I thought it was very interesting reading Hughes after reading Cullen. They are two poets from the same time period, but their writing is completely different. Cullen was more difficult to understand where Hughes' poems are more straight forward. Since Hughes' poems are straight forward I think it makes it difficult to write about his poems.
The essay that was written by Hughes was very interesting. He talks about how Cullen shouldn't want to be a free poet and write about anything he wants, but should stand up for his race and only write about racial issues. When reading Cullen's poems verses Hughes poems it's easy to see that Cullen writes about anything he feels at the moment, while all of Hughes' poems have to deal with racial issues. I felt as if Hughes was being a little nasty in his essay. I felt as if he is only looking at the world as an upper class or lower class. He doesn't see a middle grounds of just ordinary people, black or white. I felt a lot of bitterness towards Cullen in the Hughes essay also.
My favorite thing about the Hughes poems we read are the flow that they have. They are very simple to read and have a nice rhyme scheme to it. I also noticed that their is a lot of repetition in his poems, which also seems to make them flow. I enjoyed the poem Aunt Sue's Stories. This poem not only talks about slavery and other racial issues, but it talks about family and how important family is. I also really enjoyed the poem Laughers. This poem is just list of a bunch of words or small phrases. But I really like the way it flows. I feel like he is listing all the jobs of African American's, but I could be wrong. This poem like many other poems by Hughes also talks about music and dancing, which shows how important this was to him.
So far even though I don't like poetry I'm really enjoying reading Langston Hughes and I'm excited to read more of his work.
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I agree. I felt that Hughes was definitely more straight forward than Cullen and that even though they were from the same time, their writings are completely different.
I liked the flow and the rhyme scheme in Hughes' poems as well!
Aunt Sue's Stories was one of my favorites. Not only was it inspirational but like you said it discusses important issues such as racial issues as well as family which is obviously important here.
Jack, I agree with you. Hughes is definitly more straight forward than Cullen. Cullen never seemed to land he circled the landing strip and never landed.
I enjoyed Aunt Sue, however it was not my favorite. I feel as though it relates to too many of the stories that we are now reading. It's not as original or contemporary. The Brownies Book has "The Heritage" with Mother Mason. It seems as though every writer during this time period had one important theme. The youth was the future. I agree with this attitude,however,it seems almost too much pressure on the younger generation. Their entire race depends on them.
I agree that Hughes' poems are a lot easier to read than Cullen's poems. However, since they are so straight forward, it is difficult to explicate them any further. I also enjoyed the rhythym in Hughes' poetry. Every time I read a poem by Hughes it reminds me of music.
The Hughes poetry is definitely much more enjoyable and easier to read than some of the other works we've been looking at so far. I feel like Hughes presents the tone and message of his poem RIGHT away, as opposed to the works of someone like Cullen or McKay who make the reader search for the meaning in their poems. Generally, I feel a lot less frustrated so far and I'm looking foward to reading tomorrow's assignment!
I also like Hughes. I think he is a lot easy to read then poets like Cullen. I also like Hughes' poetry because there is more meaning than just what yo read on the surface. hughes uses poetic devices, a musicial tone, etc. to convey a message that he wants the reader to awknowledge while reading his poems.
It did feel good, kind of refreshing to be done with Cullen and onto something so much better, ay? I like his flow and tone too. he is one of if not my favoritie out of all the poems we have read.
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