Hi. I am desperate need of help ASAP!!! I have to write a 3-5 analytical paper on to poems by Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" & "Cross." Any help would be greatly appreciated!!! I don't have much time, I guess I should of paid more attention to how hard this was going to before me.

“Mother to Son”

Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor-
Bar.
But all the time
I’see been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back
Don’t you set down on the steps
‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now-
For I’se still goin, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair


"Cross"
My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.

If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well.

My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I'm gonna die.
Being neither white nor black?

Alisha,

Decide on the theme of your essay first, after having read both poems and knowing what they both say. The statement of your theme should be in the introduction of your essay. You might say something such as this: "Both of these poems deal with the subject of parents..." Then go on to tell the reader what topics you will discuss. Divide the essay into several different topics. For instance:

1. Subject matter
2. Rhyme pattern/or lack of same
3. Language (common, superior, inferior, slang)
4. Tone (serious, jovial, )
5. Connotation/meaning (both real and suggested)
6. Effect on the reader (emotions triggered by the poems)


Use examples from each of the poems to illustrate how they compare/or contrast on each of these points. Be specific, quote lines from the poem(s) to give the reader a better idea of what you're talking about. The more specific you are in giving examples, the easier it will be to write a specified number of words for the assignment.

Ask yourself questions about the poems then answer these questions in the essay. For instance: Was there a difference in attitude toward each parent by Hughes? Do you think he respected his mother more or less than his father? Why does he bring up the issue of race in the second poem? Do you think he was born to poor or wealthy parents? (Look at an online biography of Hughes and find the answer to some of these questions.)

Les



Post Edited (11-11-04 04:49)

>“Mother to Son”

It's an extended metaphor comparing our trip through life to walking a stair. Go find out what that means, and elaborate it in the paper.

>"Cross"

The child is the product of mixed races and the poem shows emotions that child might feel. Look up 'ballad meter' and show what kind of variation this poem uses, for extra credit (look up iamb, dactyl, anapest).

Note that the poet uses 'vernacular' in the poems. Discuss why that was done.

uhhhh

i have the same paper due, with same poems, how wierd...

Is this supposed to be a compare and contrast paper?
Or a paper with two sections?
I'm assuming that it is supposed to c /c.

There are 2 ways pretty basic of setting up the paper---

one is to talk about one poem at a time
then show how they are similar,
and then how they are alike.

The other way is to show comparisons and contrasts
as you move through the poems.

I think the first way is easier.

Pay close attention to what Hugh pointed out about metaphor.
You could talk about the language too as he says (vernacular)

and how it kinda matches the simplicity of the metaphor---
the first isn't a tough metaphor either---you can point that out.
Simple metaphor / simple language.

I think you could argue that the second poem
is an extended metaphor too
but achieved more thru the title
than thru the verse. The title "Cross'

as in "a cross to bare"---?


The poems' forms contrast immensely.
Talk about stanzas vs no stanzas,
and tempo, pacing------some lines in the second poem
are in blank verse, some are not.

The first poem uses repetition at the beginning of lines---
you can talk about how that affects the poem, etc . . .

trying writing off the cuff
and refine your paper much later---
that used to work for me.

I hope something here is useful----

best wishes,

Lisa

pls help me with the analysis of the above subject

LOL

I got this via e-mail, but I am unclear if they are related to the same subject or not (formatting is as received, but likely inaccurate):


THE MAKING OF THE DRUM Edward Brathwaite

The Skin
First the goat
must be killed
and the skin
stretched.

Bless you, four – footed animal, who eats rope,
skilled
upon rocks, horned with our sin;
stretch your skin, stretch

It tight on our hope;
we have killed
you to make a thin
voice that will reach

Further than hope;
further than heaven, that will
reach deep down t our gods where the thin
light cannot, where our stretched

Hearts cannot leap. Cut the rope
of its throat, skilled
destroyer of goats; its sin,
spilled on the washed gravel, reaches
and spreads to devour us all. So the goat
must be killed
and its skin
stretched.


The Barrel of the Drum

For this we choose wood
of the tweneduru tree:
hard duru wood
with the hollow blood
that makes a womb.

Here in this silence
we hear the wounds
of the forest;
we hear the sounds
of the rivers;

vowels of reed-
lips,. Pebbles
of consonants,
underground dark
of the continent.

You dumb adom wood
will be bent,
will be solemnly bent, belly
rounded with fire, wounded with tools.

that will shape you.
You will bleed,
cedar dark,
when we cut you;
speak, when we touch you.



The Two Curved Sticks of the Drummer

There is a quick
stick grows in the forest, blossoms twice yearly without leaves;
bare white branches
crack like lightning in the harmattan.

But no harm
comes to those who live nearby. This tree, the elders say, will never die.

From this stripped tree
snap quick sticks for
the festival. Its wood,
heat-hard as stone,
is toneless as a bone.


TIMBUCTU Edward Brathwaite

Whose gold you carry, camel,
In this cold cold world?
Whose pearls of great price?
Whose cinnamon, whose spice?

Your world of walls, o city
Of my birth, rise so certain
So secure; the plains
Of dust surrounding us.

So kept away ,so distant.
Whose gold you carry, camel,
On your hill-top back?
To what far land you now

Transport our wealth?
And what wealth here, what
Riches, when the gold returns
To dust, the walls

We raised return again
To dust; and what sharp winds,
Teeth’d with the desert’s sand,
Rise in the sun’s dry.

Brilliance where our mosques
Mock ignorance , mock pride,
Burn in the crackled blaze of time,
Return again to whispers, dust

bump, for Vicky

Hi! I need your help finding when did Langston Hughes write "Mother to Son." This information can help me analyze its main idea. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Tico, according to the following website, it was 1921-22:

[64.233.179.104]


Les

Hi

I am late with this paper. I am analysing five poems by langston Hughes.
Cross, I dream a world, Harlem, Dreams, and dream variation. I really do not know how to start this paper. Can you please help me

[www.cliffsnotes.com]

Hi, you explained that so nicely.
I was wondering if you could help get me started?
I need to analyze Langston Hughes..."Theme for english B"

With the literary technique Satire and situational irony...?

Thanks for any input

I don't know about seeing satire in this work, but I would say that the irony comes from his thinking- are we alike? can we communicate? and discovering that we can.

Theme for English B

The instructor said,

Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you --
Then, it will be true.

I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:

It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me -- we two -- you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York too.) Me -- who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records -- Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me NOT like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white --
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me --
although you're older -- and white --
and somewhat more free.

This is my page for English B.

-- Langston Hughes
pam

Hmmm ... could show satire/irony in several ways. Might be ironical that the author thinks he is writing poetry instead of prose, for example Oops! Sorry, that just slipped out, but Hughes appears to address the same issue with his perceived instructions to just write anything and it will be truth. I see resentment in the last few tongue-in-cheek lines - could that be the irony the instructor is looking for?