‘Instructor’s Name’
Reaction to poems of Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes is a well known poet of the Harlem renaissance era, and his poems are famous for their themes of social and racial protest. His works are known for the profound insights they give into various social issues such as, black discrimination, life during the depression era, and effect of the World War II on American society. A hallmark of Hughes’ poems is, the emphasis he places on ‘Black pride’ and the way he eschews self pity. He was proud of his ancestry, and his poems reflected the concealed anger and pain, he had towards the mistreatment of his race. This essay aims at, exploring the way in which Hughes expresses the anguish and humiliation suffered by the African –American community, by analyzing two of his works, ‘The South’ and ‘Harlem’.
‘The South’ was a poem published in the year 1922, and Hughes was a mere twenty year old at that time. Even then, Hughes had established a reputation of being a unique and powerful poetic voice, through his poems such as “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”. ‘The South’ is a poem, which speaks about racial atrocities and depredations of the New South. The Poem not just condemns and resents the Southern Whites’ attitudes towards Blacks, but also in its own way appreciates the resilience of the Southern Blacks in the face of racial oppression.
And I, who am black, would love herBut she spits in my face.
The poem also empathizes with the Blacks who decide to move to the North of the country, as the South has treated them with disdain and contempt. It is clear from the imagery used by the poet, like the moon, cotton, sky, warmth and earth, that the narrator, a Black Southerner, loves the South. He is more than willing to give the Southern society his love and gifts of friendship and loyalty, but the Southern society has turned its back on him.
And I, who am black,Would give her many rare giftsBut she turns her back upon me.
The poet convey that, though the Blacks love the South, which has been their homeland for centuries, they are forced to leave to the North in search of better social recognition, due to the deep rooted prejudices prevalent in the South.
What happens to a dream deferred? When Hughes posed this question, the entire nation, both Blacks and Whites alike, empathized with the speaker. Through a laconic 11 lines poem, each line consisting of not more than 5 words in it, Hughes was able to convey the bitterness and anguish, of the African American community. In 1951, the year in which Hughes’ ‘Harlem’ was published, the mood of the American Blacks was one of frustration and disappointment. Slavery was emancipated and many laws were passed to combat racism, but still racial prejudice was very much prevalent in the America of the 1950s. Many reforms were promised, but few actually translated into reality, and the Blacks were segregated and treated as second class citizens.
The poet lists out various scenarios that might arise, when a dream is long suppressed and is not able to or not allowed to turn into reality. He wonders what happens to an unfulfilled dream, will it die away, or will it grow stronger roots. Hughes uses various poetic elements, to make the reader gauge the level of frustration and anger prevalent among the Blacks.
“What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?”
Through the first few lines, the poet lists out various possibilities that might arise when a dream is put on hold for long. He says it might dry like a raisin exposed to heat. A raisin was once a grapefruit full of juice, before it was allowed to dry. Likewise, the dreams of Blacks for equality and dignity, was once full of promise and hope, but it lost its vigor after being exposed to years of oppression and racial prejudice.
In the subsequent lines, he catalogs various other imageries like rotten meat, and festered wounds, to depict the emotions of pain and disgust, which was building among the Black Americans. The final line has a significant meaning here. The poet poses a question that
Or does it explode?
He italicizes these verses to highlight their importance. After listing out many possibilities which indicates that the dream would possibly fade, the last line puts forth another possibility that it might explode. Explosion usually refers to a revolutionary action. Thus, through the last line Hughes opines that the American blacks may have finally lost their patience, and may actively protest against the treatment meted out to them.
Both these poems demonstrate how Hughes depicts the struggle and travail of the African Americans, through the poetic devices such as symbolism, imagery and verses. His poems sang the joys and pains, the highs and lows, and the pride and humiliation of the Black Americans. Hughes is not just a major voice in the Harlem Renaissance speaking for his oppressed race, but through his irregular verse style and colloquial language, he is also one of the celebrated and widely read poets of his era.
Works Cited
Hughes, Langston. Harlem. 1951. Web. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175884>. 14 March 2014.
—. The South. 1922. Web. <http://library.crisischronicles.com/2009/09/09/the-south-by-langston-hughes.aspx>. 14 March 2014.
