Transcript Poetry Power - staugustinechs.ca

Langston Hughes
Vanessa Chung, Melissa Feriozzo, Sofia Ferreyro-Mazieres
Langston Hughes
Birth: February 1, 1902.
Place of Birth: Joplin, Missouri.
Ethnicity: African American
Education: White school in Topeka, KS
Death: May 22, 1967.
Langston Hughes

Honors and Awards:
- A leading runner and high jumper
- In 1921, he published his first poem,
The Negro Speaks of Rivers, in
Crisis magazine.
- In May 1925 his first book was The
Weary Blues: it got first place in
poetry.
- In 1967, his last book of poetry, The
Panther and the Lash, was
published.
Langston Hughes

Interesting Facts:
- In 1925, Hughes showed his work
to American poet Vachel Lindsay.
The following day, the media
identified him as the "busboy
poet."
- Hughes wrote the lyrics for the
1947 opera Street Scene.
Love Song for
Lucinda
Love
Is a ripe plum
Growing on a purple tree.
Taste it once
And the spell of its enchantment
Will never let you be.
Love
Is a bright star
Glowing in far Southern skies.
Look too hard
And its burning flame
Will always hurt your eyes.
The Collected Poems of
Langston Hughes - 1994.
Love
Is a high mountain
Stark in a windy sky.
If you
Would never lose your breath
Do not climb too high.
Theme
- Love is bittersweet: enchanting,
but hurtful
- The speaker is talking from his
own experience with love
- Love can be kind, yet also
painful
- Take chances with love,
because it will reward you, but
be careful because love can be
dangerous
- Don’t look too hard for love, but
let it come to you
Lines That Show Theme
- Taste it once
And the spell of its enchantment
Will never let you be.
- Look too hard
And its burning flame
Will always hurt your eyes.
- If you
Would never lose your breath
Do not climb too high.
Figurative Language
- Love is compared to different objects in
each stanza - metaphors
- The readers can grasp a better
understanding of love through the use
of examples
- There are three different analogies of
love, that show it can be sweet, hurtful,
and dangerous
- Metaphors help portray the theme in
this poem because the author shows
how different three objects are, yet
they can all represent love
- Figurative language helps enhance the
theme by directly comparing love to
inanimate items
Lines That Show Figurative
Language
- Love Is a ripe plum
- Love Is a bright star
- Love Is a high
mountain
Imagery




Use of vivid or figurative
language to represent objects,
actions, or ideas.
In this poem, Langston Hughes
allows us to visualize and
picture the different thoughts he
is feeling.
Imagery is used for a reader to
feel the poem, not just
understand it.
Enhances the theme by:

Putting images into the reader’s
mind so they can imagine the
setting and tone more clearly.
Imagery Examples

“Growing on a purple tree.” makes poem come
more alive because we are able to picture this
tree growing out of the ground with a different
appearance since it is purple.

“High Mountain, stark in a windy sky.” This
example allows us to see images of the
mountains and feel the wind blowing across
our face.

“bright star, glowing in far southern skies”
allows us to picture a beautiful shining star
looking down at us from the sky, but then he
writes “and it’s burning flame,” which switches
our image to a painful, flaming fire. This
demonstrates that love can be beautiful but it
can also hurt you or cause pain in your heart if
you get too attached.
Figures Of Sound

Rhyme: this poem is a free verse poem,
therefore there is no set rhyme pattern, but
when read aloud, you can hear the rhyme
between each line, for example, Growing
on a purple tree / Will never let you be.

An interesting figure of sound that is
discovered when this poem is read out
loud, is that Langston Hughes wanted you
to read the end of the poem as if you were
out of breath:
“If you
Would never lose your breath
Do not climb too high.”
Figures Of Sound

Consonance:
windy sky
Goodbye My Lover - James Blunt
'Cause I saw the end before we'd begun, Yes I saw
you were blinded and I knew I had won. So I
took what's mine by eternal right. Took your soul
out into the night. It may be over but it won't stop
there, I am here for you if you'd only care. You
touched my heart you touched my soul. You
changed my life and all my goals. And love is
blind and that I knew when, My heart was
blinded by you.
Works Cited

“Langston Hughes.” Encarta. 21 Jan. 2005.
http://encarta.msn.com/media_461577250_761556401_1_1/Langston_Hughes_Quick_Facts.html

“Langston Hughes.” Books and Writers. 2003. 21 Jan. 2005.
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/lhughes.htm