Heaven By Langston Hughes Literary Devices

The imagery in this poem is used to demonstrate what was occurring throughout the funeral of the narrator's mind. The author only used the sense on hearing to describe what was occurring, since she was in the process of losing her mind and wasn’t capable to see what was really going on and even happening to her. The descriptive sounds she uses like “treading of the mourners”, “beating drums” and “bells ringing” makes the readers feel like they were in the funeral, which in reality it was “her road to madness.” With the use of the sound of the sounds the readers where able to understand the narrator whole process of losing her mind, because each different noise signify another further step to completely lose her ability to reason. Ultimately, the sounds gave the poem a tense mood. …show more content…
is a poem about something that the author wants, which is going to heaven, but can’t obtain. This theme is reinforced with a metaphor used in lines two to four, which is a comparison between the narrator attempting to go to heaven, to trying reaching an apple on a tree. Both heaven and an apple have biblical connation, that can be related the narrator's persistent to go to her paradise. In the bible the apple is seen as the forbidden fruit and it can be said that the narrator is prohibited to go heaven. The apple in the tree was described as “hopeless-hang”, which is a resemblance of the narrators feelings because all of her efforts to get what she wants were in vain. Since it was impossible for the narrator to go to heaven, it can be inferred that she has committed sins that prevent her entrance, meaning that whatever she does the doors to her paradise will always be closed. Ultimately, the metaphor was used to portray the meaning of the poem, and to teach the readers the lesson that not everything that a person wants is