Poetry Explication Of Mother To Son

     The third quality that Langston Hughes uses in his poem is the tone of the speaker. When she explains to him not to “set you down on the steps / ‘Cause your find it’s kinder hard. / Don’t you fall down now,” the tone in her words in compassionate (Hughes 232). The mother is simply trying to tell her son that she knows what he is going through because she has been in rough times herself. Those rough times were troublesome but she had the strength to go on and get past them. All she wants for her son is for him to keep climbing, and never give up. Winslow believes that this “enduring exuberance” shows her youthful spirit towards life (262). She wants this all because “[she is] still goin’, honey, / [she is] still climbin’, / and life for [her] ain’t

The poet begins the poem by motivating and inspiring her son to be fearless using an extended metaphor. He begins comparing the mother’s life and a crystal stair. The mother begins saying, “ Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” compares an easy and pleasant journey through life to her journey of life that has not been easy and pleasant. The use of extended metaphor comparing the mother’s life to a staircase continues throughout the poem, repeating the line, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.” Furthermore, life has never been easy or free of problems and it has never been smooth sailing. The tacks, splinters, and

Well, son, I’ll tell you: Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And places with no carpet on the floor— Bare. But all the time I’se been a-climbin’ on, And reachin’ landin’s, And turnin’ corners, And sometimes goin’ in the dark. Where there ain’t been no light. So boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps ’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. Don’t you fall now— For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’, And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

the mom says to her son that lifestyles has not been a “crystal stair” it has had tacks and splinters and torn boards on it, as good as areas without carpet. The stair is naked. however, she still climbs on, achieving landings, turning corners, and persevering in the darkish while there is no moderate. She commands him, “So boy, don’t you switch again.” She instructs him now not to go back down the stairs despite the fact that he thinks climbing is rough. He must are trying to not fall due to the fact that his mom is still going, nonetheless mountaineering, and her lifestyles “ain’t been no crystal stair.” Hughes wrote "mother to Son" When he was as soon as 21 years historical. He structures the poem as a dialog between a mom and her son. It 's free verse and written within the vernacular, that means that it mimics the patterns of speech and diction of conversation. The mummy starts with the aid of telling her son how tough her life has been it has no longer been a "crystal stair." Hughes Then develops the metaphor of a staircase additional, as the mother describes the challenges in her lifestyles using symbols like tacks, splinters, uncarpeted flooring, and dark, unlit corners. She exhorts her son not to flip again, due to the fact that she

The metaphor in this poem conjoins life, and a staircase, "Well, son, I'll tell you:/ life for me ain't been no crystal stair." The mother says to her son, that

The poet, Langston Hughes, was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes’s grandmother was an activist for women’s education and rights. Both of Hughes’s parents were mulattos, meaning he had interracial maternal and paternal grandparents. Hughes writes about this situation in his poem titled, “Mulatto.” Hughes states things like “...a black mother and an uncaring white father” (Slovey and Howes 211). By using many writing styles and tools, Hughes gets his point across easier by making the reader feel like they’re in the moment of the poem. In Hughes’s poem, “Mother to Son,” a mother offers wisdom to her son and the younger generations using her way of language and old slang that connect them to each other’s life and hardships.

Unfortunately, the mother experiences tough times, which Hughes clearly conveys through his word choice. Hughes metaphorically compares life to a crystal stair, which the mother’s life has not been. By using the crystal stair comparison Hughes allows the reader to relate to the reality of the mother’s life. A crystal stair is imagined to be perfect, pleasant, and beautiful, thus representing a charmed life. However, in actuality, no life is without imperfection. Throughout the poem the mother insists for her son to persevere and continue climbing the staircase of life; the reader can sense desperation in the mother’s words. In the verse, “So boy, don’t you turn back,” Hughes reveals the anxious nature of the mother while also characterizing the son (Hughes 14). Consequently, the son is also perceived as climbing an obstacle-ridden staircase and struggling to continue on. Fortunately, the son has a hopeful mother to encourage him to

In the poem “Mother to Son”, Langston Hughes uses the deep connection between a mother and her son and descriptive rhetoric to bring hope and inspire the African American people to fight for their rights.The author most likely wrote the poem for the African American audience because it is written in an African American slang during the Harlem Renaissance. However, any minority group can relate to this creation because it is about people who are going through a difficult time. Hughes describes the arduous reality of life; one in which people have to overcome challenges and face their worst fears in order to reach the top of the ladder. He is telling the African American people that they cannot give up during the hard times. Moreover, the author utilized the deep connection between a mother and her son to make the poem more dramatic. Since mothers are known to have a soft and caring voice towards their children. They traditionally will do anything for their kids. This drama appeals to the readers and gives them hope for the future. The future consists of fulfilling their American dream. The American cream stands for the idea that every person should have an equal opportunity to achieve prosperity and success through hard work and determination. Next, Langston Hughes hoped to encourage the African American people to fight for their rights. To drive his point home, the author described his journey through time in painstaking detail, which helps the readers connect to the

I found some examples of alliteration, assonance, and repetition. An example of alliteration that I found in the poem is in line 11, it states, “so nothing’s shocking there, and you even make some money!” The letter that is repeated is the “S” sound. Another example of alliteration that I found is in line 3 it says, “It’s not what I intended, but I do let it go to my head occasionally”. It demonstrates that the sound of I is being repeated.

Langston Hughes was a substantial American poet, playwright, and novelist who was a major contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s because of his African American themes. He sought to voice the stories of his people in methods that revealed their actual culture, including their suffering, their love of music, and language. In his poem, “Mother to Son”, a mother tells her son about the sufferings she has faced, but continued to live life constantly knocking down each obstacle relentlessly. She advises him to follow the tradition and never stop working hard. By using many literary devices, Langston Hughes portrays the hardships faced by Africans in the twenties through sixties vividly.

The poetic form of this poem is a free verse narrative with quatrains. Some exact rhyme is used, as seen in lines 1 and 2 of stanzas 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9. “spring summer winter autumn”, in stanzas 1, 3 and 9, is repetition that expresses the passing of time. (Notice the word order change each time the seasons are mentioned in the poem.) Alliteration is used in line 4 in the phrase “he sang his didn’t and danced his did.” “wish by spirit and if by yes” in line 32 employs assonance. Consonance can be seen in “sun moon… rain” in lines 8, 21 and 36, as well as in “kiss his face” in line 26.

This is a poem about a mother telling her son about her life, referring it to “no crystal stair.” Instead, the stairs were rugged and torn, symbolising that her life had been hard and that she had gone through tough times. This stanza shows why the mother wants to give her son advice, because she had also experienced hardships in life.

It appears that Langston Hughes message in the poem is to be optimistic when dealing with hard times and how the struggles of everyday life should not prevent you from accomplishing more in life. The line "Life for me ain 't been no crystal stair." (Langston 2) was stated in the start and the conclusion of the poem. It makes it clear to the reader that the mother has

At the beginning of the poem, Langston imitates his mother by saying that life for her has not been “no crystal stair case”. As you can see Langston started off using a metaphor to depict the message of the hard life that his mother had.

The beginning of the story starts off with the speaker’s somber words of life’s difficulties, thus, setting the mood to a glum start. Addressing her son, the speaker says, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. It’s had tacks in it. And splinters…” Her blunt tone makes the story seem much more personal; there is not any sugar coating in her tone which is exactly what would be expected of a mother. By trying not to set false expectations on the easiness of life, Hughes uses a blunt tone from the speaker to let her son know how life really is. By setting off the mood of the story as drab, the later transition of tone will be more effective.