IB English A Literature

In the poem “Deferred”, Langston Hughes brings out the circumstances of African Americans which they were not able to finish wishes because of oppression by the using of parallelism. As the flow of the poem, there is parallelism in how a stanza started. “All I want is”, “I want to”, Hughes wants to emphasize the desire. The readers can feel the bitterness in word “All”. While all other people in the world want luxurious stuffs, the characters in this poem just want a bottle of gin, a stove, or graduation – those things that looks too easy to achieve, to get for white people. Just with one word, “all”, Hughes spreads the screams of dreams, the despair of black people. With that, he raises a question in readers’ head, “Why?” Why they want such a simple thing, such a simple life, why they cannot achieve what they are deserved for, what happened that deferred their dreams. He draws the picture of disparity, of injustice without saying a word against it. In that picture, there are various types of people, they may be young or they may be old, they may be women they may be men, but they have one same thing, they were treated unfair. With his big picture in the poem, readers now can relate to the circumstances of black people in America at that time, those who just escaped from being slave, returned to be real humans again. However, with these words, Hughes says that they are not totally free yet, they are still in the cage of oppression. Because they are black, they are not white; because those white people don’t want to change their mind, they are superior. To conclude, Langston Hughes has stood up for African Americans in his time to against the oppression of white people which made their dreams incomplete. Continue reading ““Deferred” is just about dreams?”

Although “The Negro Mother” is a poem written by Langston Hughes, it is written from a mother’s perspective and a person who was a slave. From the name of the poem, Negro was a word to describe African American slaves. The poem is trying to express a mother is passing the hope to her children for freedom and equality. It is also emphasizing women’s positions in America’s society. Firstly, Hughes had set the tone of the poem, in line 1 to 4, the last words rhyme like AABB. In the first 6 lines, it declared the speaker is from a mother’s perspective with the keyword ‘children’ and phrases to describe a kind mother such as ‘shining like the sun with love’s true light’. From line 7 to 17, the speaker explains her experience of being a slave. Line 7 to 8, it is comparing herself to slaves back to 300 years ago. Then, she explains herself as a slave. Line 18 to 22, the mother believes she has the last hope which is her child, as a gift from God. it reveals that the love from mother is a great thing. Line 23 to 32, it is describing the mother had no ability to either read or write, also evoke emotions of depression in the slave community. But ‘ I had to keep on! No stopping for me–‘, there was no such thing as holidays for slaves, once they were slaves, they will die as a slave. But in line 23 to 52, the speaker tells about their hope and dreams would pass on to the future generations. ‘ I had only hope then, but now through you, Dark ones of today, my dreams must come true:’ the speaker is also representing all the African American slaves, to ask the next generation to remember how white people had treated them and encourage them to stay strong, to fight for the rights they should have deserved, so that they can become successful. Lastly, line 49 to 52, it shows the love from the mother would be the stairs towards success in the future. The whole main idea of this poem, “The Negro Mother”, is to appeal to all African Americans to be proud of themselves, don’t be underestimated by anyone.

An insight on “As I Grew Older” by Langston Hughes

“As I Grew Older” is a poem which criticizes the oppression of black people in America. Not only does this poem discuss a insightful topic, but it conveys the message through a meaningful metaphor. A wall is commonly used to divide, to separate and to block out certain things. Within the poem, it is mentioned repetitively that a wall is slowly ascending, dividing its victim from their dreams, the light. Langston describes that he had almost forgotten his dream in the first stanza, in the beginning, meaning that he knew of it’s presence and he remembers his dream. Perhaps he was younger back then, where he had little to on perspective on the oppression in which his race had suffered within America during the time “But it was there, In front of me.” . As Langston had grew older, so did the wall, he began realizing the wall had been rising slowly, “Rose slowly, Slowly, Between me and my dream.” The oppression and racism towards lack people had become an obstacle for Langston, something which locks the view of his bright, bright dream, his future. The wall “Rose until it touched the sky”, signifying that it was almost impossible to get over it, that there was no way he could reach or see his dream anymore, his opportunities, his dream. It is then written in the poem “Shadow. I am black.” Perhaps this stanza would describe how Langston felt, realizing and thinking that he belongs in the shadow, belongs in the dark and he lies down, accepting the fact that he is dark, accepting the oppression and the racism. Suddenly, Langston turns the atmosphere of the poem 180 degrees, he has the desire for change, he reads free of the oppression and racism, fighting and breaking through the impossible. Langston hopes to chase his dream no matter the oppression, no matter the obstacles, the challenges. He is no longer blinded by the ones who oppress him.

The poem “Make America be America again” expresses Langston hughes’s strong expectation for America. Because he says “America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath, America will be!” He also used metaphor several times to describe the different oppression of different people. In addition, Hughes believes that regardless of race, religion or creed, the United States should be a country where people live out their dreams, Equality and equal opportunity. “Let America be America again” this poem explores the dark realms of life, as to the history of exploitation, And he describes in the poem the unique struggles of the black and white people who make up America. These people, he says in the poem, had the most basic dream “that America might and should be able to achieve.” Out of sympathy for the oppressed and abused in his black background, he called on everyone in his poem “Let America Be America again”. That’s why his poetry is popular.

In “the Negro Mother” by Langston Hughes, the poem implies that black people reading it in the current day are not as strong as their ancestors and need to make sure to live up to the bravery of those who came before them. Not everyone would agree with this analysis but there is evidence in the poem that she wants to make sure that the African Americans today can be as strong as she was before. We know that the narrator of the poem in “Negro Mother” is talking to black people of today because she says “Children, I come back today / To tell you a story of the long dark way.” We can also see that she implies they need to not be lazy at all when she says “Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun, / But I had to keep on till my work was done: /I had to keep on! No stopping for me – /I was the seed of the coming Free.” These lines shows that the Negro mother is proud that the current generations is free but when she writes “no stopping for me!” it implies that she worked harder than today’s African Americans to win their freedom. The narrator is inspiring future generations by telling them “Remember how the strong in struggle and strife / Still bar you the way, and deny you life – / But march ever forward, breaking down bars. / Look ever upward at the sun and the stars.” She is reassured them that if she got through even worse times they can get through bad racism and times today in America. In the time of the narrator, who is a symbol for the strong black woman who kept African Americans strong through oppression and never surrendered to the racism of the white people, she is remembering a time when black families were whipped and black children were intentionally sold to far away to split up black families. It was much worse even than the racism that existed in the time of Langston Hughes, so she is telling the black people reading the poem to be brave and strong and never give up. This woman is trying to convey a positive experience to us that can come from the hard history of African Americans in slavery and oppression and make sure people know the struggle she went through means they can get through anything.

When Langston Hughes was close to death, he also experienced the reborn. In “Life is fine,” the repetition of the words “cold” and “high” exactly reflected the true thinking of those people who were trying to die. While they were drowning in the river and jumping from high, it is easier for them to feel scared and regret by any insignificant factors. They might wonder What exactly made them choose to give up their life, and to the surprise, hardly anyone was disappointed by themselves, and nearly most of them went to the suicide result from a broken relationship or a failure experience. Hughes used to be one of them. However, the coldness and high let him realize that there is still one thing much essential than love which is also showed in the sixth stanza, “I could’ve died for love, but for livin’, I was born.” Although the love has such persuasive power that can even make people despair of life, love is never the only faith that supports our survival; we were born for ourselves. Hughs turned his sadness and hurt into a kind of energy that pushes him forward and keep on living. At the end of this poem which is also the climax of this poem highlight the central theme of this poem: life is fine, perfectly reveals the new understand and perspective of life from Hughs. These two unforgettable experience give Hughs a brand new way to treat and figure out those hurtful things on a daily basis

“Let America Be America Again” conveys the message of the suffering and sorrow of African American who lived through a time of the social upheaval in America by using various literature techniques which supports the content such as positive connotation and the contrast that expressed darkness and lightness of African American. Especially, the most important feature of this poem is the contrast that is displayed by the atmosphere of  whole poem not just a few parts of this poem.   

Firstly repetition is cited as one of the author’s literature technique that displays the contrast. For instance, the author used  “Let America be … Let it be… Let it be…” in the first stanza and also he used “I am the … “ repeatedly in the eighth and eleventh stanza. This repetition produced specific rhythm and organized unity in this poem. And also these rhythms and unity produced lightness and hopefulness so it gives a fresh impression of a new era of America to audiences but on the other hand, it also gives a dark impression because these are irony for the suffering and sorrow of African American who are in the darkness.

Also a title of this poem “Let America Be America Again” displays contrast too. African American was treated harshly  at this time in America however they hoped that America will continue to great success. There is a light aspect such as African American wish for the success of America whereas they are living with discrimination in the shade. We can feel these praiseworthy and mixed feelings of African American from the contrast that expressed in the title.

Of course, there is a description that expressed African American’ suffering and anger directly. In the first stanza, a person is speaking like full of hope for America but depressed feelings and anger of African American are expressed as the poem goes on. Is not “the free” given to everyone equally?  Why do we (African American) need to suffer when other people (White people) are given “the free”? The contrasts that were expressed by an atmosphere of whole poem asks the real meaning of “the free” to audiences.

As I Grew Older is a very sad poem, and it is very touching. The main theme of the poem is about the narrow of the dream deferred. A lot of technique is used to emphasize and highlight the theme. First is the repetition of the word “dream”. It mentioned by seven times, the repetition makes a deep impression in the reader’s mind. It effectively emphasized the poet desire of dream. And the repetition of “ Rose slowly, slowly”, which express the helpless of the poet. They have a big dream, but they can’t make it come true. Double “Slowly” also implied poet are suffering from this kind of pain. The pain of let dream deferred. Here, the rose slowly is talking about the wall. The wall is a metaphor of the troubles in front of the poet. The first is racism, as black people, their rights are limited, and they get so many unfair treatments. And he said the wall is “ Dimming and Hiding” It implied these troubles get more and more, it blocked the way to his dream. There is an irony “ I am black” and “ My dark hand”. it is a very negative view for himself. It is irony the racial discrimination of the society. This poem starts with a negative and sorrow atmosphere, but end with a positive and motivated ending. The emotion of the ending is very strong, it is very touching to me. “ To smash this night, To break this shadow.” It is the climax of this poem. And I think it must encourage a lot of people to follow their dream, and it encourages people to defend their dream. For the poet, he wants to break all of these racisms and troubles in front of him. This poem showed the dark side of the life, but it still brings people power in the end

As I Grew Older – Langston Hughes’s poem As I Grew Older guides the reader throughout the rough life of a black man. Many black men did not have opportunities to experience their lives to the fullest, which the sun representing these dreams “Bright like a sun- my dream.” But the character in this poem is unable to reach the sun due to the “The Wall” which rose slowly. Langston’s use of repetition with the word slowly creates a certain sort of the loss of hope. With each slowly we see how the characters dream slowly fades away. Then the wall reaches its top… “Shadow. I am black” Langston is not saying that he is black due to the shadow, he is using the shadow as a way to show how his race is unable to let him reach for his dream. With no hope left in him the character lies down with the wall overtop of him and the shadow casting not light but the shade of race upon him “only the thick wall. only the shadow.” The character starts to curse upon his own hands “My hands! My dark hands!” Thinking that maybe if his hands were white he would be able to break down this wall of darkness. He try anyway “Break through the wall! Find my dream!” Without breaking though he wishes he could. Then suddenly the poem ends. Creating a sort of silence. Maybe not around the reader but in their head. The way Hughes is able to create this riot in your head is quite intriguing on a high level.

motto is my favorite one because it is short and to the point. He talks surviving  that is his motto stay/ be alive. he want to be dig and be dug, be like and be liked i think that is what every one wants for people to like them and to like others .

Deferred
Deferred – postponed. From the tittle Langston Hughes brings to reader the feeling of sorry, the feeling of slackness with his negative connotation. Throughout the poem, he no more uses those negative connotation; however, readers still can taste the bitter, the sour of those dreams had been deferred, those wishes had been incomplete. The juxtaposition of sadness and hope is used perfectly between italic and normal stanza. There are many stories about African Americans’ dreams. It could be a simple thing like a bottle of gin or even somewhat may define future, graduation. It may or may not important in eyes of white people, but it is what Langston Hughes’s compatriot had dreamed about in many years, maybe half of their life but could not finish it. Because they are black, they are not white, they do not have the right to ask to demand for anything, even a stove that seems like essential to housewife. As the flow of the poem, there is parallelism in how a stanza started. “All I want is”, “I want to”, Hughes wants to emphasize the desire. With that, he raises a question in readers’ head, “Why?” Why they want such a simple thing, such a simple life, why they cannot achieve what they are deserved for, what happened that deferred their dreams. He draws the picture of disparity, of injustice without saying a word against it. In that picture, there are various types of people, they may be young or they may be old, they may be women they may be men, but they have one same thing, they were treated unfair.

Harlem Sweeties by Langston Hughes is an interesting that uses a special and imaginative technique of the language of jazz. Jazz music started with African-Americans and now it is popular with people all in the world. Jazz is not formal it is very creative mixing traditional European music with new improvisation, African percussion styles and other styles. This poem has a similar style as jazz because it is fun and creative improvisation with language and rhythm. It does not have a definite rhyme scheme or meter. Most of the lines are short but then some are longer and have unusual rhythm and rhymes. It uses approximate rhyme sometimes and changes the rhymes in a fun way to show Hughe’s love for the Sugar Hill area in Harlem and the women that are there who are beautiful. By making the technique unique he also shows how the skin tones and women are all unique. To celebrate the beauty of the women of colour in the poem, Hughes uses playful language that has short lines and makes charming images. For example: “Brown sugar lassie, / Caramel treat, / Honey-gold baby / Sweet enough to eat.” As you can see this is lines with only two or three words but it makes strong images of colour, food and enjoyment about the beauty of women.

 

Hughes uses similes to depict the beauty of the women. His similes are food, drinks and delicious treats such as “coffee and cream / chocolate darling / Out of a dream. / Walnut tinted / Or cocoa brown, / Pomegrantae-lipped / Pride of the town.” This way he uses the imagery of delicious treats to show the attractiveness of the women he sees in Sugar Hill. “All these sweet colors / Flavor Harlem of mine!”

 

Hughes is trying to give people feelings in many different ways of their five senses such as seeing, hearing, tasting, seeing and even smell (“licorice, clove, cinnamon.”) Hughes is talking about things that many people love like coconuts and chocolate that taste so delicious. He is using imagery and senses to contrast with the negative racism against African-Americans at that time in the United States. Hughes technique is fun and wants people to appreciate all the different skin colours and beauty of African-American women and the black community. It is like Martin Luther King Jr’s famous speech where he said that “black is beautiful.”

 

Hughes also uses slang that was popular in the African-American community in that time like “have you dug the spill?” “peach-skinned girlie” and “cast your gims.” He uses some very unique words like “persimmon” and “sepia” to describe tastes and colours, but most of the words in the poem are short and easy to say. This makes it even more like a song and fun to read. I like this poem a lot because the technique is very interesting and it is enjoyable to read.

 

Sources:

https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/langston-hughes 

 

https://newsone.com/2843703/dr-martin-l-king-jr-im-black-and-im-beautiful-video/ 

 

http://blogforenglish215.blogspot.com/2007/12/langston-hughes.html  

Dream Boogie is one of the short poems in his collection. It is also one of his short poems. This poem is like a protest to the white Americans when the racist and oppression is  Dream Boogie is a happy poem which we can see from a few words such as the phrase boogie-woogie, the word happy had appeared twice, the second last stanza said “Hey, pop!”,”Re-bop!” “Mop!”. This poem sounds like a song when we read it out, with the words rhythming and flows out a jazzy atmosphere. In the second stanza and the third stanza and the forth, we can see there is a extra line popped out which doesnt connect to the second and the forth, we can determine it is someone interuupted the speaker. From the second stanza, the last line “Beating out and beating out” and the interrupter asked that is it a happy beat. the listener thinks this is a happy beat, which it also reveals the peoms brings a positive, exciting mood. And then in the forth stanza, the listener interrupted the speaker from finishing saying the sentence. In the second and forth stanza, the end was cut off is too remind the oppression of African Amricans. In the fifth stanza, the last line says “take it away” which means like getting away from something. In the sixth stanza, there is no logically meanings with those line but it gives us a mood happy and dancing atmosphere. Yet, it is meant to be remained mysterious for the listeners of this poem, white amricans. Hughes wants them to listen to them even though they do not understands what does it mean which also force them to think. Therefore, this poem could be a protest from the African Amricans to all the white Amricans who are being racist.

The poem begins with Hughes’s desire to make America what it once was. However, his ironic comment that such an American image is clearly wrong. “Make America be America again” expresses Langston Hughes’s hopes for America’s future.

“Make America be America again! It’s not just the title of the poem, it’s the main idea of the poem. Why would he say let America be America again, it is not America before? Actually, Refugees from Ireland, Poland, Britain and even African slaves had no choice but to come to the United States. Hughes said that brave people are powerful, and he praised dreamers who “dream of dreams that are so powerful, so brave, and so real.” In addition, Hughes believes that regardless of race, religion or creed, the United States should be a country where people live out their dreams, equality and equal opportunity. But it doesn’t exist anymore. Not only is there no opportunity and love, but racism, greed, materialism and discrimination abound. He wrote this poem because he was born in a black family and his sympathy for the people of this country oppressed and abused. Indians, immigrants, peasants, workers, and more of the lower class, for the poor, oppressed and trampled, the reality of everyday life to make dreams become cruel illusion and their dreams and rights to be traded, force and squeeze.

The poem explores the dark realms of life, such as the history of exploitation, and Outlines the unique struggles of the black and white people who make up America. These people, he says in the poem, had the most basic dream “that America might and should be able to achieve.” Hughes, an early American “pioneer” concludes his poem with an optimistic prediction and call for action that the people will rebuild what is healthy and sustainable. America should be America again is what the author has always emphasized.

My favorite poem that was written by Langston Hughes was Let America Be America Again. The poem conveys the message of the author’s wish by using various literature techniques which supports the content such as positive connotation and the contrast that expressed darkness and lightness of African American. Firstly repetition is cited as one of the author’s literature technique. For instance, he used “Let America be … Let it be… Let it be…” in the first stanza and also he used “I am the … ”　repeatedly in the eighth and eleventh stanza. This repetition produced specific rhythm and organized unity in this poem. And also these rhythms and unity produced lightness and hopefulness so it gives a fresh impression of a new era of America to audiences but on the other hand, it also gives a dark impression because these are irony for the suffering and sorrow of African American who are in the darkness. This relates to a contrast that is another attraction that I felt from this poem. In the first stanza, a person is speaking full of hope for America but depressed feelings and anger of African American are expressed as the poem goes on. Is not “the free” given to everyone equally? Why do we (African American) need to suffer when other people (White people) are given “the free”? The contrast that was expressed by an atmosphere of all of this poem asks the real meaning of “the free” to audiences.

Life is fine is a free verse that was written by Langston Hughes which gains the most interest of me. In this poem, Langston describes two different kinds of situations when people are trying to die, drowning in the river and jumping from high. When Hughes is suffering the cold river, the coldness finally let him realize the feeling of dying and result in his fear and regret. Besides the broken relationship also contributes the author went to the high building to jump down, due to the scared hight, he retreats again. In this poem, there is a repetition of the words “cold” and “high.” The author shows that “ if the water hadn’t been so cold I might be sunk and died” and “if it hadn’t been so high and thought I would jump down.” Just because of that uncomfortable sensation when we are close to death, the preciousness of life is reflected, there is still one thing much essential than love which is also showed in the sixth stanza. “I could’ve died for love, but for livin’, I was born” also reveals that the love is one of the experiences you will go through during your life, although the power of love is so strong that it even can make people despair of life. However, it also can let a person reborn. But to him, this “love” didn’t give him any support except hurt and sad, so he decided although he was crying for his lost love and holler for the discontent in his life, he would still insist for himself, not to surrender for anyone. Not because of others, he was born for the living!
So he was saying at the end of this poem, “Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”

The poem “As I Grew Older” by Langston Hughes raises interest to me. Not only does the short poem discuss the oppression of black people in America, but it also displays the idea through a meaningful metaphor. A wall is used to separate, used to divide and block out, in the poem it is mentioned repetitively that a wall is rising, blocking it’s victim from the light, the dream. Langston describes within his poem that he had almost forgotten his dream, although so he knew of its presence, he remembers the brightness of his dream. He had been younger back then, where he had little to none perspective on the oppression of his race within America “But it was there, In front of me.”. As Langston grew older, he had noticed a wall rising slowly, the wall, a metaphor for the oppression of the black. “Rose slowly, Slowly, between me and my dream.” The oppression and racism towards black people had become an obstacle for Langston, something which blocks the view of his bright bright dream, his future. The wall “Rose until it touched the sky”, signifying that it was almost impossible to get over it, that there was no way he could reach or see his dream anymore, his opportunities, his dream. It is then written in the poem “Shadow. I am black.” Perhaps this stanza would describe how Langston felt, realizing and thinking that he belongs in the shadow, belongs in the dark and he lies down, accepting the fact that he is dark, accepting the oppression and the racism. Suddenly, Langston turns the atmosphere of the poem 180 degrees, he has the desire for change, he reads free of the oppression and racism, fighting and breaking through the impossible. Langston hopes to chase his dream no matter the oppression, no matter the obstacles, the challenges. He is no longer blinded by the ones who oppress him.

Let America Be America Again is one of Langston Hughes famous poem. The content of the poem is about dream deferred, inequality and attaining freedom. This poem started with sad and pessimistic, but the ending of the poem is optimistic. The poem talked about the American dream at the beginning, and list the reason of why the American dream is gone. The dream is destroyed by the conspiracy of high identity people. And the equality is destroyed by the discrimination of racism and sexism. People who live in the low level of American, are suffering from these staff. They are the farmer, factory worker, and black people. People have no freedom in their life. The poem with a lot of irony in it. For example, there is a sentence, “ From Those who live like leeches on the people’s lives, We must take back our land again.” Here, the leeches seems a metaphor for the high identity of white people. They enjoy everything with no effort in life and they live a life depend on these low identity people’s work. In the starting structure, there is one optimistic paragraph with one pessimistic sentences. Here the pessimistic sentences are the real feeling of the Langston Hughes. It is a contrast between dream and reality. It also emphasizes his hope to idea American, a country with freedom, equality and everyone can chase their dream. “ Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the star?” The idea of the freedom is blocked in his mind like the star with the veil across. Their dream also likes the star with the veil across, it can not be shown to everyone, because the inequality and no freedom is like the veil to block and stop their dream. The poem with the passionate and angry tone with little hope in the end, to wish the America can be American again.