Sunday, August 30, 2009

I got so busy responding to other folks' posts that I nearly sapped myself for this one. But, no, there is always more one can pull from poetry, I am learning. I'd like to focus on the poem "I look at the world". I found these links to more information on it from Poetry Magazine:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=182642 (article)

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=182644 (poem)

Apparently this and a few other poems were recently discovered—written by Hughes into the endpapers of a revolutionary poetry anthology in 1930. For me, it helps to know the year and time in the author's life when a poem or story was written. However, it was often difficult to find the year each poem was written. I tried to get a sense of which ones had a similar tone, which ones could be from earlier or later in his career. (Perhaps it is better to read the poem simply as it is, and then set it in a historical context... thoughts?)

This poem—written at the onset of the Great Depression, when Hughes was in his late 20s—suggests revolution, as many of his poems do. Langston condemns the status quo and calls out the sustained oppression against people of color in this country, but ends with a powerful message of hope. These lines really got me, both in its imagery and cadence: "I look at my own body / With eyes no longer blind—/And I see what my own hands can make / The world that's in my mind" I love the power behind these words: the call for change through the embodiment of personal and communal strength. I wonder, who are the "comrades" he address in this poem?

In "I look at the world," Hughes' eyes are "awakening." In "I, too" (written in 1924) he is laughing. He sees the future of his place at the table, and the shame all those who denied him of it will feel. His message is so bold and consistent: that this is his country and he will reclaim it. But, if he sees a clear future in "I, too," (is it just a blind hope, at the time?)... why are his eyes only opening when he writes "I look at the world"? The later poem seems like a call to action while the earlier poem is a promise. Though "I look..." may have been read by few at the time it was written, it bred more radical poems that have reverberated through our nation's political history and progression of civil rights.
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5 comments:

  1. elmazAugust 31, 2009 at 5:52 AM

    Thanks for the contributions of the links and some thoughts on his work. Put on your helmet, we're going in
    e

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  2. SheilaAugust 31, 2009 at 12:25 PM

    I also wanted more information about when the poems were written, but then I questioned why I wanted that information. It just seems that some of the poems are more optimistic than others, and it would be helpful if they could be aligned with what was going on in the world or in Hughes's life. I also let it go at some point though and looked at the selection of poems as a body of work that may or may not have been reacting to or reflecting the reality of his times, but certainly was an expression of his thoughts and concerns.

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  3. AriesAugust 31, 2009 at 3:31 PM

    The age of the writer and the exact circumstances during the composition of a piece or directly before engage writer and reader alike whether its childhood or a new love
    each direct the writing in different ways. Nonetheless each writer creates a body of work (as Sheila mentioned) and its up to you how you see the work differently. Does Langston Hughes poem "Dream Differed" standout for you in a way "Democracy" doesn't this is the part where we all learn how we read writers and how it is that we write . . .

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  4. Kiala GivehandAugust 31, 2009 at 9:51 PM

    Jessica, I enjoyed the links you shared with us, thank you for that. I think I am in the camp of folks who thirst for historical context when reading works from "long ago." Like Shelia, I feel that "it would be helpful if [the poems] could be aligned with what was going on in the world or in Hughes' life." It helps me "understand" the poem more or maybe it just helps me understand my reaction to the poem more -- I'm not sure which.

    I also find it helpful to know where a poem falls in the anatomy of a poet’s body of work (as Aries mentions). Was it written earlier in their career or towards the end after lots of time and growth (poetic and personal)? Sometimes, I find it interesting to read a poet from book one to the end just to see if I can chart the changes and the transformation.

    To respond to Aries, I did read the two poems differently, but it wasn't until I read your question/comments that I began to think about why I read them differently. I think I assumed that in "A Dream Deferred" the dream was that of equality and democracy/"Democracy". So I read them as companion pieces, but can't say why I did that other than my own assumptions about the context from which Hughes was writing. I'm excited to explore/learn how I read writers and how I write -- in relationship to how I read the works of others and how I read my own work.

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  5. AnonymousSeptember 6, 2009 at 2:41 PM

    I love the fact how you are so knowledgeable and passionate about this information. Hughes was a great poet and still is and I think everything happens for a reason, Hughes work was needed to be a voice for people of color, a voice that was unpolitical and unbiased. His life, I believed, served that purpose and that is what we seek from writers. To put in words how an individual sees the world, not as a collective group.
    -Dorothy

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