly work and creation of literature could reverse the pervading ethnic bigotry and traditions to enhance