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| Essay # 50004 |
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African-American Poetry, 2007.
An examination of various African-American poems throughout American history, focusing on the era of slavery.
2,158 words (approx. 8.6 pages), 5 sources, MLA, £ 46.95
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Abstract
This paper examines African-American poetry from many eras in American history. The writer explores several poems and discusses their meaning and impact on society. The paper focuses on the spirit of the African-American people through the decades of slavery and the way that their spirit survived through learning to read and write and find solace in poetry.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Types of African-American Poetry
Conclusion
From the Paper
"The above passage from the same poem provides the reader with the understanding that Hughes does not anticipate he will always be relegated to the kitchen for his meals and that there will come a time where he will eat at the table with the house guests. It is a protest against the treatment of his race while showing pride and refusal to believe he is the lesser person he is treated like when he is sent to the kitchen to eat. One of the most important things to note is the perseverance of African Americans during those early years (Baker, 1982). An example of this strength can be see in the fact that it was illegal to teach African Americans to read and write, yet many of them refused to give up and often traded favors, food, or clothing for learning the craft. They knew if they could read and write they would be better equipped to work toward eventual freedom."
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Physicality and the Body in African-American Poetry, 2001.
Examines three poems by African-American poets, exploring how each uses physical imagery to convey meaning.
1,608 words (approx. 6.4 pages), 1 source, MLA, £ 36.95
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Abstract
This paper discusses poems by Amiri Baraka, Robert Hayden, and Michael S. Harper, exploring how each poet uses imagery of the human (specifically African-American) body to convey meaning. Baraka sees the body as a potential instrument for social change, calling for Black poets to create work that will inspire real action. Hayden describes the horrific lynching of a Southern Black man, exposing the sinister motives of his white attackers. Finally, Harper crafts a tribute to Coltrane, detailing the legendary musician's struggle with pain, both physical and existential.
From the Paper
"I have been reading the work of Amiri Baraka for several years now, but have only recently become more intensely interested in the complex style of this challenging poet. Baraka probably has the most unique, original style of any modern poet I?ve read, a style which, for me, is generally most effective when he reads it aloud than when simply read from the printed page. Much of Baraka?s poetry is heavily influenced by jazz music, so if follows that his poems are fantastic on a purely auditory level. As entertaining and stirring a performer as Baraka is, I would argue that his poems must not be looked at as performance pieces, but also as the work of an accomplished craftsman. To that end, I searched for examples of literary criticism and scholarship that focused on the text of Baraka?s work, rather than his impassioned delivery of it."
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African-American Poetry, 2002.
Discusses and compares the formal structures in the poems by Claude McKay ("If We Must Die") and Paul Laurence Dunbar ("We Wear the Mask").
934 words (approx. 3.7 pages), 2 sources, £ 23.95
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Abstract
The formal structures of Claude McKay's "If We Must Die" and Paul Laurence Dunbar's "We Wear the Mask" operate in unusual ways. The paper shows that because both poets were African-Americans writing about the injustices suffered by their race, they were writing about fundamental feelings of rage and the struggle to avoid despair. It shows however that they were also writing specifically about the ways African- Americans face the white world that oppresses them. Ironically, they also wrote in the language and, at times, in the poetic tradition of the white culture.
From the Paper
"Dunbar's poem is written in iambic tetrameter and contains very few words of more than one syllable. The short words emphasize the regular rocking rhythm that resembles a children's rhyme. And for the first three lines of the poem the reader, while aware that something is being hidden, is not fully prepared for the fourth line where the shocking image of "torn and bleeding hearts" emerges. It emerges only to have its intensity quickly suppressed as the line ends with "we smile," which rhymes almost childishly with "guile." But the true depth of feeling is established by the contrast between the "torn and bleeding" and the "smile." The smile, a feature of the mask, hides the true feelings of the people who are Dunbar's subject -- just as the "smile" in this line masks the intensity of the words that precede it."
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African-American Poetry, 2002.
An analysis of two poems written by African-American poets.
1,046 words (approx. 4.2 pages), 2 sources, MLA, £ 25.95
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Abstract
This paper presents a reflection on African-American poetry. The writer of this paper uses two poems, "Colored Kids at Carnival" by Langston Hughes and "On Being Brought From Africa to America" by Phyllis Wheatley, to explore themes, structure and saturation of the work.
From the Paper
"Throughout history poets have used their works to reflect their emotions, ideas and souls. American history is still relatively young, yet filled with diversity when it comes to the path worn down by the evolvement of the nation. African American poets often capture the essence of the nation?s birth and growth through the poems they write. African American poets can present a level of understanding into the human mind, heart and soul that non AA?s cannot begin to describe, yet can appreciate and understand while reading the work."
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Poetry and Slavery, 2002.
An analysis of the poetry by African-American slaves, Phillis Wheatley and Lucy Terry.
1,380 words (approx. 5.5 pages), 2 sources, MLA, £ 32.95
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Abstract
The paper discusses the poetry of two slaves, Phillis Wheatley and Lucy Terry and shows how their works contribute to the voice of African Americans during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The paper shows their strong belief in God, without whom they felt lost in the white society at the time.
From the Paper
"African American poetry retained its concern with the burning issues of the American Revolution, including liberty, independence, equality, and identity. It also expressed African American experiences of divided loyalties. Just as white Americans experienced divided loyalties in the republic's early years unsure whether their identity derived from the new country or from their European past?so too did African Americans, who looked always to their African past and to their problematic American present."
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Poetry of the Cold War, 2005.
A look at the effects of the Cold War on American society through poetry.
2,700 words (approx. 10.8 pages), 5 sources, MLA, £ 66.95
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Abstract
This paper examines the effect of the Cold War on American society, particularly as it manifests in poetry and song. The paper discusses the Cold War's impact on American culture and TV shows and presents an analysis of the poem "How Krushchev Stole Khristmas," as well as other topical poems.
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Langston Hughes, 2006.
This paper reviews several poems and essays by Langston Hughes, who wrote poetry, essays, novels, plays and children's books and is considered the most important African-American writer of his time.
2,125 words (approx. 8.5 pages), 11 sources, MLA, £ 45.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that Langston Hughes employs the techniques of humor, imagery and rhythm to emphasize his points, proving himself to be a master at identifying with his African-American heritage. The author points out that Hughes often used jazz as an inspiration for his literary works by utilizing colloquial African-American dialects in a rhythmic pattern that echoes jazz as seen in his poem "The Weary Blues", which earned Hughes a first prize for poetry in 1925. The paper analyzes several of his poem---"The Weary Blues", "Song for a Dark Girl", "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", "Freedom Train" and "The Negro Artist" and "The Racial Mountain" and essays---"Temptation", "There Ought to be a Law" and "The Fun of Being Black".
From the Paper
"In contrast to the serious nature of the African American plight, Jesse B. Simple allows Hughes to express his affirmation of the African American experience through humor. Maya Angelou states that Hughes' essays "helped us poke fun at the unjust, thereby weakening the power of injustice." Through humorous conversations with a fictional man, Hughes was able to comment on serious racial issues with a certain amount of ease. For instance, in his essay, "Temptation," Simple discusses the probability of Adam and Eve being black instead of white. He says, "If they had started out black, this world might not be in the fix it is today. Eve might not have paid that serpent no attention. I never did know a Negro yet that liked a snake" (Hughes 177). Through his unique sense of humor, Hughes proves his point that African Americans are just as capable as--even more capable than anyone else--of making a decision regarding their own fate."
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Characters in the Poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks, 2003.
An analysis of character usage in the poetry of African-American poet, Gwendolyn Brooks.
3,155 words (approx. 12.6 pages), 6 sources, MLA, £ 63.95
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Abstract
This paper shows how Gwendolyn Brooks uses the daily experiences and struggles of her characters to comment on important issues, such as the societal views of women, race, and the poverty found in the inner city through her poetry. The paper looks at the poems, "The Hunchback Girl," "Sadie and Maud," and "The Mother," among others.
From the Paper
"Brooks describes a similar longing for unfulfilled dreams in her poem "kitchenette building". In the poem she describes the hardships of daily life in a black urban environment. It begins with "We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan, / Grayed in, and gray. "Dream" makes a giddy sound, not strong / Like 'rent,' 'feeding a wife,' 'satisfying a man'" (Brooks 20). The terms "things" and "dry hours" portray the emptiness of their place in society, while "involuntary plan" describes the speaker's disappointment with life and the ache of responsibilities in place of forgotten dreams (Melhern 22)".
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Middle Eastern Poetry, 2008.
This paper discusses Middle Eastern poetry, noting that such poetry tends to concern the conflict experienced around the poets.
2,056 words (approx. 8.2 pages), 7 sources, MLA, £ 44.95
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Abstract
In this article, the writer notes that Middle Eastern poetry is often peppered with honest assessments of the physical and emotional turmoil of conflict. The writer discusses that poetry in the Middle East tends to be a voice of record, in stylistic descriptions of the conflicts of mind, body and spirit that demonstrate a life or many lives in the turmoil of conflict and change. The writer maintains that many Middle Eastern authors feel a fierce obligation to write not only about the joy and struggle of writing poetry but also the trails and conflicts of their nations and the people whom they have known and whom they have imagined to have been deeply affected by all. The writer concludes that in the works of Ozkan Mert (Turkish) Taha Muhammad Ali (Palastinian) Eliaz Cohen (Israeli) and Aharon Shabtai (Israeli) one can locate the human drama of living in strife as well as the pleasure of poetic expression, without any real difficulty and with a great sense of wonder that is expressed through poetry and the wondrous human mind.
From the Paper
"Each of these writers are expressing the nature of self, the body of self and the nature of political and social upheaval, as it is expressive of the self and the whole. Each may be writing from an opposing side, but clearly their views are not opposing. Their voice is one that asks those who would choose to subvert them to listen to their voice as the voice of the individual seeking individual reconciliation in the face of conflict. The Middle Eastern conflict is a constant point of discussion in every arena, those offering solutions and those offering greater strife, and the words of these poets exemplify that the voice rarely heard is the voice of the people, the individual bodies and souls who live every day facing the results of conflict and the candor of legislative results.
"Ozkan Mert probably best exemplifies the passion and power of poetry, as a simple form that can convey a meaning beyond the nature of it length or even it s breath. Mert in his poem Whose on the Side of Poetry expresses the fear that some have of poetry, as a tool used by people to express the nature of strife, often when many wish that such strife not become public knowledge."
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Langston Hughes' Poetry, 1972.
This paper discusses the poetry of African-American poet Langston Hughes including Sandburg's influence, folk dialect, naturalism and black experiences.
2,025 words (approx. 8.1 pages), 6 sources, £ 49.95
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From the Paper
"Langston Hughes' poetry is meaningful to today's children. He speaks of the basic elements and emotions in life - love, hate, aspirations, despair; he writes in the language of today, and speaks of tomorrow.".
So says Lee Bennett Hopkins, editor of a volume of Hughes poetry. It is a near perfect summation of the pure simplicity of style and meaning which combine to give power to Hughes' work. Above anything else, Hughes' poetry and prose are dependent on his abstinence from a strained sort of symbolism. This would only detract from his intentions. When Hughes speaks of life, he reduces it to its most basic components. These components, as Hopkins noted, are clear to any reader. They rely on elements which are so common in human experience that they know no racial bars."
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What is Poetry?, 2006.
The paper looks at how Samuel Taylor Coleridge in his "Philosophic Definitons of a Poem and Poetry" defines poetry.
736 words (approx. 2.9 pages), 1 source, MLA, £ 18.95
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Abstract
The paper relates that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's approach to defining poetry is a combination of an examination of the purpose of poetry as well as the humanistic qualities of the poet. The paper discusses Coleridge's idea that the conglomeration of the human condition is necessary in order to manifest poetry. The paper explains this to mean that the full force of the heart and soul is necessary in order to create true art.
From the Paper
"Throughout the ages, philosophers have attempted to answer the question, what is poetry. Plato, Aristotle and Longinus contributed fine essays on this topic. During the Romantic era, a redefinition of the art of poet occurred, mandating a re-evaluation of what poetry is. The Romanic author and poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge endeavors to answer this question in his essay, Philosophic Definitons of a Poem and Poetry. Coleridge's approach is a combination of an examination of the purpose of poetry as well as the humanistic qualities of the poet. Coleridge examines what poetry is, what a poet is and what the cumulative result of answering these two questions."
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The Poetry of Longfellow, 2002.
Analyzes the poetry of Henry Wadworth Longfellow from the perspective of romanticism and American pragmatism.
1,150 words (approx. 4.6 pages), 3 sources, £ 30.95
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Abstract
This essay analyses the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Three aspects of the poetry are considered: romanticism, American pragmatism, and the art of Longfellow's writing. This essay examines three of Longfellow's poems - The Slave's Dream, My Lost Youth, and A Psalm of Life - and concludes that Longfellow's poetry demonstrates characteristics of romanticism, but with an American perspective on pragmatism and art.
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Poetry in Elementary School Curricula, 2004.
This paper discusses ideas for the integration of poetry and the creative energy poetry can engender into non-poetic school learning environments.
2,115 words (approx. 8.5 pages), 5 sources, MLA, £ 45.95
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Abstract
This paper explains that poetry is a tool to stimulate creative problem solving, build an ability for creative expression, help a child develop literacy skills, and learn other subjects through the imaginative, resourceful use of poetry. The author points out that a 'persona poem' is a poem that is written in the first person; the writer imagines that he or she is an animal, a movie star, a politician, or anything or anyone he or she is not. The paper stresses that innovation and doing the unexpected are extremely important for elementary school teachers when coaxing students to love and use poetry throughout their curricula.
Table of Contents
Introduction
The American Poetry and Literacy Project
The Persona Poem
Using Persona Poetry in Social Studies, Music, Math, Science, and Art
Conclusion
From the Paper
"To move to another area of study, math; the student could write a persona poem pretending to be Albert Einstein?s pencil sharpener. Imagine all the work that sharpener must do ? since Einstein was said to go through a number of pencils each day during his mathematical research and formula writing ? and imagine all the grinding sounds and shavings, too. Or, alternatively, what would it be like to be the number ?1?? Would that be a grand feeling of winning (?number one? can mean the best, the first, the top choice), or would being ?number one? seem like a person had a long way to go to get to ?50??"
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