Use Of Prosody In The Selected Poems Of Gwendolyn Brooks And Langston HughesEssay Preview: Use Of Prosody In The Selected Poems Of Gwendolyn Brooks And Langston HughesReport this essayPoetry has a role in society, not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts. It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words. The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance. Yet, these words can hold more emotion and thought, however brief it was presented.
What makes a good poetry? It is not only in the idea or thought of what the author is trying to express. What makes a good poetry beautiful is in how the writer makes use of the words, lines, and spaces and indents. The rhythm of the poem can make a significant impact in the expression of the idea. Even the structure of words can make a difference in interpreting what the poem wants to impart to its readers. The usage of commas, periods, and the spaces, can hold deeper meaning than when words are used.
What makes a good writer of poetry? It is through the intimate knowledge by the writer on the subject he/she wants to tell us. Even when the subject is a taboo or uninteresting in reality, the writer can make its readers suspend their objections and judgments, opening a room to rethink and explore on the subject.
Using two poets works as comparison, we can see how prosody can be represented in the text. Using selected poems by these two writers, Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks, also helps us in determining how significant prosody in the completeness of the poems.
Born in 1902, Langston Hughes was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother, who was also a great influence in his life. Though he has also lived with each of his parents for irregular periods, he has also felt desolation and parental neglect which led him to turn to the comfort of the beauty of literature.
He has traveled abroad, working at variety of jobs. He went back to the United States in 1924, after working in Africa and living in Paris for several months. By the time he returned, he was already well known as a gifted poet in African literary circles. He has written a lot of books and poetry on his time and is known as one of the major writers in the literary movement called the Harlem Movement. He involved himself in radical politics, traveling abroad as a correspondent. And although he has been awarded in Senegal as a historic artist at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in 1966, back at home, he was rejected by the younger generation of black writers. And in that same year, he died.
I hope and pray for all people in North America, and in all different cultural, religious, and ethnic groups in this country.
I agree that freedom of the press is not a cornerstone of the Constitution. I believe freedom of speech is a cornerstone of the Constitution, that the press should not be constrained by politics or its powers, as it were. I believe media should continue to press freely, regardless of the fact that it sometimes involves the government’s authority. I also believe that freedom of the people is critical in the democratic system of the United States. The First Amendment protects the right of everybody to be free of the suppression of his speech, in the public interest. I believe that I, as a First-Amendment representative, will fight for that right while supporting and protecting the freedom of the press.
There are no constitutional amendments. There are no constitutional amendments to limit the right to freedom of speech. These are issues that are of such great importance to an individual, to society and to the world that the First Amendment, which has so far been passed (in Missouri), in many states was passed in order to ensure freedom of speech, but that’s where the First Amendment has to be applied. But these issues, they are very important.
Now let us read this Constitution’s statement of principles:
“No government shall make or enforce any law which shall not be contrary to the laws of the United States.”
On page 13 of the fifth section of our article, this is also stated:”
“No government shall make or enforce any law which shall not be contrary to the laws of the United States.”
We have no right to prevent or restrict the free expression of others on our private property. No law shall, between the person and the lawmaker, permit the government to seize anything the government or any official of the United States government, or to punish persons or entities, or to take any action for the defense of property, rights and property, or to discriminate against or prohibit the carrying of firearms within the United States. Our right to freedom of speech is the foundation of our free society. We are not bound by a certain number of articles. We are not any less governed by a certain number of rules, than we were under some other nation before the Constitution was passed.
We can defend free speech to the full extent required by our Constitution and our laws, but if we are to support free speech from the top down, we must fight to preserve freedoms and liberties that no one holds dear. Our free press, which has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits and other civil rights action, has demonstrated that our own freedom to think as we please can and is at the
Langston Hughes “The Weary Blues” speaks of a weary man hearing blues being sung while walking along an avenue:“I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan–“Aint got nobody in all this world,Aint got nobody but ma self.” (Hughes L8-20)Blues is the musical form that was used in this poem but it also signifies the emotional state of the speaker in the poem. We can see that the term “the blues” relates not only in the state where the speaker was in but we cab find that the lyrics of the in the musical form called “the blues” relates to what the speaker was feeling right there and then. Since the speaker is walking down Lennox Avenue, it is implied already that the speaker is black since this area is populated and is a home for African Americans in this era.
Knowing the context of this poem can help us in understanding more about this poem. What contributed to the weariness expressed not only by the musician but also with the speaker are the economic and social conditions of their era. This was before the time of the American Civil Rights Movement, where racial discrimination is very rampant, and blacks are the receiving end of all the pain and humiliation, with less opportunities and sometimes none at all. The weariness that this poem is trying to express is brought out by the social situation that is encountered generally by the blacks:
“Got the Weary BluesAnd cant be satisfied–I aint happy no moAnd I wish that I had died.” (25-30)The rhyme and the repetition help created the sense of rhythm in this poem. The pattern made by the alliteration and assonance makes the poem so easy to remember and also easy imagine. In this way, it is possible to get the feeling of hearing the blues also which was described by the speaker in the poem. There is also an overall effect of becoming familiar and understanding how the blues echoed through the head of the speaker.
Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize. She has also received a lot of awards and fellowships throughout her life. Born in 1917, she started her writing career in poetry at an early age, publishing her first poem in 1930. 1967 was a turning point in her career as it was in this year that she attended the Fisk University Second Black Writers Conference. In this conference, she has decided to involve herself in the Black Arts Movement. While awareness of social issues and elements of protest is found generally in all her works, some of her critics found in her work an angrier tone after joining the movement.
She has also written essays, reviews, and books. She is also a prolific poet, becoming extensive in writing poetry which moves from the traditional ones to even the unrestricted free verse. Her characters are mostly from the underclass of the black neighborhoods which shows the impact of city life to the people within. As one of the most visible poets in the United States, she is active not only in public readings and poetry workshops but she also participates in contests and classes that helps young people in the inner-city to be able to see poetry in their lives.
“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks is a poem about young men who is in a pool room when they should be in a school, or possibly they are dropouts from school who see no future in themselves thus living by the moment and enjoying the pool. The speakers here are African Americans, based on the language that they used in the poem.
A lot of implications can be found in this very short poem of eight lines. The name of the of pool hall there these young men as the speakers in this poem congregate is specified as an epigraph of the poem. Seven not only specifies the number of these young men but it also signifies the number of luck, which is significant for them as pool players. The symbolism of the pool halls name-“The Golden Shovel” is suggestive. “Golden” can imply the peak of their youth