Transcript Poetry Collection 7

Poetry Collection
Notes
Pgs. 735-740
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
In Flanders Fields by John McCrae
Jazz Fantasia by Carl Sandburg
Harlem Renaissance
• The Great Migration sparked this literary movement.
• The Great Migration is a time period after the Civil War
where thousands of African Americans moved from the
South to the North for better opportunities.
• African Americans created their own urban communities in
cities such as Chicago and New York.
• Particularly in Harlem, New York, the African American
community was thriving in between the 1920 to 1930s.
• Harlem became the hub of a highly creative and culturally
movement that highlighted black literature, music, and art.
• Notable people: Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, Alain
Locke, Countee Cullen, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington,
Bessie Smith, Lena Horne and Cab Calloway.
The Weary Blues
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Music is a metaphor for those abstract feelings. Blues and jazz are all about expressing those
complex emotions through sound and tone.
Langston Hughes incorporates music by using a lot of internal and end rhyme, alliteration,
consonance, and assonance. He also chose a lot of words that sound like what they describe.
Line 1: The long O sounds of "droning" and "drowsy" mimic a yawning sound that stands in
contrast to the hard Ts and Cs of "syncopated tune" that mimic the syncopated rhythms of
ragtime music. Also, those two beginning D sounds are called alliteration.
Lines 6-7: Like the Os in Line 1, the long As of "a lazy sway" can really get drawn out in a
reading.
Lines 23: "Thump, thump, thump" is an example of onomatopoeia, in that it mimics a foot
hitting the floor.
Hughes uses more consistent rhythm in the song lyrics; but, outside of that, the language
follows a natural rhythm of speech. The "music" of the poem comes from how that rhythm
can fall in and out of patterns. The poem is written in free verse.
The speaker is really excited to tell his audience about the musician he heard,. He's more
interested in setting the mood and describing the event, than talking about how much he
liked it. He plays it cool – a total hipster. He's memorized the lyrics.
In Flanders Fields
• In Flanders Fields" was one of the most famous and popular poems of the
First World War. It was initially published anonymously in Punch magazine
on December 6, 1915, though it was later revealed to have been written
by John McCrae, a Canadian doctor and military officer.
• It was written on May 3, 1915 by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae during
WWI, while still at the battlefront during the Second Battle of Ypres in
Belgium.
• John McCrae wrote the poem as a response to the war of witnessing
firsthand. Also, he wrote the poem as a way of coping with his grief over
the death of a close friend.
• As the poem describes, many of these men were buried on the
battlegrounds; their graves were often marked with white, wooden
crosses.
• Told from the perspective of a fallen soldier, McCrae's poem calls on
readers to make these soldiers' sacrifices worthwhile by supporting the
war effort. The poem stirred national pride and was used to persuade
potential military recruits; poppies became an emblem of young soldiers
who had died.
Jazz Fantasia
• Sandburg gives a vivid of description of jazz
music
• The speaker is addressing jazz musicians
• The specific images and words create different
emotions about music particularly jazz
• Jazz can capture all human emotions
• Sanburg makes the moods and the energy of
jazz vivid for readers comparing the music to
different scences
Connection of all 3 Poems
• All three poets fused music to convey the
feelings of the speaker to the readers
• All three poets used poetic devicesonomatopoeia, assonance, and alliteration
• The use of music and sound devices help to
establish a powerful connection to the reader
and the poet