The poems “I, Too” by Langston Hughes and “From the Dark Tower” by Countee Cullen are both written by black men during the period of the Harlem Renaissance (1276, 1279). Both of these poems address the oppression and discrimination of black people and the hope for equality that the authors have. Through an analysis of the differences in the tone, style of writing and the implied audiences of the two poems, we can better understand how each author viewed the subject of their discrimination and oppression.
Countee Cullen’s “From the Dark Tower” is an Italian sonnet that uses vivid imagery such as, “the golden increment of bursting fruit”, to gild a subject as crude and brutal as oppression (1276). I don’t think that his intention was to sugarcoat or cushion the truth of the situation because he expresses their pain in line 13, “… in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds.” It is in phrases like this that the author’s intricate language serves to amplify the emotional aspect of the poem (1276). Cullen recognizes how
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Their poems have the same general theme. However, the poems themselves could not be more different. Cullen’s “From the Dark Tower” is structured, elegant and filled with striking imagery (1276). While it is aimed at the black community, realistically only the well-educated would be able to actually muddle their way through the large words and formal speech. Langston Hughes’s “I, Too”, on the other hand, is more of a common man’s poem. It’s easy to understand and doesn’t require an advanced vocabulary (1279). That’s not to say it is any less powerfully emotive. Hughes manages to imbue the short phrases of everyday words with a wealth of emotion. Both authors write of their current oppression and hope for the future. Cullen seems to say, ‘We are made for better things than this’ (1276). While Hughes seems to say, ‘It won’t be much longer, soon things will be better’
There has been much debate over the Negro during the Harlem Renaissance. Two philosophers have created their own interpretations of the Negro during this Period. In Alain Locke’s essay, The New Negro, he distinguishes the difference of the “old” and “new” Negro, while in Langston Hughes essay, When the Negro Was in Vogue, looks at the circumstances of the “new” Negro from a more critical perspective.
Countee LeRoy Cullen was one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Although there is no real account of his early life, his accomplishments throughout his time was magnificent. During the Harlem Renaissance, he and other writers and poets used their work to empower blacks and talk about the ongoing struggle of blacks. His poem, “Incident”, depicts how overt racism was and how it attacked anyone regardless age or gender.
As of late, racism has been a topic on everyone’s lips. Whether it’s because of police brutality in certain regions of the USA, or due to the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. “I, Too” by Langston Hughes and “Dear White America” by Danez Smith both talk about this very serious topic. Although these two poems are from completely different time periods, both discuss the same matter, which is racism towards African Americans.
Writing during the emergence of the “New Negro” movement, Claude McKay and Langston Hughes work to reconcile black life in white America. The trope used by the two poets within “The Harlem Dancer” and “The Weary Blues” is that of a performance and a single speaker’s recollection of it. While both depict an African-American performer presumably consumed by the isolation and oppression of their condition, the intensity of the performances prove to be vastly disparate. Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” features a much more transcendent performance than that of McKay’s “The Harlem Dancer” not only because of the relationship between the audience and the performer, but the degree of ubiquity in descriptions of the performer and the poetic form through which the performance is framed. While neither performer attempts to gain anything from their audience, the impact of their art on the speaker identifies the importance McKay placed on art as a means to build racial pride as well as Hughes interest in art as a means to communicate a common struggle.
The writing of Langston Hughes in “I too” is significantly dependant on his point of view. The actions that occur in the poem are as realistic as they can get because Langston Hughes is speaking from the heart. He passed through the Harlem Renaissance and faced constant struggles with racism. Because of that, his writing seems to manifest a greater meaning. He is part of the African-American race that is expressed in his writing. He writes about how he is currently oppressed, but this does not diminish his hope and will to become the equal man. Because he speaks from the point of view of an oppressed African-American the poem’s struggles and future changes seem to be of greater importance than they ordinarily would.
In 1928 when Zora Neale Hurston wrote “How it Feels to Be Colored Me” it was not very common for a person to freely speak about how racial discrimination was not bothersome to African Americans and it certainly did not reflect the way most had felt towards racial discrimination. Hurston spoke of when she was growing up in Eatonville, Florida and how, “white people differed from colored to me only in that they rode through town and never lived there” (Hurston, par. 4). In this essay she explains how she does not let all of these injustices continue to be bothersome to her whether they happened in her past or in the present, she does not let these injustices keep her from living a virtuous life.
The poems, “I, Too” by Langston Hughes and “Incident” by Countee Cullen employ visual imagery, tone, literary devices such as hyperboles, symbolism, and foreshadowing in different ways to illustrate the public life interaction between two different races, and the private life of an African American’s internal struggle of not being able to fight against the prejudice towards them. Both poets share racism as their piece of life, and although dealing with racism is the central tension engaged in the poems, Cullen suggests that experiences can affect your view on life and change your attitude. Hughes on the other hand, proposes that with an optimistic attitude you can change the outcome of your future, and that your attitude is independent from past experiences.
The Dark Tower – Stephen King The Dark Tower is a series of stories that follow the main character, Roland "The Last Gunslinger", as he travels across a harsh desert on a mission to find the "man in black". His mission is to make it safely to the Tower in order to save himself and the very existence of the universe. The entire series revolves around the tower and how essential it is. The tower is a central point where different planes of existence merge and if Roland doesn't make it there before it gets destroyed then everything else will be destroyed along with it.
During the Harlem Renaissance, both Claude McKay and Langston Hughes developed an analysis of their time period through poetry. Each writer has a different poem but allude to the same theme. The White House by Claude McKay and I, Too, Sing, America by Langston Hughes makes a relevant comparison to the racial inequality during the 1900s. Both make a point about how White America has withheld equal rights from Blacks or Black America, making it hard for them to survive. More specifically, The White House speaks about the type of oppression being experienced during racial segregation and trying to triumph over it while I, Too, Sing, America speak about what created their oppression and envisioning change in the future.
... They focus more on the cultural aspects of identity that Hughes is very proud of, while poems “Democracy” and “Theme for English B” touch on some of the social concerns that created a struggle for dignity as a black person in the early/mid twentieth century. The “Democracy” is a slightly stern and direct request to take action and fight for civil rights. The “Theme for English B” is a compassionate and low-key personal anecdote that reiterates the unpracticed concept that “all men are created equal”. Despite the difference in tone and subject, all four poems relate to the central theme that dignity is something that white men may take for granted, but Langston Hughes, as a black man and a writer, sees and feels dignity as a fight and a struggle that he faces and that the black community as a whole faces every day.
“The best of humanity 's recorded history is a creative balance between horrors endured and victories achieved, and so it was during the Harlem Renaissance" (Aberjhani). "A Black Man Talks of Reaping" and "From the Dark Tower" are poems that tugged on the heart strings of African Americans everywhere. Both poems dealt with the harsh reality of racial prejudice in America and shared the hope of overcoming it. Although the two poems "A Black Man Talks of Reaping" and "From the Dark Tower" by Arna Bontemps and Countee Cullen are different in purpose, they are similar in theme, tone, and extended metaphor.
Each phrases has its own significant meaning. They are both making it a point that even though they may be of color they are just as important in their own way. Hughes poem focus’ more on the future as he states; "Nobody 'll dare/ Say to me, 'Eat in the kitchen, '" the speaker seems eager to see what the future holds him/her. Whitman tends to maintain the present, declaring, “I, too, am America” The speaker believes that the injustice that is upon him is wrong and that he too should be treated as a human. The speaker also believes that color should not be a reason for him not being considered as an American. But, unlike Hughes speaker, is quieter about the fact other than standing up for
Upon first glance the differences between Hughes and Cullen seem very clear. Hughes writes in rhythm, while Cullens writes in rhyme, but those are just the stylistic differences. Hughes and Cullen may write poems in a different style but they both write about similar themes. The time they wrote in was during the Harlem Renaissance, a time period when African Americans were discovering their heritage and trying to become accepted in the once white dominated society. The African Americans had their own cultures and their own style of music and writing but they wanted everyone to know they were still human, that they were still American, even though the differences in color were apparent.
“I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (Martin Luther King Jr., “I had a dream speech”). Racism, a strong weapon used against equality. Langston Hughes portrayed his view of societal racism in poetry and songs. Quite a strong soldier in the war against prejudice, his train of thought was precisely what society needs, yet fears. Racism should be distinguished, but is as strong as ever. The end of its reign would enhance the ability of minorities in terms of jobs, societal acceptance, and life in general. Langston Hughes communicates his theme of racism and overcoming it through his use of Symbolism, Tone, and Anthropomorphism.
Over the course of the century chronicling the helm of slavery, the emancipation, and the push for civil, equal, and human rights, black literary scholars have pressed to have their voice heard in the midst a country that would dare classify a black as a second class citizen. Often, literary modes of communication were employed to accomplish just that. Black scholars used the often little education they received to produce a body of works that would seek to beckon the cause of freedom and help blacks tarry through the cruelties, inadequacies, and inconveniences of their oppressed condition. To capture the black experience in America was one of the sole aims of black literature. However, we as scholars of these bodies of works today are often unsure as to whether or not we can indeed coin the phrase “Black Literature” or, in this case, “Black poetry”. Is there such a thing? If so, how do we define the term, and what body of writing can we use to determine the validity of the definition. Such is the aim of this essay because we can indeed call a poem “Black”. We can define “Black poetry” as a body of writing written by an African-American in the United States that formulates a concentrated imaginative awareness of an experience or set of experiences inextricably linked to black people, characterizes a furious call or pursuit of freedom, and attempts to capture the black condition in a language chosen and arranged to create a specific emotional response through meaning, sound, and rhythm. An examination of several works of poetry by various Black scholars should suffice to prove that the definition does hold and that “Black Poetry” is a term that we can use.