Hughes' "Harlem": For some help unpacking this condensed piece, see the study sheets/exercises (the comments on "Harlem" and "Theme for English B." Understanding how socio-cultural conditions for African Americans in America post WW II relate to the "dream" of the Harlem Renaissance will help explain the ambiguous, disillusioned tone of this poem; it's mixture of militancy and hope. What was that dream, and how did it change? How do you see this tension and ambiguity in the poem's images? it's structure and line breaks? Look closely at contrasting/conflicting details...
The introductory essay on Hughes on PF can also be helpful in dealing with the question of dialiect in his earlier poems: Is he stereotyping, or challenging the academic, Anglified verse of other African American poets in the 20s and 30s (when many of these dialect poems were written)--see Countee Cullen's poetry as an eg)--and representing a more "authentic" voice of the lower/working class African-American? Or could the dialect poems be up to something more sophisticated, diacritically marking the dialect (i.e., putting it, figuratively, in quotes), undercutting the stereotypical language with imagery that reveals the emotional and existential realities--the "human condition," as critics have said of Ferlinghetti--of an underclass experience ("Sylvester's Dying Bed" is a good eg.--conisider the final image, the rhythmic alteration of the final stanza, and also the smudged image of the "River Jerden" two stanzas earlier)?
Brooks: For secondary sources on Brooks' poetry, check MAP, the introduction on PF, and the Literature Resource Center (KBCC databases). It is also interesting to read Brooks and Hughes together, since, though different in style and sensibility (Brooks deploys ebonics at times, rather than dialect stereotypes), they deal with a similar demographic.
Blogs from Previous Classes(6th set down) :
For Brooks, see Andrea, Deborah, Diana A, Diana K, Michael, Murat, and Olya;
for Hughes, see Baruch, Constanza, Rosemarie and Stephen.
Whether or not you are writing about the particular poem on which a blog is focused, if you are writing about that author's work, review my comments, since the comments may still be helpful.
The introductory essay on Hughes on PF can also be helpful in dealing with the question of dialiect in his earlier poems: Is he stereotyping, or challenging the academic, Anglified verse of other African American poets in the 20s and 30s (when many of these dialect poems were written)--see Countee Cullen's poetry as an eg)--and representing a more "authentic" voice of the lower/working class African-American? Or could the dialect poems be up to something more sophisticated, diacritically marking the dialect (i.e., putting it, figuratively, in quotes), undercutting the stereotypical language with imagery that reveals the emotional and existential realities--the "human condition," as critics have said of Ferlinghetti--of an underclass experience ("Sylvester's Dying Bed" is a good eg.--conisider the final image, the rhythmic alteration of the final stanza, and also the smudged image of the "River Jerden" two stanzas earlier)?
Brooks: For secondary sources on Brooks' poetry, check MAP, the introduction on PF, and the Literature Resource Center (KBCC databases). It is also interesting to read Brooks and Hughes together, since, though different in style and sensibility (Brooks deploys ebonics at times, rather than dialect stereotypes), they deal with a similar demographic.
Blogs from Previous Classes(6th set down) :
For Brooks, see Andrea, Deborah, Diana A, Diana K, Michael, Murat, and Olya;
for Hughes, see Baruch, Constanza, Rosemarie and Stephen.
Whether or not you are writing about the particular poem on which a blog is focused, if you are writing about that author's work, review my comments, since the comments may still be helpful.
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