Focusing on Langston Hughes

Today we turned our attention to the poetry of Langston Hughes.  I'm pleased to see how everyone responded to him.  He is a remarkable writer, and he was not only a poet but also a playwright, a writer of memoirs, and a short story writer.  His stories about Jess B. Simple are also fun to read.  A number of playwrights have dramatized them for the contemporary stage.

We have two more days of new poetry.  Wednesday we will go over some modern poetry, namely poems by Ezra Pound, William Carlos Williams, Mary Ellen Solt, and H.D.

"Oread" is our poem from H.D.:  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48186/oread

"Forsythia" is our poem from Mary Ellen Solt: http://writing.upenn.edu/library/Solt-Mary-Ellen_Forsythia.html

You may also want to look at her "Lilac":  http://www.ubu.com/historical/solt/flowers/pdf/Solt-Lilac_1963.pdf

William Carlos Williams is known for "The Red Wheelbarrow" https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45502/the-red-wheelbarrow  and "This is Just to Say" https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/just-say

Ezra Pound, however, was the force behind modernism: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/12675/in-a-station-of-the-metro

He was also known for his poems inspired by Chinese poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47692/the-river-merchants-wife-a-letter-56d22853677f9

Here are a few questions for you about Langston Hughes and his poetry.

-- We compared Hughes' poems to Whitman's.  Let's also compare one of his poems to Gwendolyn Brooks' "the rites for Cousin Vit": https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51983/the-rites-for-cousin-vit

-- Or to one of Emily Dickinson's poems. http://en202.blogspot.com/2018/04/preparinhg-for-emily-dickinson-langston.html

-- Should we read more comic verse like "Madam and Her Madam"?  Why?  Why not?

-- Should we read more satire like "Madam and Her Madam"?  Why?  Why not?

-- How does "Madam and Her Madam" fit with Hughes' other poems?  Why?

-- How does Langston Hughes use language in his poems?

-- Which emotions does he evoke?

-- Compare a poem by Hughes with a poem by Williams.  Both poets write concise poetry.  Do they share other similarities?  How are they different?

-- How short should a poem be?  Why?

-- In your opinion, which poet portrays America more accurately?  Whitman in "I hear America Singing" or Hughes in "I, Too, Sing America"?

-- William Carlos Williams maintained "no ideas but in things."  How does this philosophy affect his poetry?

-- Could you apply his philosophy to other poets?  Where does it not apply?

-- How do poets evoke the senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, touch)?

-- Are Mary Ellen Solt's poems poems?  Why?  Why not?

-- How should a poet portray a culture that he is not part of?

-- Compare Ezra Pound's response to Chinese literature to Chinese poetry that you are familiar with.

-- Langston Hughes was about 18 when he wrote "The Negro Speaks of Rivers."  How is this poem a young person's poem?

-- If you have ever been to the rivers Hughes mentions or to other impressive rivers like the Nile or the Amazon, how did you experience help you read his poem?

-- Why do rivers speak to Langston Hughes?