Time and Place in Langston Hughes' Poetry Essay

Langston Hughes is a well-known African-American writer who emerged from the Harlem Renaissance, which is also known as the turning point for African-American culture and literature. Because he is identified as such a prominent writer, he became honored as “Shakespeare of Harlem.” At an early age, Hughes wished to voice and represent his African-American culture through writing. Because Hughes had a range of styles and genres, he managed to write and publish sixteen volumes of poetry, ten collections of short fiction, two novels, two volumes of autobiography, nine books for children, and over a dozen works for the stage. His remarkable works are based on the rhythms of African-American music that combine elements from the old and new worlds of America. In his poetry, he expresses racial pride to African-American literature during enslavement, and he reveals the self-respect and inner strengths of blacks during the twentieth century. In his autobiography Hughes states that the folk stories he heard from his mentor and grandmother greatly influenced him as a writer. Hughes was also extremely passionate about the blues, and he was one of the few to take it as achievements and expressions of black culture. His desire for the blues acted as a stimulus to the productive reaction that makes his collections so influential.

Langston Hughes’ poetry frequently cites the “American Dream” from the perspective of those who were disenfranchised in American, such as the Native Americans, African Americans, poor farmers, and oppressed immigrants. The American Dream was defined by James Truslow Adams as, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (Langston Hughes). Hughes’ poetry portrays the glories of equality, liberty, and the “American Dream” as the disenfranchised were trapped beneath oppression, poverty, and prejudice. Whose dreams are smothered and buried in a life characterized by the anguish of survival.

The poetry of Langston Hughes, the poet laureate of Harlem, is an effective commentary on the condition of blacks in America during the 20th Century. Hughes places particular emphasis on Harlem, a black area in New York that became a destination of many hopeful blacks in the first half of the 1900ís. In much of Hughes' poetry, a theme that runs throughout is that of a "dream deferred." The recurrence of a"dream deferred" in several Hughes poems paints a clear picture of the disappointment and dismay that blacks in America faced in Harlem. Furthermore, as each poem develops, so does the feeling behind a"dream deferred," growing more serious and even angry with each new stanza.<br><br>To understand Hughes' idea of the"dream deferred," one

Langston Hughes was a successful African-American poet of the Harlem renaissance in the 20th century. Hughes' had a simple and cultured writing style. "Harlem" is filled with rhythm, jazz, blues, imagery, and evokes vivid images within the mind. The poem focuses on what could happen to deferred dreams. Hughes' aim is to make it clear that if you postpone your dreams you might not get another chance to attain it--so take those dreams and run. Each question associates with negative effects of deferred dreams. The imagery from the poem causes the reader to be pulled in by the writer's words.

In the poem “Harlem”, Hughes expresses the overall position of African Americans during the 1900's. America, which is known as the “land of opportunity”, where dreams are suppose to come true; was not the case for African Americans during that time. Even though they we’re obviously "free," poverty, racism and other social injustices still existed; making it difficult and also impossible to actually reach those dreams—therefore, their dreams had been "deferred". In this poem Hughes really expresses the frustration of African Americans at that time, and allows me to relate buy giving me reactions of having my opportunities in life possibly robbed from me. The poem raises various questions to me like what happens to our dreams if we put them on hold? Do we give up? Do we become angry? Do we become complacent? To me, the last line is very powerful, because it indicates the fact that people can only be held down so long before they revolt, rebel or even

Langston Hughes uses imagery,metaphors, and symbolism to easily relate to the audience about his perspective of life and dreams. His poems provide an understanding of the purpose of dreams and freedom. That without dreams there would be no reason to try to accomplish more, that people wouldn’t be determined to become stronger and more fulfilling. This style that Hughes uses is accomplished through his connection with the readers. This connection is provided by his symbolism, imagery, and metaphors.

The poem “Harlem” by the famous Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes, possesses many different types of figurative language, as well as an emotional reflective tone. In the poem, Hughes questions what becomes of a dream that is put away or delayed, and now wants to know what becomes of the dream is taken over by outside forces? He contemplates that these forgotten dreams could dry, fester, stink, crust, or explode. It is not a very lengthy poem, but it is truly an emotional one with a powerful question longing to be answered. In “Harlem”, Hughes illustrates how “dreams deferred” both punctures and frustrates the American spirit.

Langston Hughes’ dedication to depicting the bona fide aspects of black life leads him to discuss struggle. One of the most omnipresent themes in black life, at the time of Hughes, is the constant struggle they face every

Langston Hughes is an African American male poet, who constructed his poems during the Harlem Renaissance period. Many of Hughes' poems are inspired by life events and portray the struggles black Americans face in everyday society. Hughes' works tend to include the idea of one's true identity as an American or the conjured idea of the "American Dream", the realization of oneself and racism. His poems “Theme for English B” and “I, Too” are both pieces of work that perfectly explain the racial inequality and imbalance within America's system.

One major tone in this poem is justice expressed by the repetition in stanza 13 of the phrase, “the millions” (Hughes.13) in each line. To convey the importance in the amount of people the inequalities of America truly influenced; Langston used literary terms to get through to the readers. He wanted justice for the people that were treated as unequals in America. Hughes expresses the tone of disappointment in stanza 2 in the phrase, “America was never America to me” (Hughes 2) as an antithesis. This phrase shows the dreams and goals of America being crushed by inequalities and the lack of freedom in “the land of the free”. The contradiction of the phrase in itself intrigues readers and conveys a negative connotation. Disappointment is expressed through this phrase because of the negative connotation and the literary device of antithesis. In stanza 3, “dream the dreamers dreamed” (Hughes.3) demonstrates alliteration. This literary device pushes the importance of dreams in the poem and how America was the opposite of the goals Langston Hughes had. The idea of crushed dreams in this phrase conveys the tones of anger and disappointment. Langston connects his purpose in writing to this poem through the expression of tones by literary terms; alliteration, antithesis, and repetition.

Dreams are hopes that people hope to accomplish in their lifetime. When trying to achieve these goals, people are willing to do anything. But, what happens when a dream is deferred? A dream pushed aside can disappoint a person in the deepest way. It is likely to spread throughout their thoughts and becomes a burden. In the poem “Harlem,” Langston Hughes, through literary devices, introduce a strong theme through a short amount of language Hughes is asking what happens to a dream that is being put off.

Langston Hughes clearly connects with a wide range of audiences through the simplicity that surrounds his poetry. The beauty of this manner in which he wrote his poetry, is that it grasp people by illustrating his narratives of the common lifestyles experienced by the current American generation. His art form expresses certain questionable ideologies of life and exposes to the audience what it takes to fully comprehend what being an American truly means. Each individual poem describes and illustrates the strength and hardships the African American community was experiencing. Through his literature art form of poetry, Hughes was able to convey the common assertions of

The poem is titled Let America be America Again and it follows the main perspective of many minorities and discriminated people through their arbitrary community. This poem sees the racist nation that America once was and explains that the American Dream is not a fairy tale promise of ease of life, but instead is a hollow mold of lies structured upon pyramids of exploitation and bigotry beliefs. It is due to the substandard life of Langston Hughes grows up in, that influences his writing along with the the harsh truths of being a black man in America. “I am the man who never got ahead” Hughes writes in Line 36 of his poem. This sentence from his piece symbolizes the systems of injustice established in the United States, with only “desirable” people able to succeed in life. This barbarous structure in life is the offspring of the fear of vulnerability. It is the pinnacles of the pyramids that feel this fear, as it haunts them to see themselves as weak in the eyes of the public. Through their use of violence and harm, they enforce their assertive roles time and time again, to infuse the supports below them with fear, so that they can continue to act as the skeleton behind society. By using a absolutely abominable classification system, those superior continue to reign and spread their injustice further and deeper. Through the use of injustice, simply one person can easily persuade entire societies to throw their beliefs into the wind and to service these cowardly “masters” who play the sadistic roles of judge, jury and

The poem “Oppression” by Langston Hughes is a short but very powerful writing. It talks about oppression and uses many analogs that express the writer's feelings in a way that the reader can really understand. In the first part, Hughes writes: “Now dreams, Are not available, To the dreamers, Nor songs, To the singers.” Hughes is using things that “non-oppressed” people do, and he’s using it in a way to show that oppression has just recently started. If he was free from oppression, people would be happy enough to have good dreams, and the singers would have something good to sing for.

Racism and discrimination can change people forever. It has an impact on society and the economy too. When people who can work are denied the opportunity to, and when people are prevented from playing an active role in their communities feel like they can’t. The roles of racism and discrimination can alter the way family, friends, neighbors and colleagues behave. People who have done nothing wrong question themselves and their abilities to achieve.