Langston Hughes Poetic Devices

1) The main point of the essay is revealed in paragraph two where it states, “The cause of my anguish is that I am the lone bastion of testosterone in a household that contains two females undergoing estrogen-related Armageddon’s of biblical proportion.” Hughes’ main point is the troubles a man faces in a family with two females. He sets up an illustration comparing his household to a “war zone where every word [he utters] is a potential grenade threatening to blow up in [his] face.” This comparison exaggerates the position the author is in through the metaphor he uses of the war zone to capture his family dynamic. 2) Hughes secondary point in the essay is the “existential question: ‘What the heck went wrong here and what do I do about it?’”

There weren’t any major shifts in the poem other than the second part of the poem was more relaxed and less anxious. The structure of the stanzas vary because as soon as you look at the poem without even reading, you can see how the shapes of each stanza are different in sizes. The first stanza of the poem alone is 42 lines but, each line is really short. The second stanza is 14 lines long and the same lengths carry out here as

Jazz music was seen as a symbol of “modern” cultures of the cities. Many young adults used Jazz music to express their rebellion to their elders’. Jazz also benefited African Americans because it was a symbol of rebellion towards the set of standards in society, allowing them to move forward in status and culture. Furthermore, poets like Langston Hughes made a huge effect in American history with their works.

As Hughes’ works were well published, African Americans, not just from Harlem, started to follow in his footsteps and create art that celebrated their skin colour. Professor Bercovitch argues that The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain “embod[ies] the voice of the community”, attributing his popularity during the Harlem Renaissance to this communal voice that speaks for those who cannot (Bercovitch, 2003). In addition, in the 1960s, Hughes befriended the popular singer Nina Simone, encouraging her to use her music to further the civil rights movement. Hughes was an inspiration to Simone, who was already an established voice in popular culture and the civil rights movement. Hughes even wrote The Backlash Blues for Simone to perform as a protest song.

Some of the significant subjects were music, literature, poem, and art. The poets Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were some of the most influential poets from the renaissance. The poems “The Harlem Dancer” by Claude McKay and “I, Too” by Langston Hughes will be used to compare and show how two poems form the same era could be similar yet different based on their subject, purpose, style, tone, and rhythm. “I, Too” creates the world where people are treated equally. With so much discrimination and segregation occurring in the 20th century, it was a world that people wished for.

Throughout the 1920s, or the Roaring 20s, there were many cultural clashes that that stemmed from debates and disagreements over modern values. Politically, America turned away from the past progressive values and began a more conservative approach. Religiously, there was a strong clash between Fundamentalists and Modernists about how significant the bible should impact daily life. Most significantly, society turned away from the past Fundamentalist views.

There are many talented poets, but there is something special about Langston Hughes that makes him unique. He has many eye-opening poems. Langston Hughes is definitely one of a kind. The poems Cross and Mother to Son by Langston Hughes, use figurative languages such as imagery and syntax to provide more climax. Imagery.

In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.

Towards the middle of the poem, the meter changed to 4 syllables. At the end of the poem, the meter was much more. The meter for Stanza 14 was fourteen syllables. Stanza 26 was seventeen syllables. There is not a consistent poetic foot.

Society was very unjust to not only African American people but to their cultures. One theme evident in most of Hughes poems is rhythmic beats and instruments. In The Cat and the Saxophone there is a certain beat that relates to Jazz culture. Hughes gained his inspiration from this culture which was suppressed at times. As Vogel explains “Hughes tried his best showing African American culture by adding Journal ideas to his poems” (“Closing time: Langston Hughes and the queer poetics of Harlem nightlife.”).

Langston Hughes poems “Harlem” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” are two poems that have a deeper meaning than a reader may notice. Hughes 's poem “Harlem” incorporates the use of similes to make a reader focus on the point Hughes is trying to make. In “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Hughes shows how close he was to the rivers on a personal level. With those two main focuses highlighted throughout each poem, it creates an intriguing idea for a reader to comprehend. In these particular poems, Hughes’s use of an allusion, imagery, and symbolism in each poem paints a clear picture of what Hughes wants a reader to realize.

Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.

Langston Hughes lived during a time of social inequality, prejudice, racism, and discrimination. As an African-American, he faced these unjust acts. Unlike today where those things are condemned, those things were condoned during Hughes' lifetime. Hughes' career spanned the Harlem Renaissance, when many African-Americans greatly contributed to literature, music, and art. Hughes wrote many poems about American society during his career.

Langston Hughes is an African American Poet who is very closely connected to his culture and expresses his feelings very thoroughly through his poetry in a jazz style. Langston Hughes is a modern poet who ignore the classical style of writing poetry and instead, in favor of oral and improve traditions of the Black culture. In majority of Langston’s poetry, many of his audience seems to take away a very strong message that many can apply to themselves or to others or his poems gives you an educational background of what’s going on in the African American community right now. For example, Langston Hughes writes a poetry piece called Afro American Fragment, which gives you a great breakdown of what an everyday African American person goes through considering that their whole history is basically taken away from them. Langston seems to show his audience that in books we never hear much about what contributions a African American person has done except for being brought to America and being a slave.

Biography/Context: Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is widely considered as one of the most successful African-American poets of all time. He was also a columnist, playwright, novelist, and social activist for African-American rights. Consequently, Hughes wrote all sorts of literature about 20th century African-Americans living in Harlem--a major black residential within the Manhattan borough of New York City--and soon became an extremely influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the rebirth movement of African-American culture in the arts during the 1920s. Hughes also had great admiration for music, and was inspired by a variety of genres/musicians such as boogie, Bach, jazz, and blues. His special love for blues music caused