This Is Just To Say By William Carlos Williams

Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano are both victims of captivity and share their stories through detailed personal experiences in their narratives on captivity. Rowlandson was an American settler that faced the hardship of being captured during a period where tension was high between Native Americans and the American settlers. Equiano shares a similar story growing up in Guinea west of modern day Nigeria, a major slave trade port in Africa where Nigerians were kidnapped and sold into slavery. Comparing the historical context that led to the captures of both Rowlandson and Equiano, to their depictions in their narratives are important because they are the events that took place in society that sparked the narratives of captivity written by

“I too” by Langston Hughes and “Dreams” by Nikki Giovanni are poems concerning conformity and rebellion. I too was published in the 1926 volume of poetry by Langston Hughes. It is about an African American man, who is “either a slave, a free man in the Jim Crow South, or even a domestic servant”, that conforms to the ideas and traditions between black and white people. He does this, while quietly waiting for the day that he will not have to conform or “stay in the kitchen” anymore. Dreams is about a black girl who dreams to be famous singer when she is a child. However, as she grows older, and starts to understand the labels and roles black girls are put in in society at the time, she conforms to the idea of settling down and letting her

Have you ever help someone that try to do you wrong? ¨Thank You, M'am.¨ by Langston Hughes is about a woman that helps out a young man. ¨ A Victim Treats His Mugger Right¨ by Michael Garofalo is about a man that helps the guy that try to steal from him. Julio Diaz and Mrs. Jones both help this young boys in many ways when they try to do something bad to them.Mrs. Jones and Julio Diaz have many things in common.

The fourth stanza reads, “Last evening we went dancing and I broke your leg. Forgive me. I was clumsy, and I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!” After this fourth stanza, the insight I gained from this parody version was that it had somewhat of a cruel tone to it while This is Just to Say had an innocence about it. Kenneth Koch’s version was cruel in the sense that the tone I felt from it was one of trickery. I felt that he was not really sorry for the times when he said, “forgive me.” I feel this way because of the line in the fourth stanza that reads, “I wanted you here in the wards, where I am the doctor!” After reading that part it leads me to believe that everything else he did was deceitful and he knew what he was doing the whole time. Also, a question the arose was that if he is the doctor for the other person in the poem, who knows what else he will do since it’s clear that he really doesn’t like this person? It just sounds evil and deceitful. Overall, the meaning of this poem is completely different from that of Williams Carlos Williams’ poem in that this one takes an evil tone while that one is more innocent. “Variations on a Theme,” is also a lot longer in comparison to “This is Just to Say.” In similarity, they are both narrative poems in that they are both telling a story.

In conclusion, the poem is a confession from the writer for eating plums, which belonged to someone else, and then asking them to forgive the writer but never actually, after asking to be forgiven the writer then describes how delicious the plums were to the reader either in a “just wanting to let you know they were good” kind of way or “this is what you missed out

Claude McKay’s 1919 sonnet, “If We Must Die”, came at a time when African-American lives were conditional, and seemingly dependent on the actions of the white community. McKay’s choice to write his poem in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet, a form usually reserved for flowery love language, could be attributed to either establishing his worth as a writer to a community not so accepting of black writers and/or to use an easily understood format to convey the strong message of injustice within American society at the time. The times surrounding this poem was an era of hostility and racial tension, where the lives of black men were less valued than their white counterparts. McKay’s “If We Must Die” is reminiscent of a speech which rallies a group of soldiers going into battle. However, rather than soldiers, the audience is the African-American community dealing with their day-to-day lives.

Langston Hughes declares that America should be America again. He starts to say in the beginning, "America was never America to me." He says America should go back to being the dream that the dreamers had, and be a "great strong land of love." There should not be kings or tyrants or people being crushed by someone above them. The speaker repeats, "It never was America to me." Hughes wants his land to embody liberty - not just by wearing a false patriotic wreath on its head, but through pervasive opportunity and equality. The speaker claims that he has never experienced freedom or equality in

When Jean Louise “Scout” Finch returns home to Maycomb County Alabama, she never expected the mindset of the people in her hometown to change. Maycomb would become more advanced and modern, but the views of the people she loved and grew up with, never would. “Until comparatively recently in its history, Maycomb County was so cut off from the rest of the nation that some of its citizens, unaware of the South’s political predilections over the past ninety years, still voted Republican.” (Lee 7). Since Maycomb is so distant from the awareness of certain historical events taking place in the mid 1950s, Scout does not expect to find a change in people’s mind relating to civil rights. When Scout first arrives home and sees people like Atticus, Aunt

"I'm not modest," she told The Associated Press in 2013. "I have no modesty. Modesty is a learned behavior, but I do pray for humility, because humility comes from the inside out."

The poem “Let America Be America Again,” by Langston Hughes, brings up two sides to the discussion about what America means to people. It discusses the fact that to some people, America is an amazing land, where people are free from oppression and have rights. The poem, however, does not neglect the fact that there are people who have never experienced those freedoms and rights, nor does it neglect the fact that the people who have not experienced those rights also live in America. The issue about people living in America but never experiencing rights that are thought to be American was very prominent at the time that Hughes wrote the poem. Now the discussion is not “what it means to live in America” but “what it means to love America.” The issue contemplates whether someone can love America and still notice its flaws; or, if in order to love America one must neglect its ugly truths and only focus on the great accomplishments. One of the main causes for this discussion derive from the fact that right-winged people claim that Obama does not love America. However, they fail to see that in order to love something you must also notice its flaws and fix them.

On Monday, it was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This day is to reflect on the past, see all the good that has been accomplished, and the work that still needs to be done for minorities. This holiday is very different for white suburban children who simply think it’s a blessing that there is no school, who are completely oblivious to the oppression that African Americans faced and continue to face today. White suburban children have probably never heard of the Little Rock Nine. If they have, it 's because they had to learn about it or take an F. White suburban kids will never face the hatred and discrimination that Melba or the rest of the Little Rock Nine encountered. In the book Warriors Don’t Cry Melba and the rest of the Little Rock Nine had to overcome extraordinary obstacles that white suburban children will never have to face. Nine school children were trying to get an education and were treated inhumanely. The strength that Melba endured is inspiring.

In the poem "This Is Just to Say" by William Carlos Williams, the narrator concedes to consuming the audience’s

“Let America Be America Again” focuses on the idea of the American dream and how for many wanting freedom, equality and happiness which the dream itself to begin impossible to attain

Majority of African American women get judged on the day to day basis. When scrolling through social media there will be large amounts of individuals who will bully or even belittle a colored female because of the natural kinks of her hair, her sense of fashion, the full shaped curves of her body, and the color of her skin . The poem “Still I Rise” by the well-known poet, Maya Angelou, specifically describes the reasons why she had so much confidence; even if she were to be judged by her appearances and mindset. This poem is about embracing females, but it mainly introduces similar life situations that many African American women have experienced. The symbols and point of view that Angelou specifically added in her poem made her readers realize that there are many meanings to this poem.

In an excerpt from her novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings called “Graduation,” Maya Angelou narrates the anticipation surrounding graduation in her small town of Stamps, Alabama. Angelou effectively contrives noteworthy differences between paragraphs 1 through 5 and 6 through 10 through the use of emotional and descriptive diction, powerfully bold comparisons, and a shift in perspective in order to instill pride and dignity in Angelou and her race despite the era’s highlighted social injustices which she endures.