Poetry Project by kenn y

Langston Hughes Biography

kendralry — 2017-04-06 02:19:09 UTC

Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin Missouri. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen when he decided to live with his mother and step father in Cleveland, Ohio. It was at this point of his life when he began to write poetry. Not too long after he graduated high school, he moved to Washington D.C. and published his book of poetry, The Weary Blues, (Knopf, 1926). Three years later, Hughes graduated college at Lincoln University and later won the Harmon gold medal for literature in 1930. Langston Hughes pins his major influences on Paul Dunbar, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandberg. He was primarily interested in conveying the times of black life in America from the twenties to the sixties, which can be seen throughout many of his works. Besides his many works of poetry, Hughes wrote eleven plays and prose during his lifetime such as Simple Speaks His Mind, (Simon & Schuster, 1950); Simple Stakes a Claim, (Rinehart, 1957); Simple’s Uncle Sam (Hill and Wang, 1965); and Simple Takes a Wife, (Simon & Schuster, 1953). On May 22, 1967, Langston Hughes died from prostate cancer in New York City. As a result of his impact that his various forms of writing made, the New York Preservation Commission made his residence a landmark as well as renamed a street "Langston Hughes Place."

"Langston Hughes." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 01 Aug. 2016. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

Langston Hughes

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-06 02:43:44 UTC

Dreams (1945)

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-06 02:47:26 UTC

Hold fast to dreams 
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Hughes, Langston. "Dreams." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 17 June 2016. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.

I, Too (1945)

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-06 02:50:12 UTC

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides, 
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.

Hughes, Langston. "I, Too." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, 03 Jan. 2017. Web. 05 Apr. 2017.

Literary Terms

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-06 03:06:34 UTC

Rhyme- words rhyme when the sounds of their accented vowels and all succeeding sounds are identical.
"For if dreams die/ That cannot fly" (Dreams, lines 1 and 3). The last words in the first and third lines rhyme, resulting in the ABCB rhyme scheme.

Ballad- a song-like poem that tells a story, often one dealing with adventure or romance . Ballads often employ repetition of a refrain
"I, too, sing America/ I, too, am America" (I, Too, line 1 and 20). The first line in stanza 1 is repeated again in the last line in the poem, only with a one word difference, to show emphasis.

Free verse- poetry which is not written in a traditional meter but us still rhythmical
"Besides,/ They'll see how beautiful/ I am/ And be ashamed-" (I, Too, stanza 4). The number of lines in each stanza isn't consistent, for example stanza 4 has 4 lines while the other stanzas have either 1 or 7 lines.

Personification- when a nonhuman object is given human characteristics
"Hold fast to dreams/For if dreams die...." (Dreams, stanza 1). Hughes mentions dreams dying, which is only possible for a living thing to do.

Metaphor- a comparison between two unlike things without using "like" or "as"
"Life is a broken-winged bird/ That cannot fly" (Dreams, stanza 1). The author compares life to a "broken-winged bird" to portray that life is a struggle.

Parallelism- the repetition of a grammatical pattern to express ideas that are related or equal in importance
"I, too, sing America/ I too, am America" (I, Too, stanzas 1 and 5). The commas are placed in the same spots, emphasizing the importance of both lines.

Dreams; Poem Insight

kendralry — 2017-04-06 05:20:51 UTC

Dreams by Langston Hughes is a short two stanza poem, yet it gives a very inspirational message. The theme of this poem is to always focus on ones dreams and to never give up on them. The structure of this poem is set up as an ABCB rhyme scheme. This can be seen in both stanzas as the word "die" in the second line rhymes with the word "fly" in the fourth line. Hughes wrote this piece because of his vision for African-American treatment during the 1920's and so on. He always firmly believed in equality among races which explains the motive behind writing Dreams, as this poem exemplifies how life is meaningless and hopeless without having one. In the 1920's, Hughes was apart of the Harlem Renaissance literary movement. It was because of this historical context that Langston Hughes wrote about the streets of Harlem.

"What Is the Poem "Dreams" by Langston Hughes About?" Reference. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2017.

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-07 01:34:24 UTC

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-07 01:36:06 UTC

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-07 01:37:07 UTC

I, Too; Poem Insight

nathaliebejarano — 2017-04-07 01:44:10 UTC

I, Too by Langston Hughes is one of his many poems that relates to the segregation issues in the 1920's. The poem itself has no specific rhyme scheme, nor does it have a formal structure, but it does have specific punctuation and capitalization. Every phrase begins with a capital letter and ends with a either a period or a comma. The meaning behind this poem, is to show Hughes' insight on the segregation being present during his time. Hughes talks about how he is mis-treated from the whites, but then goes to say how the future will be different and he will no longer be treated differently because of the color of his skin.