Langston Hughes(1902-1967)

Poetry, as compared to novels or short stories, are a great way to get to know the author without actually meeting them (at least in my opinion). In a story, sometimes it can be harder to understand a deeper meaning especially when you have to take parts and dissect the language,and use different perspectives in order to even make a wise guess at what the author is trying to say. Perspectives become fun at this point, because we realize that sometimes it is not about what we can see that makes a story, but what we can't see, or didn't realize before. Poetry however, makes this concept radical, as we get first hand sight into the mind and heart of individuals who show through their experiences what their feelings were, and tell us blatantly, in each's own beautifully scripted language, their story, which we can especially connect with. 

This is how I feel about Langston Hughes' work as he speaks out loudly against the racial criticism going on in America during the 1960s; a period of time that I will never be able know fully as he did. I have to say that for my own interests I am a bit of a history nut, and wish sometimes that I could go back in time to certain periods just to know how what it was like then, and for people like Hughes, who was born and lived in a time period where his "people"  were viewed as social outcasts,I can know a little bit about how he felt, though there is a definite possibility that I would still not fully understand his position. This is why he has something to say to the world.

When looking at one piece of his poetry, we get a clear message of the social degradation he experienced. I kind of twisted it up a bit, and put this into the perspective of a white person during that time, and how they view Hughes by replacing words throughout. I think this shows a lot about his position as well, and the self views of those who were white. Unfortunately this perspective shows a white arrogance through the dialect!

"I, Too."

"I, too, sing America.

I am the [whiter] brother.
[Who] sends [the darker] to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
[So] I laugh, 
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow, 
I'll be at the table [again]
When company comes.
[And] Nobody'll dare
Say to me, 
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
[Because],
[They] see how beautiful I am
And [are] ashamed--

I, too, am America."

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