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Being of mixed race, much of Langston Hughes’ poetry deals with the struggles of living in America as a minority, or in his case as an African American. Some of his early poetry can be read as more optimistic regarding the plight of his race and the oppression they experienced than most African Americans would tend to think during the early 20th century, with a voice that seemed to be uniquely of his own background--not of the dominant white voice, but one that came out of an African American heritage. This optimistic voice can be heard in four of Hughes’ poems, in which he deals with topics such as racial pride and the everyday lives of African Americans: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “I, Too,” “Mother to Son,” and “Ballad of the Landlord.”
One of Hughes’ first poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” punctuates his unique voice as an African American through its free-verse form. This poem sets the stage for Hughes’ optimist outlook on life, as he writes about the collective experience of his ancestors. The rivers Hughes speaks of in the poem range from those in the land of his ancestors in Africa, such as the Euphrates and the Congo, to rivers he himself has experience
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The blues have long been considered an integral part of Black American culture. ” One instance in which Hughes dramatizes the necessity for this “release” is in his poem “In a Troubled Key,” in which the singer of the poem laments the dirty treatments he has received from his woman:
Still I can’t help lovin’ you,
Even though you do me wrong. Plus, the reader/listener can get the feeling that the mood of the blues is often one step away form death—either murder or suicide—and that the presence of the blues form makes it possible for the anguished one to direct his sorrow inward into song and find happiness in the release. “I, Too” also incorporates the sense of racial pride that Hughes felt, in the last lines of the second stanza, “But I laugh,/And eat well,/And grow strong. Although this poem can be read as a claim for recognition and acceptance, Hughes also seems to be lobbying for a kind of kinship between whites and blacks by incorporating “America” into the poem. ” In these words, Hughes is empowering the African American race to see themselves as equal human beings to whites.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
Perhaps one way African American artists, such as Hughes, dealt with discrimination and their overall plight was to release depressed feelings and thoughts into the Blues. From these rivers Hughes is able to draw spiritual strength and personal identity, as he reflects on the roots that have grown wide and spread to America to give him his own life, a life that he seems to be grateful for. ”
Perhaps the one poem that embodies Hughes’ optimistic outlook despite oppression is “I, Too.
Finally, one last poem that testifies to Hughes’ use of racial pride and optimism in his early work is “Ballad of the Landlord,” in which a disgruntled tenant argues with and refuses to pay his oppressive landlord in a both humorous and social criticism. ” It is fitting, then, that one of America’s most revered poets chose the Blues to express himself in so many poems. The America Hughes is envisioning brings everyone together to eat at the same table, regardless of race or ethnicity.
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