Black Poetry in America Essay

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Poetry Explication of Langston Hughes’ “Theme for English B”

Langston Hughes himself is the narrator in his poem “Theme for English B” and the poem is composed of free verse without any respect to meter form or any clear focus on the development of particular stanzas, though the poem could be said to have 5 somewhat distinct sections or stanzas. The verse is unrhymed and the first section is brief, setting up the context for the poem: it is an English assignment from his instructor: “Go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you— / Then, it will be true” (Hughes ll. 2-5). The second section picks up with Hughes wondering “who” he is and how he can know anything “true.” He describes his environment as though this were himself—he identifies his birthplace, the place where he lives now, and his route to his home, where he states that he sits when he writes the next third section. In that section, he identifies himself with Harlem yet is not certain this is adequate. He then jumps into a fourth section in which he describes what he likes to do and then questions whether he or his white professor can really ever know the other since they are of different races.

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The fifth section consists of a single line, emphatically announcing that this rather uneven fulfillment of the professor’s assignment is in fact the theme that Hughes was tasked with writing.

The poem is not a sonnet, ballad, or haiku, but does have some resemblance to a dramatic monologue. It is much like a soliloquy in a play, as it is entirely Hughes himself giving voice to his inner thoughts in a stream of consciousness type of manner. His word choice emphasizes race frequently and he uses words to emphasize a kind of jazzy sound in the poem: “I like a pipe for a Christmas present, / or records—Bessie, bop or Bach” (ll. 23-24). One can hear in the alliteration and assonance and consonance the rhythmic sounds of bebop (a kind of jazz) and Bessie Smith (one of the first female jazz artists), whom Hughes identifies in the poem by first name only, as though to show his intimacy and familiarity with her. Bach is referred to not by Johannes but by his surname, which is appropriate both because that is….....

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