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Langston HughesA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
This first-person, free-verse poem has five stanzas of widely varying length, and, while some of its lines rhyme, there is no set rhyme pattern. Such a spontaneous, intuitive formal quality characterizes jazz poetry, and this genre has special consequence within the dramatic situation: Jazz poetry’s cultural mythos informs the spirit of the poem, yielding a distinctly Black voice whose Blackness is the occasion for the poetic utterance. The speaker is a Black college student who lives in Harlem but is from the South—an identity that carries complexities and complications unappreciated by his white peers.
Four of the five stanzas concern the process of writing an assignment. The longest stanza, the fourth stanza, is the assignment itself. The first and last stanzas are the shortest—only one line each.
The first stanza, essentially a dialogue tag, clarifies that the following stanza quotes “[t]he instructor” (Line 1). This quote is written in italics, further distinguishing the separate voice, and contains the writing prompt from the titular class “English B.” The one-page assignment should “come out of you” (Line 4). The content’s autobiographical (or confessional) nature will, says the instructor, make the writing “true” (Line 5).
By Langston Hughes
Children’s Rhymes
Children’s Rhymes
Langston Hughes
Cora Unashamed
Cora Unashamed
Langston Hughes
Dreams
Dreams
Langston Hughes
Harlem
Harlem
Langston Hughes
I look at the world
I look at the world
Langston Hughes
I, Too
I, Too
Langston Hughes
Let America Be America Again
Let America Be America Again
Langston Hughes
Me and the Mule
Me and the Mule
Langston Hughes
Mother to Son
Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Mulatto
Mulatto
Langston Hughes
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston
Not Without Laughter
Not Without Laughter
Langston Hughes
Slave on the Block
Slave on the Block
Langston Hughes
Thank You, M'am
Thank You, M'am
Langston Hughes
The Big Sea
The Big Sea
Langston Hughes
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks
The Ways of White Folks
Langston Hughes
The Weary Blues
The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes
Tired
Tired
Langston Hughes