The poem “Po’ Boy Blues” was composed by Langston Hughes during 1926, his early writing era. His poetry was inspired by his family’s history, a history full of abandonment, betrayal, and violence. His father abandoned him seeking to find a life less confrontational to a black man, leaving Langston Hughes to face being raised by his grandmother in the very same hostile environment his father sought to escape. His mother betrayed him as she never embraced him with a mother’s love not only once leaving him as a young child, but twice when he came to live with her after his grandmother died. His grandmother immersed Langston in his family’s dark history, sometimes laying the “bullet ridden shawl” on him from where his grandfather died …show more content…
Just repeating these words causes the reader to feel the “weariness” and heavy burden pressing upon the speaker. Often when the lines are repeated the image is cemented in the readers’ mind as words like “Sunshine seemed like gold”
(line 2) are identifiable to everyone as a picture of happiness. Symbolism can be found in the lines “Since I come up North de / Whole damn world’s turned cold” (5-6), referring to his expectations of success not coming true. Inferring the North was a wonderful place to live until he arrived. (frag..must fix) The poem, “Po’ Boy Blues” uses rhyme in the fourth and sixth lines of each stanza.
In the first stanza(,) rhyme is used to point out the emotional state of the speakers outlook,
“Sunshine seemed like gold,” (line 4) and “Whole damn world’s turned cold,” (line 5). The poet used this method again in stanza 3 to compare his experience in love; “A gal I thought was kind,” (line 16) and “An’ almost lose ma mind.” (line 17). Finally he shows us his complete despair in stanza 4; “Early, early in de morn” (line 22) and “I wish I’d never been born” (line
24). This rhyme helps to flow the emotion from the speaker to the reader. The reader senses the speaker’s complete lack of hope(,) he has given up on life. Hughes’s use of alliteration throughout his poem, “Sunshine seemed like gold. / Since I come up North de /
The importance of rhyme is established through determining the significance that it has on the reader. Fierceness is more connected with strength than weakness, and this fact causes the author to make a more hateful being in the reader’s imagination. The rhyme layout surrounds the poem and gives every stanza a typical example. Every stanza is comprised of two units, which keeps a constant rhyme when perusing the poem and helps the reader to remember the Tyger's pulse and the rhythm of his poem.
He describes it a poor and violent setting, where parents were scared of their parents
faced with many trials and struggles. As a child he grew up never meeting his father and
he is estranged from himself. To help expand on this theme it is useful to look
the consequences that would follow. He ignored his mother, he was desperate and needed the
Father died when he was an infant and was brought to his mom’s parents’ house to be raised
The sudden death of his father and the disgust at the quick second marriage of his mother
needs the help of his friends to aid him on his quest. As well as mentally in conflict with his family, the hero displays common exhibits of grief for his family which is an opening to express hurt or anger from experience elsewhere (Varieties of Family Conflict in Adolescence). The author shows the hero using the death of his mother and his new-found father to inflict pain on other family members. With this much trouble in his
anger towards his father. Boy feels like he is competing with his father for possession of his mother.
the sudden lose of his father and the sudden marriage of his mother to his uncle ate
Father was abusive to both D and D’s mother and deserted them when D was only young.
seeking for approval from his father. The younger son, was always in the shadows of the older
Langston Hughes was born February 1st, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. Hughes’s father, James Nathaniel Hughes, left him and his mother and headed to Mexico. Hughes, his mother unable to provide for him, lived with his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas. Langston Hughes had ‘‘learned lessons in endurance and pride from his grandmother’’ (Litz 725). He lived with his Aunt Reed outside of Lawrence, after his grandmother had died when he was twelve years old. A year later he moved to Lincoln, Illinois with his mom and stepdad afterward his stepbrother. Hughes and his family moved, where he was enrolled in a high school in Cleveland. Langston was fascinated with Carl Sandburg and Paul Dunbar. ‘‘Sandburg became one of the most important influences on Langston work’’ (Bryant 13). Hughes contributed to his school literary magazine where he wrote poems about Sandburg and Dunbar.
Growing-up: His father eventually moved to a different city in Ohio and for the next two years he lived with mother who was now a single parent. He would visit his father on holidays and the summers. “I wanted to see my Dad as long as he wasn’t with my Mom. When they were together they were different people.” He recounted that after the separation the visits were always good. These times with his dad were happy. They had fun summers; there was lots of swimming, going places, and activities. A shift in his expression and tone changed when mentioned having to go back a single parent household for the school year. This was another evident and difficult transition. “My Mom had her freedom back. She would go to work, come home, and go to bowling leagues all the time. She’d get home at five, go bowl at six-thirty, and not get home till one in the morning.” He explained that now he really had to fend for himself. “Sometimes there was food in the fridge, and sometimes not. So I ended up running the streets with my friends. We’d steal because we didn’t have food or money and started selling drugs.” We discussed this phase of his life which consisted of skipping school, hanging around the wrong influences, and running away. He realized that sometimes this was his only way of receiving affection and attention. When he disappeared, people went looking, and it made him feel like he was missed and loved. Eventually the tension and fights between him and his mother continued to escalate.
The significance of rhyme is established through assessing the significance that it has on the reader. Fierceness is more connected with strength than weakness, and this fact causes the speaker to make a more spiteful being in the reader’s imagination. The rhyme layout likewise surrounds the poem and gives every stanza a typical example. Every stanza is comprised of two units, which keeps a constant rhyme when perusing the poem and helps the reader to remember the Tyger's pulse and the rhythm of his movement.