Could you imagine your life without freedom you wouldn't be able to speak or write freely, even express yourself. It is for this reason that freedom matters, more so to those who have once been without. Poets have the ability and perception to capture the theme of freedom matters succinctly in their poems through the use of many aspects such as poetic elements, the metaphorical meaning and figurative language which also allows poets to exaggerate or alter specific linguistic points of interest. The three poems that I shall be looking at for this discourse is I know why the caged bird sings by Maya Angelou, Let America be America again with Langston Hughes and where the mind is without freedom by Rabindranath.
I know why the caged bird sings …show more content…
Throughout the poem, Hughes contrasts his hopes for America with the reality of life for those outside of the socially and economically dominant racial, religious, and social groups. Langston writes the poem not only from the perspective of a black man discriminated against, but from every form of down-trodden and abused person in America. He uses rhyme to draw attention to the poetic element of his message. Words such as “be and “free” in lines 2 and 4, “dreamed and “schemed’ in lines 6 and 8, “wreathe’ and “breathe” in lines 12 and 14, all demonstrates rhyming. Hughes uses the word machine on line 34 when he says “I am the worker sold to the machine.” The machine is a metaphor for the American system that has let him down. The line Torn from Black Africa's strand to build a homeland of the free creates a powerful visual imagery of Africans being torn away from their homeland to build a country living under the pretend sense of freedom and equality. Through Langston Huges provocative words, intensified by this use of imagery, rhyme and repetition the fact that we should all be free in every way, legally free, socially free, economically free to get jobs and free to enjoy America on an equal level is conveyed beautifully through his poem 'Let America be America Again.' Differently the poem Where the mind is without fear by Rabindranath Tagore conveys the mesage of freedom in regards to indians and not Americans as the poem Let America be America again was about. Even though both poems are talking about people from different countries the overall theme of freedom still remains the
I know why the caged bird sings …show more content…
Throughout the poem, Hughes contrasts his hopes for America with the reality of life for those outside of the socially and economically dominant racial, religious, and social groups. Langston writes the poem not only from the perspective of a black man discriminated against, but from every form of down-trodden and abused person in America. He uses rhyme to draw attention to the poetic element of his message. Words such as “be and “free” in lines 2 and 4, “dreamed and “schemed’ in lines 6 and 8, “wreathe’ and “breathe” in lines 12 and 14, all demonstrates rhyming. Hughes uses the word machine on line 34 when he says “I am the worker sold to the machine.” The machine is a metaphor for the American system that has let him down. The line Torn from Black Africa's strand to build a homeland of the free creates a powerful visual imagery of Africans being torn away from their homeland to build a country living under the pretend sense of freedom and equality. Through Langston Huges provocative words, intensified by this use of imagery, rhyme and repetition the fact that we should all be free in every way, legally free, socially free, economically free to get jobs and free to enjoy America on an equal level is conveyed beautifully through his poem 'Let America be America Again.' Differently the poem Where the mind is without fear by Rabindranath Tagore conveys the mesage of freedom in regards to indians and not Americans as the poem Let America be America again was about. Even though both poems are talking about people from different countries the overall theme of freedom still remains the