The United States of America has been a safe-ground, an ally, a refuge, and a welcoming home to billions of people throughout its history and the citizens of this country know it. Americans not only call the United States their home, they take pride in it, and they envelop the very idea it is to be an American. No matter what racial, cultural, or ancestral allegiances people have that live in the US, the one common bond that unites them all is the fact that they live under the same stars and stripes. Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes recognize this fact that they are Americans just as much as their white counterpart, and celebrate not only their upbringing and culturally rich past, they celebrate, in their poems, “Still I Rise” and “I, Too, Sing America”, the fact that they are Americans together with everyone.
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Despite the differences in the objectives between the two, they share a common celebration and recognition of the fact that they are different and together with all other Americans at the same time. Undeterred by the fact that the poets wrote the poems about thirty-three years apart and America underwent drastic changes in civil rights during this time period, the works have many similarities in their prideful overtones. Both Hughes, in his “I, Too Sing America”, published in 1945, and Angelou, in her “Still I Rise” poem, published in 1978 state clearly that they are black and are not ashamed of that fact. Showing this in “I, Too Sing America” Hughes states, “I am the darker brother” and in “Still I Rise”, Angelou describes herself, “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide”. The meaning behind this pride that the pair of authors address, remains constant where if they are speaking towards the white, racist audience, they are pronouncing loud and proud that they are a black man or
Despite the differences in the objectives between the two, they share a common celebration and recognition of the fact that they are different and together with all other Americans at the same time. Undeterred by the fact that the poets wrote the poems about thirty-three years apart and America underwent drastic changes in civil rights during this time period, the works have many similarities in their prideful overtones. Both Hughes, in his “I, Too Sing America”, published in 1945, and Angelou, in her “Still I Rise” poem, published in 1978 state clearly that they are black and are not ashamed of that fact. Showing this in “I, Too Sing America” Hughes states, “I am the darker brother” and in “Still I Rise”, Angelou describes herself, “I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide”. The meaning behind this pride that the pair of authors address, remains constant where if they are speaking towards the white, racist audience, they are pronouncing loud and proud that they are a black man or