Have you taken time to appreciate the ones who walked on this earth before you? Without our ancestors, we wouldn’t be here today. Langston Hughes addresses this topic in his poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. Hughes introduces the poem by portraying a river as the source of life for his ancestors. Through the Euphrates down to the Nile, Langston transformed historical events into words that a reader can visualize. To convey his message, Hughes uses symbolism, similes, and repetition. Symbolism is when an object or thing represents another idea different from its literal sense. Similes compare those ideas through the use of “like” or “as”. Meanwhile, the use of repetition writes the same word or phrase multiple times to get a certain point across.
In Maya Angelou’s poem “Africa” , Angelou also tries to create a visual image. She attempts to grab the reader emotionally by comparing Africa to a human being without flaws. However, she fails to get her main objective across to the reader. The use of literary elements such as symbolism, repetition, and similes in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes creates a more successful poem than Maya Angelou’s “Africa”.
The use of symbolism in Hughes's’ poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is more successful than “Africa” by Maya Angelou. For example, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” states “ I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young” (5) then transitions into “I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans” (8-9). This is an example of symbolism because Hughes coveys the rivers as a timeline. Through different times in history, Hughes connects to his ancestors with different rivers. This proves that the use of symbolism in “ The Negro Speaks of...
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...her tears” (5-6). This is an example of a metaphor. Although it compares two quantities, the reader remains confused questioning the events. With the lack of similes, Maya’s poem “Africa” remains harder to understand. Therefore, Langston’s poem contains greater success.
The use of literary elements in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” makes it a more successful poem than “Africa” by Maya Angelou.Through symbolism, repetition, and similes Hughes creates a poem that is easier to understand. With the significance of the rivers portraying his ancestors, Langston connects to the reader emotionally. Meanwhile, Maya’s poem fails to provide a clear understanding creating a less effective piece. It is important to remember your ancestors. They made you who you are today and created a path towards who you will be tomorrow.
Works Cited
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" "Africa"
The Negro Speaks of Rivers and Mother to Son, explained the importance of the woman, light and darkness and strength in the African-American community. Hughes made a very clear and concise statement in focusing on women and the power they hold, light and darkness, and strength. Did his poems properly display the feelings of African-American’s in that time period? It is apparent that Hughes felt a sense of pride in his culture and what they had to endure. After all “Life ain’t been no crystal stair!”(Norton, Line 2, 2028)
In fact, it is clear to the reader that Huggins makes a concerted effort to bring light to both ethnicities’ perspectives. Huggins even argues that their culture is one and the same, “such a seamless web that it is impossible to calibrate the Negro within it or to ravel him from it” (Huggins, 309). Huggins argument is really brought to life through his use of historical evidence found in influential poetry from the time period. When analyzing why African Americans were having an identity crisis he looked to a common place that African American looked to. Africa was a common identifier among the black community for obvious reasons and was where Authors and Artists looked for inspiration. African American artists adopted the simple black silhouette and angular art found in original African pieces. Authors looked to Africa in their poetry. In The Negro Speaks of Rivers by Langston Hughes, the names of rivers in Africa such as the Euphrates, the Congo and the Nile were all used and then the scene switches to the Mississippi river found in America showing that blacks have “seen”, or experienced both. Huggins looks deeply into Countee Cullen’s Heritage discussing “what is Africa to me?” a common identifier that united black artistry in the Harlem Renaissance, “Africa? A book one thumbs listlessly, till slumber comes” (Countee). The black community craved to be a separate society from white Americans so they were forced to go back to the past to find their heritage, before America and white oppression. Huggins finds an amazing variety of evidence within literature of this time period, exposing the raw feelings and emotion behind this intellectual movement. The connections he makes within these pieces of poetry are accurate and strong, supporting his initial thesis
Life was difficult for blacks, as they did not have many liberties. To exaggerate the feelings of the reader, poets use different forms of literary devices in the voice of the speaker to perform great roles. In “As I Grew Older,” Langston Hughes uses a unique structure, tone, imagery, and symbols to express the feelings of the black community regarding racism and oppression.
In the poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, written by Langston Hughes, and the poem, For My Children, written by Colleen McElroy both mention the rivers that their people have lived next to in Africa and in America. Langston Hughes mentions the rivers in Africa as a reminder of where his people used to live, and how their past still lives with in the deep waters of the African rivers. Yet, he mentions the rivers he lived by in America, and how those rivers are also where his people’s past lives. His idea in the poem was to address how all of...
“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” –Edgar Allan Poe. Poetry is one of the world’s greatest wonders. It is a way to tell a story, raise awareness of a social or political issue, an expression of emotions, an outlet, and last but not least it is an art. Famous poet Langston Hughes uses his poetry as a musical art form to raise awareness of social injustices towards African-Americans during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Although many poets share similarities with one another, Hughes creatively crafted his poetry in a way that was only unique to him during the 1920’s. He implemented different techniques and styles in his poetry that not only helped him excel during the 1920’s, but has also kept him relative in modern times. Famous poems of his such as a “Dream Deferred,” and “I, Too, Sing America” are still being studied and discussed today. Due to the cultural and historical events occurring during the 1920’s Langston Hughes was able to implement unique writing characteristics such as such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues that is demonstrative of his writing style. Langston Hughes use of distinct characteristics such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues helped highlight the plights of African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance Era.
... 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.
Lastly, Langston Hughes’s poem, “The Negro Speaks Of Rivers”, ends with “I’ve known rivers: / Ancient, dusky rivers. / My soul has grown deep like the rivers (8-10). The speaker voices out his last breath to which from an analytical standpoint, the theme of death arises. Langston Hughes follows T.S. Eliot’s suggestion as he cries out for the African-American race to alienate themselves by embracing their own artistic form, claiming that black is beautiful.
Both Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes were great writers but their attitudes towards their personal experience as an African American differed in many ways. These differences can be attributed to various reasons that range from gender to life experience but even though they had different perceptions regarding the African American experience, they both shared one common goal, racial equality through art. To accurately delve into the minds of the writers’ one must first consider authors background such as their childhood experience, education, as well their early adulthood to truly understand how it affected their writing in terms the similarities and differences of the voice and themes used with the works “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Hurston and Hughes’ “The Negro Mother”. The importance of these factors directly correlate to how each author came to find their literary inspiration and voice that attributed to their works.
The poem “Negro” was written by Langston Hughes in 1958 where it was a time of African American development and the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. Langston Hughes, as a first person narrator tells a story of what he has been through as a Negro, and the life he is proud to have had. He expresses his emotional experiences and makes the reader think about what exactly it was like to live his life during this time. By using specific words, this allows the reader to envision the different situations he has been put through. Starting off the poem with the statement “I am a Negro:” lets people know who he is, Hughes continues by saying, “ Black as the night is black, /Black like the depths of my Africa.” He identifies Africa as being his and is proud to be as dark as night, and as black as the depths of the heart of his country. Being proud of him self, heritage and culture is clearly shown in this first stanza.
"The Negro Speaks of Rivers." Literary Themes for Students: Race and Prejudice. Ed. Anne Marie Hacht. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 374-84. Literary Themes for Students. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
Langston Hughes is one of the most famous poets of the Harlem Renaissance. He was born in Mississippi in 1902 and later moved to Ohio where he attended Central High School. When Hughes graduated high school he went to Mexico to visit his father and while crossing the Mississippi River he was inspired to write “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, which was his first published poem when he was eighteen years old. When Hughes returned to the United States in 1924 the Harlem Renaissance was in “full swing”. In 1925 at the age of twenty-three Hughes received an award for his poem “The Weary Blues”, Hughes was famous for incorporating blues and jazz rhymes into his poetry, which is what he did in his poem “The Weary Blues”. Hughes was at a banquet where he received an award for his poem “The Weary Blues” and was asked by a man named Carl Van Vechten if he had enough poems to make a book. Hughes said yes and Van Vechten promised that he would find Hughes ...
Through the exemplary use of symbolism, Langston Hughes produced two poems that spoke to a singular idea: Black people have prevailed through trials and tribulations to carry on their legacy as a persevering people. From rivers to stairs, Hughes use of extended metaphor emphasizes the feeling of motion which epitomizes the determination of the people. Overall, the driving feeling of the poems coupled with their strong imagery produce two different works that solidify and validate one main idea.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes is a compelling poem in which Hughes explores not only his own past, but the past of the black race. As the rivers deepen over time, the Negro's soul does too; their waters eternally flow, as the black soul suffers.
Symbolism embodies Hughes’ literary poem through his use of the river as a timeless symbol. A river can be portrayed by many as an everlasting symbol of perpetual and continual change and of the constancy of time and of life itself. People have equated rivers to the aspects of life - time, love, death, and every other indescribable quality which evokes human life. This analogy is because a river exemplifies characteristics that can be ultimately damaging or explicitly peaceable. In the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” Langston Hughes cites all of these qualities.
In this essay I will be arguing how Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou similar writing styles affected their community and brought to light a positive way of thinking. Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, and novelist from Missouri. Hughes played an influential role in the Harlem Renaissance era. Hughes was known for being conscious and it echoed in his work. He used music as well as imagery to tell the world the struggles that African-Americans endure in their era. Hughes poems told stories that were relatable and reflected his community. Maya Angelou was an American poet, actress, civil rights activist, along with many other things. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked alongside with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and