African American poets

Poets and other artist to communicate a moral message to the viewer or reader of that artwork have used allegories for centuries. Arguably (Johnston, 1998) allegory is a fiction, almost invariably a story, which is designed, first and foremost, to illustrate…

College in Ohio. They met there and married in the year of 1869. The couple later returned to Kansas and bought a farm just northwest of Lawrence near Lakeview. Charles Langston worked as a farmer, a teacher, an editor of The Historic Times, an African American Lawrence newspaper, and as a partner in at a local grocery store. At some point in time before Charles' death in 1892, the family moved from their farm in Lakeview to 732 Alabama Street in Lawrence. Langston Hughes' mother,…

Hippies used music and art to spread important ideas, views, and messages. Jill from Infobase Learning reported, “The early sixties saw music becoming more than just entertainment. It was now music with a message. And the messages our poets sang helped us identify with important issues and events that concerned us all”(source 6). This movement helped youth to not fear expressing their beliefs especially through music and the arts. This helped spread knowledge and awareness that was often…

One of the most important ways that poets get their point across is by using descriptive words to paint a picture to the audience. In Maya Angelou’s “Still I Rise” each stanza contains imagery that lets the audience fully understand how Angelou feels about those who are trying to knock her down. Angelou addresses the hatred she has received and explains how she still continues to get back up. While Angelou’s poem is an encouraging message for everyone, each stanza looks specifically at the…

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. He was an African-American poet, columnist, dramatist, and novelist. Hughes is known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance in New York City. With a complex ancestry, Langston Hughes’s paternal great-grandmothers were enslaved African-Americans and both of his paternal great-grandfathers were white slave owners in Kentucky. (Wagner 12) Mr. Hughes was raised by his grandmother, Mary Langston. (Wagner 14) His grandmother…

As an author of the Harlem Renaissance, Jean Toomer wrote for an audience composed of more than his peers. With Cane (Toomer, 1923), he reached for a black audience in search of identity. Influenced by classical poets William Blake and Walt Whitman, “stream-of-consciousness” novelist James Joyce, and novelist Sherwood Anderson’s short story collection, Winesburg, Ohio (1919), Cane also addresses a white audience receptive to the minority and mixed races that culturalist Onita Estes-Hicks refers…

explosion that happened in harlem between World War I and the middle of the 1930’s. During this period harlem was a cultural center where almost everything would happen, drawing black, artist, writers, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars.All type’s of african american people couldn't find a place to settle to start their talent until they heard about others having success in harlem that's the beginning of the harlem renaissance’s. During that time period…

Samuel Coleridge used figurative language and unorthodox verse structure to describe the tragic, lesson-filled past of a sailor and portray literary elements of Romanticism and its ideals. By using a non-traditional approach to verse structure, it shows Coleridge's choice to not compromise the meaning and thought process of each stanza by following a set pattern. This demonstrates the versatility and story-like dynamic of the poem making it all the more captivating to the reader. Through his use…

A Feminist Perspective of Metaphysical Conceit, Action, and Defense of a Woman’s Virtue in John Donne’s Song In his poem Song, John Donne uses metaphysical conceits, persuades his readers, and defends his negative view a woman’s virtue. A woman’s virtue is proven her moral standards in society. Song was written during the Renaissance era, a time in which men used Petrarchan values to place emphasis on their appreciation of women. John Donne’s poem rejects the Petrarchan ideology, and forces…

“The Flea” by John Donne and “To His Coy Mistress” by Andrew Marvell are two poems classified as carpe diem. Carpe diem is Latin phrase for “Seize the day”. Both speakers use the ideals of carpe diem to persuade the auditor to live in the moment. They do this by saying that the auditor is young and beautiful and that they are meant to be. Although both speakers try their best to persuade the auditor to have sex with them, the speaker in “To his coy mistress” impresses the auditor the best. In…