The Harlem RENAISSANCE Selected POETRy READING 3 Understand, makE By Langston Hughes INFERENCES, and drAw cONCLUSIONS ABOUT the strucTURe and elemenTS VIDEO TRAILER KEYWORD: HML11-878A Of poetrY. Analyze the efFECTS Of metrics, rhyme schemes, and other cONVENtions in American POETRY. -EET the AUTHOR Langston Hughes 1902–1967 Langston Hughes was one of the leading poems, including “The Weary Blues,” poets of the Harlem Renaissance as well as beside Lindsay’s plate. Lindsay liked the an accomplished novelist, playwright, and poems, and the next morning’s newspapers DId You know? essayist. His writings center on poor and reported Lindsay’s discovery of the Langston Hughes . working-class African Americans, a group “busboy poet.” whom literature had generally ignored. • Was one of the first A year later, Hughes published his first African Americans To Early InspirAtions James Mercer Langston poetry collection, The Weary Blues. His earn a living solely FRom writing. Hughes started writing poetry in seventh gritty depiction of “workers, roustabouts, grade, when his classmates elected him and singers and job hunters” angered • Was dubbed the “poet LOW-rAte” of Harlem by class poet. He admired the work of Paul some African-American critics who felt some African-American Laurence Dunbar and Carl Sandburg, two that members of the race should always INTELLECtuals. poets known for their efforts to capture be portrayed in the best possible light. • WRote radio jingles the voices of everyday Americans. After Hughes responded to these criticisms, during World War II To graduating from high school, Hughes went saying, “I knew only the people I had PRomote the purchase to live with his father in Mexico, where grown up with, and they weren’t people Of war bonds. he became fluent in Spanish. On the train whose shoes were always shined. But journey south, he composed what would they seemed to me good people, too.” become one of his most famous poems, POET LaurEAte of Harlem As a poet, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” Hughes kept his language direct; he made Busboy POET In 1921, Hughes enrolled no attempt to be obscure or pretentious. at Columbia University in New York He celebrated the lively nightlife and the CCity.ity. He left after one yyear to everyday experiences of working-class ttravelravel the world aass a cook’s African Americans, often re-creating aassistantssistant aboard a ship. In the structures and rhythms of blues and 11925,925, Hughes ssettled in jazz music in works such as Montage of Washington, DD.C.,. and a Dream Deferred (1951), a book-length ttookook a job busibusingn tables suite of related poems. Hughes became aatt a hotel restaurant.restaur One informally known as the Poet Laureate dayday Vachel Lindsay,Lindsa a well- of Harlem and today is universally knownknown poet, camecame to the recognized as the most influential voice hotel.hotel. Hughes musteredmus the of the Harlem Renaissance. couragecourage to slip threethre of his Author Online Go To THINKCENTRal.COM. KEYWORD: HML11-878B 878 LITERARy analYsis: speakeR You know THAT THE speaker Of a poem, like the narrATor of a stORY, is the vOICe THAT TALKs To the rEADER. In his poems, Langston Hughes crEAted speakers who rEPRESENted imporTANT What shapes your ASPECts of African-American culturE. Sometimes his speaker is identity? the vOICe of the culture itself. I’Ve known rivers ancienT as the world and older than the Hughes wrote poetry To honor his FLOw of human blood in human veins. African-American heritage, but he DIDN’t limit himself To grEAT heroes and Hughes also uses his speakers To porTRAy the joYs and struggles HISTorical eVENts. For Hughes, it was the Of working-class African Americans. VIBRANT culture of eVERYDAy people— In a deep song vOICe with a melancholy TONE their music, their slang, and their I heard THAT Negro sing, THAT old piano moan— EXPERIENCes of life in the city—thaT As you read each poem, TRy To idenTIFy the speaker of the shaped his sense of idenTITY. poem and whaT aspects of African-American life the speaker DISCUSS WhaT eVERYDAy eXPERIENCes describes. help shape your identity? List images and activities THAT charACTERIZe the READIng skill: analYze rhythm and rePETITION WAy you live: the sounds and smells of When Hughes began writing, most African-American poets Your neighborhood, the places you gO, tried To sound like the white poets THEy read in school. Instead, the foods you eat, and so on. In a small Hughes drEw his inspirAtion from jazz and blues music, using GROUP, cOMPARe your ansWers. Which the rhYthm and repetition of these musical forms To strucTURe EXPERIENCES, if anY, do group members his poetrY. Musical elements found in Hughes’s poetry include HAVe in common? • JAZZ-influenced RHYthm (the pattern of stressed and UNSTRessed sYLLABLES) THAT fEATURes strong acCENTS, quick CHANGes in rhYthm, and irregular beaTS • RHYTHMIC rEPETITION of wORds and phrASES, like THAT used in blues lyrics • the REFRain, one or more rEPEAted lines of poetry THAT FUNCtion like the chorus of a song As you read each poem, use a charT like the one shown To RECORd eXamples of these musical patterns. Rhythm Repetition Refrain COMPLETe tHe acTIVITIEs in yOUr READER/WRITER NOTEBOOK. 879 (ARLEM Langston Hughes What happens to a dream deferred? Analyze Visuals WhaT elements of this Does it dry up PAINting help capture the like a raisin in the sun? thriving strEET life in Harlem? Or fester like a sore— 5 And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet? A A RHYTHM AND REPETITION Maybe it just sags IdenTIFy the pattern of STResses in lines 2–8. 10 like a heavy load. Which wORds are EMPHASIZed by this Or does it explode? RHYthm? ,ITERARy AnalySIS 1. #LARIFy WHAt dOEs tHe sPEAKEr mEAn by “a dREAm dEFERRED”? 2. -AKe INFERENCEs WHAt sOCIAl or pOLITICAl cONSEQUENCEs aRe HINTEd at in tHe pOEM’s lASt lINE? Street Shadows (1959), Jacob Lawrence. Egg tempera on hardboard, 3. )NTERPREt FIGURATIVe LANGUAGe LiSt tHe SIMILES tHe sPEAKEr 24˝ × 30˝. Private collection, New USEs to dESCRIBe tHe eFFECt of a dEFERREd dREAM. WHAt do York. Photograph courtesy of Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence/Art THESe cOMPARISONs rEVEAl aBOUt tHe sPEAKER’s aTTITUDE? Resource, New York. © 2008 The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle/ Artists Rights 880 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism Society (ARS), New York. 4HE .EGRO 3PEAKS OF 2IVERS Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks of Rivers (1998), Phoebe Beasley. Silkscreen. © Phoebe Beasley. I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. B B 30%!+%2 RERead lines 1–3. WhaT My soul has grown deep like the rivers. TRaits of the speakers are EMPHASIZed by Hughes’s WORd choice? 5 I bathed in the Euphrates1 when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans,2 and I’ve seen its muddy 10 bosom turn all golden in the sunset. I’ve known rivers: C 2(94HM AN$ 2%0%4)4)/. Ancient, dusky3 rivers. RERead the poem. Which line serVes as the poem’S My soul has grown deep like the rivers. C REFRain? 1. EuphrAtes (yL-frAPtCz): a river flowing THRough prESENT-DAy TURKEY, Syria, and Iraq. The vALLEy between the Tigris and EuphrAtes rivers was the site of one of the world’s EARLIEST civilizAtions. 2. when Abe Lincoln wENT down To New Orleans: LincOLN’s first glimpse of the horrors Of slaVERy rEPORtedly came on his trip To New Orleans as a young man. 3. DUSKY: dark; shadoWY. 882 unit 5: the harlem renaissance and modernism I, Too Langston Hughes I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, 5 But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. D D SPEAKER RERead lines 1–7. IdenTIFy Tomorrow, the speaker of the poem. WhaT aspects of I’ll be at the table the African-American 10 When company comes. EXPERIENCe does the Nobody’ll dare SPEAKer describe? Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. 15 Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed— I, too, am America. ,ITERARy AnalySIS 1. 3UMMARIZE In “I, TOO,” wHAt is tHe sPEAKER’s aTTITUDe tOWARd AmERICA? 2. )NTERPREt IMAGERy WHAt is tHe sIGNIFICANCe of tHe fOUr rIVERs MENTIONEd in “THe NEGRo SPEAKs of RIVERS”? 3. #OMPARe and CONTRASt SPEAKERs WHAt qUALITIEs do tHe sPEAKERs Of bOTh pOEMs sHARE? In wHAt wAYs aRe tHEy dIFFERENT? the negro speaks of rivers / i, too 883 4HE 7EARY "LUES Langston Hughes Droning a drowsy syncopated1 tune, Language Coach Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, CONNOTAtion The I heard a Negro play. IMAGes or feelings you Down on Lenox Avenue2 the other night CONNECT To a wORd add a 3 finer shade of meaning, 5 By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light called CONNOTAtion. He did a lazy sway. #ROON (line 2) means He did a lazy sway. “SOFt, senTIMENtal song.” To the tune o’ those Weary Blues. WhaT other wORds in With his ebony hands on each ivory key lines 1–2 share crOON’s calm cONNOTAtions? 10 He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues! Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues! 15 Coming from a black man’s soul.