Neon Vernacular by Yusef Komunyakaa, describes the experiences of African American soldiers in the Vietnam War. These men fought for a country where they were not accepted or treated equally. African American men risked their lives to protect a nation that did not want blacks to exist. The thoughts these men dealt with everyday, the disrespect, the actual war, the inequality, and the hurt left a strong singe of the minds and heart of the men who survived. Komunyaka share his stories through this mindful and artistic poetry.…
In “Sadie and Maud”, “My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum”, and “Negro” all use poetic devices to convey the simple, clear message of being controlled by society and their rules and expectations they have set forth for people. All three poems address this theme, “Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks and “My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum” by Leonard Adame and “Negro” by Langston Hughes. They all deal with the struggling issues pertaining to society and their standards. In “My Grandmother Would Rock Quietly and Hum” the speaker has to deal with the fading memories he has of his grandmother and his Mexican heritage. This affects him greatly and deeply because he wants to retain those few memories he has left of his beloved grandmother…
Recollecting the memories of his grandfather, Michael celebrates the hardships his grandfather had to go through but lived honorably despite the fact of many obstacles in his lifetime. Michael describes the origin of “Grandfather”, from a showing of the D. W. Griffith film The Birth of a Nation in a college film course. He states his anger at his professor for attempting to highlight the technical achievement of the film while ignoring its racist inaccurate presentation of the events following the civil war. His father who was actually born the in 1915, the year of the film’s release and was determined to tell the story of his father and grandfather as well as a testimony to the reality of black life after the civil war. The first stanza describes how the grandfather’s neighbors were circling his house, planning to “burn his family out”.…
The intent of ‘How to raise a black son in America” is to persuade the audience on race dynamics and the values instilled into him throughout his childhood. The speaker assumes other African Americans were brought up and treated the same way he was. He also assumes the audience cares about the topic.…
The poem “America” shows the black struggle struggle and how tough it is to be brought up in it. It talks about about standing up, even though life in it is scary and…
It 's not hard to understand the plot of this poem or the language, though it can be hard to stomach the truths that it waves in your face. The image of the ears can be disturbing, but we get the full force of the message. The Americans have entered the house of a colonel in El Salvador during the civil war in the late 1970s. The Colonel captures the brutality of the people in El Salvador at the hands of the high ranking military man and uncovers the hidden inhuman treatment of the people in these societies.…
The White Man’s Burden, 1899 published in the McClure’s magazine stands out as one of the most infamous literature works by Kipling. It has been reviled as the major articulation of the greediness of the countries of the West especially America and Europe and their encompassing ambitions on the orient. Kipling initially composes his poem for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria but later chose to submit it as a hymn. A summary of the poem articulates several things about the Occidentals ambitions upon the Orients.…
In the poem “Blink Your Eyes”, by Sekou Sundiata there is a discriminatory attitude towards racial profiling. Racial profiling is simply the belief that because of your race, gender, ethnicity, or religion you may act a certain way. Sundiata’s poem emphasizes one of the many ways in which African Americans are racial profiled in the United States. Sundiata shows us first hand what he experiences being a black man from the ghetto.…
Lorna Dee Cervantes’ poem “Poem for the Young White Man Who Asked Me How I, an Intelligent, Well-Read Person Could Believe in the War Between Races” is different than the other poems she wrote in that the poem’s content appears to be meant to be taken very literally instead of metaphorically. From the title of the poem alone, the reader can conclude that the poem is a response to the person whom the poem is directed towards—the young white man. In addition, this particular poem dramatizes the conflict between the speaker and the white man over the topic of there being a war between races. Though the reader does not necessarily know who the speaker or narrator of this poem is, they can convey that the speaker is Cervantes. Cervantes utilizes this poem in order to tell the young white man that her acknowledgement of the war between races is not because of her lack of intelligence.…
The poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar “Sympathy” is an glorious gateway toward a man’s mind during the time of the oppressed. Where they were free, but not free at the same time. Whether he was a literary writer, poet, or an activist, his poems spoke out against the tyrannizing race and brought hope to the intimidated. As an African American in the late 1800’s Dunbar faced many obstacles, starting with racisim. He was forced into many jobs that gave him time to work on his poems.…
Hughes, Langston. “I Too. Sing America.” New York Times 5 Jan 2010: A16 Online.…
World War 1 was believed to be the war that would end all wars. It was new, exciting and was expected to be over before the Christmas of 1914. Then, 4 years later, after gruesome trench warfare and severe casualties, our views on war changed completely. The days of enthusiastic enlistment dissolved, while the horrifying reality about the battlefield emerged. This change in beliefs, and the influence of generations, can be seen accurately through the poems, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen and “Pro Patria” by Owen Seaman.…
The poet wrote this to try to make people think about the government’s actions before they take advantage of the lies that they read on the streets. Although it is seen as something that is heroic for people to fight for their country, they get no appreciation afterwards, because they are dead and they cannot be returned to their living state that they were before the war, and even if they do survive, they will not be able to get past what they have seen at war. The mood in this poem is heartbreaking and reveals what PTSD is like, it displays how the people who have actually fought in the war feel when they see the propaganda posters and what they are forced to forever think about if they…
As we know the poem “For Malcolm X” is wrote by Margaret Walker. Based on my research, “Margaret Walker, in full Margaret Abigail Walker, married name Margaret Alexander, (born July 7, 1915, Birmingham, Ala., U.S.—died Nov. 30, 1998, Chicago, Ill.), American novelist and poet who was one of the leading black woman writers of the mid-20th century” (Britannica). At the same time, “Her literature generally contained African American themes” (Goodreads). According to her background, we will introduce Malcolm X and analysis the poem “For Malcolm X”. In addition, we need to understand the poetry “For Malcolm X” background and why Margaret Walker wrote the poem.…
Iambic pentameter, couplet and imagery are used to clearly emphasize the sound, theme, and moral of the poem. The descriptive words and placement of them really brings on the sense of pride and honor. Using words like “vain” and deathblow” gave insight into the way that they resented the white population. The poem specifically addresses the social injustices of the time period including racism. During this time lynching and hate crimes were still going on.…