Image Chef

     I chose to do an image chef relating to Langston Hughes' poem, "The Negro," as my final blog post. Langston wrote a lot of his poems about black culture and for black people. He showed a lot of pride in being a black man. For this reason, using Africa as the image for the image chef seemed to make sense. The full poem reads:

I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.

I’ve been a slave:
Caesar told me to keep his door-steps clean.
I brushed the boots of Washington.

I’ve been a worker:
Under my hand the pyramids arose.
I made mortar for the Woolworth Building.

I’ve been a singer:
All the way from Africa to Georgia
I carried my sorrow songs.
I made ragtime.

I’ve been a victim:
The Belgians cut off my hands in the Congo.
They lynch me still in Mississippi.
I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.

     Hughes' pride in his culture caused him to write poetry that would become the voice of his people and inspire black poets for decades to come. he is still one of the most celebrated black poets of all time. Although I might not particularly enjoy his poetry, I still must give credit where credit is due. He pioneered a genre of poetry and became one of the most famous poets of the 20th century, whilst being an inspiration to his people through troubling times. That's the legacy of Langston Hughes.

Picture Blog

I've always enjoyed the picture blogs I've done so far, and I thought one would be a good compliment to a book or poetry. So, I've decided to choose 15 poems from The Dream Keeper and illustrate them with a picture.

"Winter Moon"

"Winter Sweetness"

"April Rain Song"

"Fairies"

"Autumn Thought"

"Poem"

"Sea Charm"

"Sailor"

"Beggar Boy"

"Mexican Market Woman"

"Dressed Up"

"The Weary Blues"

"Minstrel Man"

"When Sue Wears Red"

"Lincoln Monument: Washington"

LINKS YAY

I like to think I'm in touch with me readers. And if I know my readers, the one thing they'd love to read more than anything is a linkup blog. Fun, right? I know, but don't get too excited yet. I haven't even started.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes
There's a link to my buddy, Langston's wikipedia page. You can learn all about him and his snazzy poetry from here.

http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83
Here's his page on poets.org with more information about him, and also some of his poems.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/
This is a good website for finding all kinds of poetry. If you get tired of reading Langston's poems, you can find poems by Bobby Frost, Billy Collins, and many others on this site.

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets_african_american.html
Here's a page listing famous black poets other than Hayes.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jazz_Age
Wikipedia article about the jazz age, the movement which inspired Hughes' tone in most of his poems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_Renaissance
Information about the Harlem Renaissance, in which Langston played a pivotal part.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa0WNP3Zwwo
Speaking of Harlem, here's a video of U2 performing, "Angel of Harlem." This is important because one, I like U2, and 2, it's about Harlem; therefore about Langston Hughes. Yay for facts.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/3b1Fiy/www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5hiVmvcCaU/
This is a really cool video rendering of the poem, "A Dream Deferred."

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1UuZPH/beinecke.library.yale.edu/langstonhughes/web.html/
I thought this was a cool little layout relating to Langston Hughes.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1c0BDU/www.dramainnature.com/quote_by_langston_hughes_.htm/
An interesting picture with one of Langston's better lines, in my opinion.

http://www.seattle.gov/parks/centers/langston.htm
The page for the beautiful Langston Hughes performing arts center.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/36HsyS/www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/top_poems.html/
Here's a list of the top 50 poems according to poemsandpoets.com. Langston got on there at number eight.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1cJJlH/www.brightmoments.com/blackhistory/
How much do you know about African American history? I bet not as much as Langston did. Take the quiz and find out!

 http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1lnNKE/wedding.theknot.com/wedding-planning/wedding-reception-planning/articles/wedding-toast-tips-30-inspiring-quotes.aspx/
There's a quote by Langston Hughes on here, and other than that, I just thought it was a neat list.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1kKap9/www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyqwvC5s4n8/
And the best is saved for last. This video is perfect to relate to what I have talked about in my previous posts. I mentioned "the weary blues" before, and here it is with musical accompaniment. Great video.

More Elements of Poetry

     In my previous post, I concluded that Langston Hughes scores well on the subject of rhythm. However, that's only a small element of good poetry. I read a little about elements of poetry, and in summarized form, it can be put into the external form and the internal form. The external form being how it sounds and how it looks, and the internal form being other elements like story, personification, simile; basically giving the poem some sort of deeper meaning. From what I've looked at of Hughes, he was quite good at the external part of the poem, but that seems to have been his focus. Sometimes he tells a decent story, but on the deeper parts of internal poetry, at least in my experience, he tends to come up short.

One of many examples would be, "Homesick Blues," one of Hughes' rhythmic poems:

De railroad bridge's
A sad song in de air.
De railroad bridge's
A sad song in de air.
Ever time de trains pass
I wants to go somewhere.

I went down to de station.
Ma heart was in ma mouth.
Went down to de station.
Heart was in ma mouth.
Lookin' for a box car
To roll me to de South.

Homesick blues, Lawd,
'S a terrible thing to have.
Homesick blues is
A terrible thing to have.
To keep from cryin'
I opens ma mouth an' laughs.

 It looks and sounds good, and even tells a decent narrative, but that's about it. Where's the symbolism, metaphor, ambiguity? Although I'm definitely not a poetry aficionado, that's what I tend to look for. Lyrics that make me think or feel something. That being said, I think a good way to compare these poems is to look at songwriters in comparison to Hughes. Obviously as song has to have rhythm, but songwriters also include a lot of the internal elements that really make the lyrics interesting. 

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I'll use a song written by John Lennon, "In My Life," as an example:

The link is: <embed src="http://www.4shared.com/embed/108005281/7bf564f6" width="420" height="250" allowfullscreen="false" allowscriptaccess="always" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed>

And the lyrics go:


There are places I'll remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places had their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life, I'll love you more

Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life, I'll love you more

     Now, the lyrics sound good and have a definitive rhythm, but he's also saying a lot. There's a lot of  other songs and songwriters I could have used, such as Brian Wilson, Paul Simon, or obviously, Bob Dylan, but I'm blogging about poetry, and not my musical interests. Anyway, in comparison to some of the lyrics written by those guys, as well as others, it doesn't really seem like Hughes is saying anything. I guess what I'm saying is that you can focus on sounding good and still say something important, which I think Hughes should have done more often.

Langston Got Dat Rhythm

     One of the recurring elements of Hughes' poetry is rhythm. It's the main focus of many of his poems. They were designed to be read aloud or even sung. This is the only part about Langston Hughes' writing I actually enjoyed (other than his comically bad grammar). When reading several of his poems, I could hear the jazzy rhythm and see them easily being sung. Well, it turns out that was his intention. His poetry has a jazzy rhythm, much like the music that would have been popular at the time. This style would later become popular as jazz poetry, making Hughes the pioneer.

     There are lots of musicians who I could connect with Hughes' poetry. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Nat "King" Cole; pretty much any jazz great of the time would have inspired Hughes' poetry. Some on Hughes' jazz inspired poems include Bound No'th Blues, the Weary Blues, Song for a Banjo Dance, and Po' Boy Blues, along with countless others. Essentially, two thirds of his poems have the word blues in the title. He really should have been a songwriter, in my opinion. Anyway, those poems have a specific jazz rhythm that could be found in most popular music of the time. Below is an example.


 Louis Armstrong - West End Blues<br><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.4shared.com/flash/player.swf?ver=9051" style="" id="ply" name="ply" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="false" wmode="opaque" flashvars="file=http://dc171.4shared.com/img/439801441/d2930b6a/dlink__2Fdownload_2FlhoOLO2c_3Ftsid_3D00000000-000000-00000000/preview.mp3&amp;volume=50&amp;" height="20" width="200"><br>Powered by <a href="http://mp3skull.com/">mp3skull.com</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://mp3skull.com/embedcl.php"></script>

In conclusion, the use of poetry with a jazz rhythm was a new development at the time Hughes was writing it. It's the main reason Hughes' poetry was noteworthy, and still is noteworthy, and out of all his poems, the rhythmic ones were the only ones I could take any enjoyment from. However, my initial opinion hasn't been changed. I don't think having good rhythm is enough to write compelling poetry. I'll go deeper into other aspects of Hughes' poetry in blogs to come. Until then, I must say, Adios!

I Don't Get It...

     Alright, well I'd say it's about time I start this thing. For starter's, I've got a confession to make. I really don't understand what the big deal about Langston Hughes is. I thought his poems would be really enthralling for all the praise he gets. He's one of the most famous poets of the 20th century, but I just don't get it. Most of his poems are too sing songy, and the ones that aren't are still, just bad, to put it simply. Just look at his poem, "Baby"

Albert!
Hey, Albert!
Don't play in dat road.
You see dem trucks
A goin' by.
One run ovah you
An' you die.
Albert, don't you play in dat road.

Excuse me, but what the hell? Since when is that considered good poetry? It doesn't inspire any feeling in me besides perplexity. Honestly, this is what I would write if I was tasked with portraying an extremely racist view of a black mother.

 Who I think wrote this poem

      Look at the poor English. I thought poets were supposed to have a grasp on language so strong that they could show a reader a scene that causes them to think and feel. I've read most of the poems in this collection, and I have yet to find one that accomplishes either of those tasks.
     Now, don't get me wrong. I understand that Hughes was writing for an audience of his peers. He was a black man writing for a black audience. Maybe my Anglo-Saxon genes inhibit me from understanding or taking anything away from a Langston Hughes poem. In any case, I have to write five more blog posts about the man, so I'll have plenty of time to figure it out. My plan is to take different elements of Hughes' poetry and strip them down by comparing them to other poets and writers whose work I actually do understand. By doing this, hopefully I'll be able to say definitively whether Langston Hughes is actually a good poet, or if my first impression is correct.

vlog

Ok, I got it to upload finally. Also, sorry about the sound. It turned out a little quiet... enjoy.