I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I'll sit at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed---
I, too, am America.
---Langston Hughes
I Too is a poem that is somewhat of a civil rights poem. Hughes addresses the past of the African Americans and how they were slaves. He shows the inequality and unfairness of how they were treated. I think that the major symbols/metaphors that are displayed in this poem are the dark brother and America. 'I' really represents all African Americans and by saying that they are America too, he is saying that they are part of America and they are the same as white people. I think with the first line he is saying that they have a dream.
This poem embodies the Harlem Renaissance in several ways. First it is a celebration of the black race and their outlook on the future. He is not locked into dispair and sees that there is a chance for a better way in the future and it is woven into every word of this poem. The poem also shows the dark side of African Americans' lives. The racism that disabled them from living as any other American could. It shows their longing for true freedom and equality. I think the poem also puts on a happy face to cover all the pain and grief they have inside at their opression.
I think they major thing he is saying about the time period is that though they may be considered "free" they are not truly free yet. He is telling blacks and whites alike that someday they will be truly equal and free and that African Americans have hope. He knows that later on whites will be ashamed of the way they have treated the African American race and this knowledge gives him and the blacks the strength to press on, knowing one day they would succeed.
Aaron Douglas
Study for God's Trombones, 1926
I picked this picture because Hughes was in a way saying that his people were still chained and bound by slavery. The painting shows a slave, bound by shackles and I think it fits the poem.
As I Grow Older
It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Dimming,
Hiding,
The light of my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky—
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down on the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall,
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
---Langston Hughes
I think that he is saying that the dream of the African Americans has endured so much time that they've almost forgotten what it is they desire. The poem is saying that something, racism, has come between them and their dream of freedom and whatever else. It's almost a call to action, calling the African Americans to remember their dreams and fight to gain them.
The poem reflects the Harlem Renaissance well. It shows the call for struggle against oppression and how racism blocked them from their dreams. It's very essence is the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance and once again Hughes captures it perfectly.
I picked this picture because it shows part of the racism that was present. Part of the blacks dream was to be equal but yet they were not truly equal and this rascism and segregation barred them from truly acheiving their American dreams.
Children's Rhymes
By what sends
The white kids
I ain't sent:
I know I can't be President
What don't bug
them white kids
sure bugs me:
We know everybody
Ain't free.
Lies written down
For white folks
Ain't for us a-tall: Liberty And Justice---
Huh!---For All?
---Langston Hughes
In the first stanza I think he is saying that it seems that the God that made the white kids didn't make him. Because of that he can't achieve any great position in the world, which he used the highest of in the United States to signify that. In the second stanza, he's referring to how whites aren't bothered by the fact that everyone isn't really free and equal but that blacks are and it bothers them. I love the final stanza, in it he's saying how all the things that the forefathers wrote and that America says it stands for are lies. They're pretty words written for the white people to believe in and the colored folks just are out of luck. He's pointing out that there isn't Libery and Justice for All. The words only apply to a white person.
This poem obviously fits the Harlem renaissance. It shows the situation that African Americans were in and their desire to escape the unfairness. It shows the racism of the whites and how it prevented the progression of the African American race.
I took a picture of Langston Hughes and made it into a campaign poster with the circle and slash through it meaning that it wasn't allowed. I think is analogy there in the first stanza really summed up everything he was trying to say in a symbolic way but also in a very literal way. He could not be president. He was not good enough as a black person in a white man's world.
The Lynching
His spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven.
His father, by the cruelest way of pain,
Had bidden him to his bosom once again;
The awful sin remained still unforgiven.
All night a bright and solitary star
(Perchance the one that ever guided him,
Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim)
Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char.
Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view
The ghastly body swaying in the sun
The women thronged to look, but never a one
Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue;
And little lads, lynchers that were to be,
Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.
---Claude McKay
This poem is obviously about what was happening during the time, most likely with the Ku Klux Klan. He is making a reference to the lynching of a black man and how the white people reacted. He showed that even the white women just watched coldy, uncaringly at the man who was dead before them. Children were playing around the area. It is just such a heinous thought.
I think this is another poem that relates well to the Harlem renaissance but in a different way than the previous poems. It really shows the mindset of the racists whites and the situation that the blacks face as they came through this great renaissance. Even with such a good time, there was this fear of such a scene that they could never escape from.
I picked a picture of a lynching because the poem is focused on the hanging of someone. I think it represents the poem well.
If We Must Die
If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen we must meet the common foe!
Through far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for the their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowerdly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
I think that what McKay is trying to do here is convince to African Americans to fight back and die nobly rather than be killed like some helpless animals. He was trying to tell them that if they fought they would die nobly and their death would mean something; that even the whites would have to respect them in some sense. He is calling the blacks to act.
It relates to the Harlem Renaissance in the fact that it was a celebration or more like a need to find the African American identity. It also shows that the whites were acting violently towards them and that they needed to fight against racism and that way anything that happens would be honorable.
I chose this picture of McKay in a military uniform because he was talking about fighting for what he believes in which is what soldiers do. He was calling the blacks to be warriors for the black cause.
The White House
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as stell with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
A passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldy shines your shuttered door of glass.
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate.
McKay is again addressing racism and how it is holding the blacks back. He is saying how it is up to him(the blacks) to find the strength within themselves to overcome the white opression and rise to their level(or in my opinion lower to it). He is saying also that he has to protect his heart, his soul, his very essence from becoming bitter and desecrated by the white's hate that is undoubtfully bestowed upon him in large amounts daily.
Again, pretty much when it comes down to it, this poem is about racism and how it keeps blacks from achieving the American dream. He is also trying to give an identity to the blacks, one of a fighter. He doesn't want people to just sit back and take it.
I picked this out because it is the symbol for poison and the last two lines of the poem is what stuck out ot me the most. I think really the whole poem is about not letting them control him and dictate how he feels and what he is.
The Lost Dancer
Spatial depths of being survive
The birth to death recurrences
Of feet dancing on earth of sand;
Vibrations of the dance survive
The sand; the sand, elect, survives
The dancer. He can find no source
Of magic adequate to bind
The sand upon his feet, his feet
Upon his dance, his dance upon
The diamond body of his being.
---Jean Toomer
I may be wrong but I believe that the dancer represents the black race and the sand represents their dreams and the dance is the dancer's hope. The poem seems to be talking about no matter how many generations pass that the blacks cannot hold onto their dreams and make them become reality that he does not have the ability to do bind his dream to the reality of himself. I think that the actual dance is a symbol of the hope they hold for their dreams and they continue to dance no matter what happens and they are something special even if they cannot hold their dreams yet. Also it is interesting that he used sand, since sand is something that slips through your fingers and toes so easily, but then again, that is the point.
I think this goes with the Harlem Renaissance because Toomer is trying to show the blacks struggle to attain a better life. He's comparing them to a dancer which almost adds in the factor of the culture that was developing during the time. There was lots of dancing in music. Maybe he thought that in that was their hope for the future and maybe it was.The poem is more about blacks identity than racism. I think it is about holding to who you are no matter what and to keep reaching for your dreams no matter how many times they slip away.
I picked this picture because, one the dancers are black and two the poem made me think of a ballet dancer immediately. That's all there is to it really for this one.
Mother to Son
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.
---Langston Hughes
This poem is about a mother telling her son not to give up. She's telling him of all she's been through in her life and how hopeless it seems sometimes but that you can't give up. It's symbolic of the older generations of blacks telling the younger ones to keep the struggle to never give in again.
This does fit in with the Harlem Renaissance because they were facing so much persecution and even those that weren't in the midst of violence still faced racism and it was discouraging. Still the echoes of their elders and ancestors would encourage them to keep going on and hold their heads up high. Life ain't easy for them but they would make it anyway.
I chose this picture because it is an old staircase and the mother in the poem is talking the whole time about how she's still climbing up that rickety staircase and how it ain't real nice, but she's still climbing and chugging on. I wish I could have found a longer staircase though.
Dream Variations
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes to on gently,
Dark like me--
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale eveing...
A tall, slim tree...
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
---Langston Hughes
This poem is about Hughes dream of the day when blacks would no longer be oppressed by the whites and would be able to be free to do wthat they want. He has likened the day to the whites and the night to the blacks. He is waiting for the night of America to come so that the blacks may gain their rights and be able to dance and live freely. He longs for it.
Again, as I believe every Hughes poem it fits into the Harlem Renaissance perfectly. He is alluding to the fact that blacks are oppressed by the whites and it is keeping it from their dreams of freedom to do anything they want. He is dreaming of the time when the blacks would be able to show themselves truly without fear.
I picked this photo because it is of the night and throughout the poem Hughes is longing for the night. I don't know...something about the picture makes me imagine a man outside dancing in the moonlight, sitting under a tall tree and reveling that night has come.
Montage of a Dream Deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Of fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
---Langston Hughes
This poem is about obviously, dreams. I think the dream that Hughes is specifically referring to the black's dream of equality. He is bringing up the question of what will happen to their dreams if the white's keep pushing their dreams to the side. He is also I think instigating a rebellion with the last line. That is what he wants to happen to the dream. He wants it to happen and he knows that fighting for it is the only way to really achieve their dreams.
This fits into the Harlem renaissance because it is calling the blacks to step into their identity to stop the racism and segregation that the whites imposed. He called for change which is what a renaissance is all about. This poem is the very essence of -everything- that the Harlem Renaissance was. Everything that was changing, every dream realized and everyone deferred can be pushed towards this poem.
I chose this graphic because I think that the most important line in this poem is the last one. It is the point of why he was writing it so I chose the picture of an explosion.
Graphics art made by Katie Emry, unless indicated otherwise. Poem used is America by Claude McKay. Medium used is Paintshop Pro 9
