The Hughes poems are very different from Cullen. I like the Hughes poems they are easier than Cullen poems to read and understand. I like that they are related to jazz and the blues. The poems that relate to jazz because they are upbeat and simple. The poems don’t have a heavy message they have a simple message and are easy to understand. I like Hughes the best out all the reading that we have done so far.
In reference to his essay The negro artist and racial mountain he is saying that his poetry talks about everyday African Americans. The way he talks about African American people I think he is stereotyping the them. I don’t know how Hughes is suppose to be talking about the culture of African American’s, then he stereotypes them that’s something I don’t understand about Hughes. ANother part in the essay i dont understandis the part where he talks about Cullen as wanting to be like a white poet. I dont think hughes has any room to judge cullen when he's sterotyping blacks. Besides those two things i like hughes poems.
7 comments:
Out of all the poetry we have read I like Hughes the best also. I still enjoyed the novels the best, but these aren't to bad. The jazz and blues feelings these poems have make it easy to understand and fun to read. I enjoy music and many of these poems remind me of lyrics. I agree with what you said about Cullen as wanting to be like a white poet. Your right that Hughes shouldn't be judging him.
Hughes poems are definitely much lighter to read then what we have been reading, but I still think his message is strong he is just not fuddling it up with unreadable language. Hughes poems definitely have a beat to them; you can almost bring them to life.
I also found it interesting the way Hughes was blatantly bashing Cullen’s artistic approach to writing. Hughes writes specifically about the “artist who is not afraid to be himself” well jeez it sure seems like he has a problem with the artist who wants to be himself and talk about many issues from many different points of view. Hughes seems to be saying the “good” or the “artist who is not afraid to be himself” is only the artist who talks about himself and his race and no other. No exactly how I would describe or imagine freedom of artistic expression.
I agree that much of Hughes’ poetry is straightforward and much easier to understand than some of the writers that we have previously read. Hughes does not use fancy language or complicated styles. His writing is simple and to the point. I also liked how Hughes was able to incorporate the music of the time period into his writing. These poems are very reflective of the musical styles that were important to African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance.
I'm really glad that you brought up the point of how interesting it was that Hughes' poetry is very easily connected with the jazz and blues songs that we listened to in class. The more I thought about that, the easier it was for me to pick out those musical aspects in the poetry when I read more. I'm not really able to hear these musical qualities in the works of the other poets we've read so far. Hughes' poetry, the more I think about it, really stands out as my favorite!
After reading you blog, you reminded me that Huges poems relate to jazz because they are upbeat and simple. This also would explain the musicial tone his poetry has and how in many of his poems you can also sing them. I'm glad you pointed this out because I forgot to relate his poetry to music like jazz or the blues. I think this style of poetry helps the movement of the poem as you read it!
I completely agree with you. I thought the Hughes essay was pretty harsh. I know I brought up in class how stereotypical his "real" negro people seemed to be.
Hughes' poetry is easier to read and interpret than all the other authors we have read. However I think this makes it harder because the language is so simple and straight forward that there's not many different ways to look at his poems. Although Toomer, McKay, Cullen, etc were harder authors to understand, I enjoyed hearing/reading other people's opinions about their work.
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