i'm studying at University of Sumatera Utara
English department
exactly, this is my works and this is my best analysis (said my lecturer)
If
there’s a will there’s a way in Langston Hughes poems
A change can be happened if we have a
will, and then we have to do the way. Sometimes we forget what the most
important to have the change, and in Langston’s Poems we will see what the
dream of Langston in his life about American Black. As a man has black skin, he
considered that he is one of black Americans that have bad life in America. He told
what the blue the black Americans in that time. Through these two poems he told
all the human life in America, his dream, and his experience in society. They
are “As I Grew Older” and “Dream Variations”. Both of them were made by
Langston Hughes.
Hughes
was a writer committed to his people, American Negroes, who suffered under
segregation and discriminatory laws. His concern for justice drove him to write
in a number of literary genres, including poetry, short stories, novels, plays,
and essays. His poems for children stress the potential in life, encourage them
to look for the good things that life has to offer, and to actively seek
happiness. He was one of the few poets to state such simple ideas in the
elementary language that his intended audience would understand, raising
undereducated readers up to noble thoughts instead of talking down to them. Firstly
we can analysis the poem ‘As I Grew Older’.
As I grew older
Langston
Hughes
It was a long time ago
I have almost forgotten my dream
But it was there then
In front of me
Bright like a sun
My dream
And then wall rose
Rose slowly
Slowly
Between me and my dream
Rose until it touched the sky
The wall
Shadow
I am black
I lie down in the shadow
No longer the light of my dream before me
Above me
Only the thick wall
Only the shadow
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!
Throughout this poem is about the
inability to achieve childhood dreams because of racism and prejudice. It means
blacks and whites society. When Langston was young, he had dreams of achieving
great things. His dreams were "Bright
like a sun". As he grew up, he experienced prejudice and racial
discrimination, and his naive and optimistic dreams were shattered.
In the first stanza of this poem, Hughes
writes that his dream was: “in front of
me, bright like a sun—My dream.” Hughes’s dream is the dream of a
non-racist society in America and the freedom for anyone to do what they choose
and be treated equally. At the same time, Hughes’s dream can also be treated as
Hughes’s future. Hughes’s dream first appeared to be “bright
like the sun” because when we’re a child, we aren’t aware of what’s
actually happening around you. Children don’t know the true reasons for why
their community is the way that it is and Hughes’s didn’t understand either.
Hughes’s dream was bright because he wasn’t old enough to realize that there
would be things in his way keeping him from his dream. Also, it’s important to
note that Hughes’s says “My dream” to show possession of the idea he holds.
This is later related to other possessions Hughes’s describes in his poem.
Another reason why Hughes’s writes “my dream” is because Hughes’s dream was
different from a white man at the time.
Facing discrimination throughout his life,
Hughes’s continues to describe racism when Hughes’s writes
“And then a wall rose, rose slowly, slowly, between me and my dream.”
The wall Hughes’s refers to is the wall of discrimination. This wall “slowly”
blocked his dream. Hughes’s describes the blockage as slow to show the many
small efforts people used to keep America segregated.
In the third stanza, Hughes’s writes that
the wall “rose until it touched the sky--. The
wall. Shadow. I am black. I lie down in the shadow.” There are many
things going on in this stanza that illustrates Hughes’s place in society at
that time and the extent of racism. We, as a reader should notice that Hughes’s
first writes that the wall rose up to touch the sky in a single line but he
then breaks up the words in the following lines to act as if the action was
taking place with the words. First Hughes’s describes what is moving up and he
writes on a single line, “The Wall.” Then Hughes’s continues to describe what
happens when the wall is in place and that’s “Shadow.” In the third single line
Hughes’s confirms (if not already known), “I am black.”
This simple description is then followed by a single line with, “I lie down in
the shadow.” “The Wall” that Hughes’s describes is a symbol of the white people
who were racist. This wall casts a “shadow” over Hughes and this shadow
represents the restrictions and laws that were made in discrimination against
black people.
Once the shadow is created, Hughes’s
writes: “I am black,” which is literally the current state of his shadowed
atmosphere but more so the fact that Hughes’s is African American. Then he
tells that he’s lying down in the shadow. This shadow is describing the lower
conditions that African American’s had to live with in the midst of segregated
America. Hughes’s ends this stanza by saying “No longer the light of my dream
before me, Above me.” Since his dream is no longer above him, the dream is
beneath him. This can be interpreted as saying that the dream of freedom and
equality is unrealistic or it’s saying that the dream has been temporarily
disabled because of the wall created by white people. In order to break free of
his restrictions, Hughes describes his “dark hands” that will be able to “break
through the wall,” and “find his dream. The dark hands Hughes describes is his
culture and his own people. Hughes believes that with perseverance African
Americans can break through the wall created by white people and find their
dreams.
In the last stanza, Hughes says that
these hands can: “help me shatter this darkness, to smash this night, to break
this shadow into a thousand lights of the sun, into a thousand whirling dreams
of sun!” “Shatter” adds more emphasis to Hughes description of how African
Americans will prevail through civil rights and by breaking the shadow into a
thousand lights of the sun the blacks are breaking the restrictions cast by
white people and making society equal as a whole. The darkness is the shadow
that was created by the wall that grew taller and taller. Hughes is able to
break the darkness and let light in through the wall.
He uses imagery to describe his own
ability to overcome prejudice in his society. Langston Hughes ends his poem by
describing the dreams to becoming: “of sun!” to show that his dream may still
be too far to reach but when reached will shine brighter than all of the dreams
ever to come true. The light from the sun is seen by Hughes again and it’s as
if he and his dreams were reunited.
Dream Variations
By Langston Hughes
To fling my arms wide
in some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is
done
Then rest at cool
evening
Beneath a tall three
While night comes on
gently,
Dark like me-
That is my dream!
To fling my arms wide
In the face of the
sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is
done.
Rest at pale evening
A tall, slim tree..
Night coming tenderly
Black like me
And next ‘Dream Variations’, it combines
two distinct motifs that were evident in Langston Hughes's poetry throughout
his lifetime. It is written in a structure that copies the repetitions of
American blues music, and it is aimed, as many of his works were, primarily at
children. Published first in 1932, in the collection The Dream Keeper and Other
Poems,
Upon first reading, Hughes’s poem appears
to be merely the recounting of a simple dream by an unnamed speaker. The action
and images of the poem are so spare, at first sight seeming to reveal only that
the speaker is having a dream about dancing in a “place in the sun” and then
resting underneath a tree until night descends. But of course, the poem is
about much more. Indeed it is striking that in seventeen uncomplicated lines
Hughes is able to suggest such a wealth of ideas, touching as he does on
subjects like the social reality of the 1920s, Black Americans’ spiritual
connection with Africa, and racial prejudice. Part of the reason he is able to
call up so much in so short a space is that the subject of the poem is a dream.
As with all dreams, to understand fully the significance of what is represented
requires a significant amount of interpretation, imagination, and background
knowledge. As anyone who has helped a person close to them decipher the meaning
of a dream knows, close scrutiny of the dream’s images coupled with an intimate
knowledge of the dreamer can yield impressions or truths that are not at all
obvious at the outset. Thus “Dream Variations,” more than most poems, benefits
not only from a careful probing into the action and imagery in the poem itself but
also an examination of the poet/dreamer and his beliefs, social background, and
main concerns. A fuller understanding of the poem comes when the reader can
understand the layers of meaning that are contained within the simple
descriptions presented, and these layers of meaning may be uncovered by gaining
a deeper understanding of the poet and his interests and influences. “Dream
Variations” is one of Hughes’s early poems, written in 1924 when he was only
twenty two. Although he had not yet established his reputation as a poet,
during this time, Hughes was gaining some renown as an important new voice in
African−American circles. Also, despite his young
age, the poet had already lived a full life. His parents separated when he was
young, and he lived with his grandmother
“Dream Variations” is a subtle
celebration of blackness as it presents darkness and night in positive terms. Again,
the ideas in the poem are not stated overtly but merely suggested. The speaker
is in a dreamy place of love and relaxation and he is identified with the
“gentle” and “tender” night. The references to “white” and “pale” are not at
all derogatory, implying that feelings of prejudice because of color are
unnatural and unfounded. In the speaker’s dream, white, paleness, darkness, and
night are all part of the beautiful landscape. But the speaker himself
identifies with night and darkness. In the place of his dream, night comes
gently and tenderly; it is not to be feared but welcomed. The speaker praises
night, the time of dreams, and with it, he also celebrates himself and his
race.
Hughes was a major figure in the Harlem
Renaissance, an artistic movement of the 1920s and 1930s, which brought the New
York African-American arts community into prominence. He used the blues
structure because it was familiar to blacks who found no point of reference in
standard literary modes. Using a blues style also helped Hughes swiftly and
efficiently convey the mixed emotions of hope and fear that the poem brings
together. Analyzing blues music in a book previous to The Dream Keeper, he
observed, "The mood of the Blues is almost always despondency, but when
they are sung, people laugh." This poem takes whatever the mental process
is that makes people react to bleakness with laughter, and nudges it upward toward
positive action.
In conclusion, the meaning of these poems
are because he is black, Langston Hughes is unable to achieve his dreams. As a
child, he was unaware of the cruelty of the world and in his innocent optimism
dared to dream of achieving great things. As time went by and he got older, he
realized that because of prejudice, racism and discrimination, his
opportunities were limited and he was thus blocked from being able to achieve
his dreams. The resulting despair is described as, or compared to, shadow as he
goes on to say that in his defeat, 'I lie down in the shadow'. And by these poems, Langston writes his hopes
to throw out the discrimination. . The fact that the single reason for these
obstacles is his black skin makes it even more hurtful.
