Emily Dickenson and Langston Hughes Poems

Allison Swavy Comp101 Professor Tom Joyce Emily Dickenson and Langston Hughes Poems November 15th, 2005

There have been many great poetry writers throughout history. Some include

Edgar Allen Poe, E.E. Cummings, and Walt Whitman. Two poets in particular are

Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes. Their poetry has made an impact of the literary world. Both poets use their lives as inspiration for their writings. Emily

Dickinson’s writings often have a theme of loneliness to them whereas Langston

Hughes’s have a theme tied in with the lives of African Americans from the twenties to the sixties.

Emily Dickinson’s poem I heard a Fly Buzz is a perfect example of how her loneliness is portrayed in her poetry. The poem speaks of a person who is slowly dying and in their last moments of life they hear a fly buzz and see it sitting upon the window. Usually when a fly is buzzing around a piece of flesh like a humans it is because it is dead and rotting. Since this person was not dead yet on the outside it could be a thought that the person was dead on the inside. Since the person is dead on the inside then they are more than likely to feel alone because they have no feelings or emotions and think they have nothing to live for. It is also very gloomy how Emily Dickinson portrays how the environment is as the person is living their last moments of life. She states “The stillness in the Room, Was like the stillness in the air- between the heaves of storm-.” It gives the reader the sense of abandonment because no one is with them on their dying day.

Langston Hughes on the other hand carries a more uplifting notion. His poem Park Bench portrays how society has two different people, those who have money and those who do not. “I live on a park bench, You Park Avenue, Hell of a distance, Between us two.” Some people can live a life of poorness and hardship and yet can still have hope and dreams of being rich. “I beg a dime for dinner- ,

You got a butler and maid. But I’m wakin’ up! Say, ain’t you afraid, That I might, just maybe, in a year or two, move on over to Park Avenue?” For many people it is hopes and dreams that can get them through the day, everyday. Even if certain people do not need hopes and dreams to get them through the day, a person who lacks hopes and dreams has nothing to live for and therefore is not living life to the fullest. The person in this poem obviously dreams of a richer life on Park Avenue and with a little luck he or she might get there. Who is to say that they would not?

A common theme between the two poems though is an American voice. In

Emily Dickinson’s poem I heard a Fly Buzz it displays how a person dies alone.

This is common for a lot of elderly people and even some young people too.

Elderly people feel alone because all there friends have died around them whereas younger people, even though surrounded by friends, feel alone because they think no one cares about them. It is a depressing and gloomy American voice that holds true with a lot of Americans at one point or another. However the poem Park

Bench, by Langston Hughes, gives the reader an uplifting feeling. After reading it you feel that even though you are down in the dumps you can hold on to your hopes and dreams and rise to the top again. The American voice here is the

American dream. What is the American dream? It is believed that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve prosperity.

Two famous American poetry writers, Emily Dickinson and Langston

Hughes, share a common thread of an American voice in their poetry. However, one is a more gloomier American voice and the other is an uplifting American voice. The two poems Park Bench, and I heard a Fly Buzz counter balance each other.