L.+Sturgis

Langston Hughes
====Langston Hughes was the most popular and versatile writers/poets of the Harlem Renaissance and wanted to capture the oral and improvisatory traditions of black culture. His parents were separated and were not really around, so Hughes was mostly raised by his grandmother, who came from abolitionist background. His mother was very sympathetic to his writing and supported it. His father was a businessman who also liked poetry; however he got disgusted with American racism and moved to mexico. He attended Columbia University, however he left after only a year of school and started to travel and drift through the country.====

The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised pyramids above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset

I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

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 * In this poem, Hughes is talking about rivers. He is litterally saying that he has done all these things with all these different rivers, but in reality it was not really him. He actually means his ancestors had done all these things. They were slaves all of their lives, and he is a decedent of slave culture. Deep in his veins are these hardships; althrough he did not actually experience them himself, he is still feeling the affects of them. He is a black man in a white mans world at this time, but he also believes that there will be and end and one day there will be equality. He says, "My soul has grown deep like the rivers." To me this means that he is very accepting, and is open minded about life in general. He did not actually bathe in the Euphrates or build pyramids near the Nile, but his family has. He is trying to show how far we have come in this world, and although it is not perfect it is getting better​ and better in relation to things becoming more fair to everyone in life.**

=Dreams=

Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow.




 * This poem is saying that if you don't dream, then you will never amount to anything. If you do not have any dreams then you do not have any ambitions and will never make anything of your life. He says "For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly." you will not be able to flourish and grow if you do not hold on to your dreams. Also, you cannot let other people ruin your dreams for you. You have to be strong and hold on to them; do not let other people get you down and believe that you are not good enough or that you cannot do it. You have to believe in yourself and hold on to those dreams, or you life will seems boring and meaningless. "For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow." This is saying that if you do end up letting go, life will be cold and extremely hard. If Martin Luther King Jr. gave up on his dream, then America might not have been what it is today. If Abraham Lincoln were to give up on his dream of keeping America together, then the South might have been a different nation and America may never have reached its dream or goal of manifest destiny. If you let go of your dreams then life has no point. You must dream to live and flourish and grow. If no one had dreams then there wouldn’t be college, there wouldn’t be school, there wouldn’t be prestigious positions or prestigious people. To make your mark on society, no matter how big or how small, you must dream about it first.**

=Claude McKay= Claude McKay was born in 1889 in Clarendon Jamaica to two well-off peasant farmers who owned enough and to vote. Throughout the first part of his life, McKay was a communist, until visiting the Soviet Union, deciding that communism is to disciplining and confining. He was a part of the Harlem Renaissance publishing three novels, and a collection of short stories and poems.

The Lynching
His Spirit in smoke ascended to high heaven. His father, by the cruelest way of pain , Had bidden him to his bosom once again; The awful sin remained still unforgiven. All night a bright and solitary star (Perchance the one that ever guided him, Yet gave him up at last to Fate's wild whim) Hung pitifully o'er the swinging char. Day dawned, and soon the mixed crowds came to view The ghastly body swaying in the sun The women thronged to look, but never a one Showed sorrow in her eyes of steely blue; And little lads, lynchers that were to be, Danced round the dreadful thing in fiendish glee.

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. =Henry Wadsworth Longfellow=
 * McKay is trying to express the horrific lynching of the people or Judah. "All night a bright solitary star... Hung pitifully o'er the swinging chair." This just makes you ge that image in your head of a body just hanging from a tree. Its so sad because you are also aware that the only reason they were hanged it probably because of their color. "The aweful sin remained still unforgiven." to me this line means that the white man has not yet opened up their eyes to black culture, and cannot forgive black people for being black. Some white people are disgusted by blacks, not for the way the act or their personalities, but purely because of the color of their skin. It says that the women were sitting there watching, but showed no sorrow in their eyes. This is painful because I know if I were to see someone being hangged, I would feel bad whether they had done something wrong or not. The last lines of the poem say "And little lads, lynchers that were to be, Danced round the deadful thing in fiendish glee." This is a very disturbing image to think that children would be "dancing" around a dead body. I think that this mean that there will always be those people who do not accept people for who they are. There will always be those racist people who just cannot see the light. However it is sad, because had those children not learned to had black people from their parents, then they could have possibly been friends.**

==== Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of the most admirable writers of the nineteenth century. Only shortly after his death, he became the first American-born poet to the enshrined at Westminster Abbey's famed Poet's Corner. He went to Bowdoin College taking the risky decision to pursue his interest in literature. At first he was seen as an unadventurous, timid poet, but only because his values were to work with established forms and traditions rather than working against them. He graduated in 1825 along with Nathaniel Hawthorne and the future president Franklin Perice. He spent three years studying languages in Germany, Italy, France, and Spain; here he met Washington Irving, the American poet he admired the most. He married Mary Potter in 1831, who later died of a miscarriage. He then met and fell in love with Fanny Appleton when he toured Switzerland and Austria. After a 7 year courtship they married and moved to Cambridge, in a house that George Washington had once used as a headquarters. By the 1860s Longfellow's annual income for his writing was $50,000, which was a huge amount of money at that time. In 1861 tragedy struck the Longfellows when Fanny burned to death when her dress caught on fired while she was melting wax to preserve the locks of her daughters hair. He was over come with greif, but still continued to write. At first he was seen as an unadventurous, timid poet, but only because his values were to work with established forms and traditions rather than working against them. However his popularity only grew with his age, and by 1880 his birthday was celebrated in public schools. He died in 1882, and was unveiled in Poet's corner two years later.====

= **A Psalm of Life** = "Life Shall send A challenge to its end And when it comes, say, "Welcome friend"

= = I Tell me not in mournful numbers, Life is but an empty dream! For the soul is dead that slumbers, And things are not what they seem. II Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal; Dust thou are, to dust thou returnest, Was not spoken of the soul. III Not enjoyment, and not sorrow, Is our destined end or way; But to act, that each tomorrow Find us farther than today. VI Art is long, and Time is fleeting, And our hearts, though stout and brave, Still, like muffled drums, are beating Funeral marches to the grave. V In the world's broad field of battle, In the bivouac of Life, Be not like dumb, driven cattle! Be a hero in the strife! VI Trust no Future, howe'er pleasant! Let the dead Past bury its dead! Act, - act in the living Present! Heart within, and God o'erhead! VII Lives of great men all remind us We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sand of time; VIII Footprints, that perhaps another, Sailing o'er life's solenm main, A forlorn and shipwrecked brother, Seeing, shall take heart again. IX Let us then be up and doing, With a heart for any fate; Still achieving, still pursuing, Learn to labor and to wait.


 * This poem is about letting free and living life to the fullest. He says, "Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal." Longfellow is saying that we do not life our life according to death, but we live our life to live. You should life everyday to its fullest; as if it were your last. In stanza VI he says that we should trust no future, meaning that there may be no future to trust. He talked about how we should work on making our own lives sublime, or outstanding. We should do this by making a name for ourselves in life; if we don't then there is really no point to it. No matter how hard life gets, we should always try to keep achieving and pursuing, and it says in stanza IX. In the last line Longfellow says "Learn to labor and wait." Throughout the whole poem he is talking about living life to its fullest an pursuing your dreams, and then at the end he tells you to wait. To me this means that you should life live in the moment, but you must also understand that tomorrow is more than likely coming. You need to work for you success ranther than expecting things to be handed to you.**

=**The Peace-Pipe **=

On the Mountains of the Prairie, On the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry, Gitche Manito, the mighty, He the Master of Life, descending, On the red crags of the quarry Stood erect, and called the nations, Called the tribes of men together. From his footprints flowed a river, Leaped into the light of morning, O'er the precipice plunging downward Gleamed like Ishkoodah, the comet. And the Spirit, stooping earthward, With his finger on the meadow Traced a winding pathway for it, Saying to it, "Run in this way!" From the red stone of the quarry With his hand he broke a fragment, Moulded it into a pipe-head, Shaped and fashioned it with figures; From the margin of the river Took a long reed for a pipe-stem, With its dark green leaves upon it; Filled the pipe with bark of willow, With the bark of the red willow; Breathed upon the neighboring forest, Made its great boughs chafe together, Till in flame they burst and kindled; And erect upon the mountains, Gitche Manito, the mighty, Smoked the calumet, the Peace-Pipe, As a signal to the nations. And the smoke rose slowly, slowly, Through the tranquil air of morning, First a single line of darkness, Then a denser, bluer vapor, Then a snow-white cloud unfolding, Like the tree-tops of the forest, Ever rising, rising, rising, Till it touched the top of heaven, Till it broke against the heaven, And rolled outward all around it. From the Vale of Tawasentha, From the Valley of Wyoming, From the groves of Tuscaloosa, From the far-off Rocky Mountains, From the Northern lakes and rivers All the tribes beheld the signal, Saw the distant smoke ascending, The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe. And the Prophets of the nations Said: "Behold it, the Pukwana! By the signal of the Peace-Pipe, Bending like a wand of willow, Waving like a hand that beckons, Gitche Manito, the mighty, Calls the tribes of men together, Calls the warriors to his council!" Down the rivers, o'er the prairies, Came the warriors of the nations, Came the Delawares and Mohawks, Came the Choctaws and Camanches, Came the Shoshonies and Blackfeet, Came the Pawnees and Omahas, Came the Mandans and Dacotahs, Came the Hurons and Ojibways, All the warriors drawn together By the signal of the Peace-Pipe, To the Mountains of the Prairie, To the great Red Pipe-stone Quarry, And they stood there on the meadow, With their weapons and their war-gear, Painted like the leaves of Autumn, Painted like the sky of morning, Wildly glaring at each other; In their faces stem defiance, In their hearts the feuds of ages, The hereditary hatred, The ancestral thirst of vengeance. Gitche Manito, the mighty, The creator of the nations, Looked upon them with compassion, With paternal love and pity; Looked upon their wrath and wrangling But as quarrels among children, But as feuds and fights of children! Over them he stretched his right hand, To subdue their stubborn natures, To allay their thirst and fever, By the shadow of his right hand; Spake to them with voice majestic As the sound of far-off waters, Falling into deep abysses, Warning, chiding, spake in this wise : "O my children! my poor children! Listen to the words of wisdom, Listen to the words of warning, From the lips of the Great Spirit, From the Master of Life, who made you! "I have given you lands to hunt in, I have given you streams to fish in, I have given you bear and bison, I have given you roe and reindeer, I have given you brant and beaver, Filled the marshes full of wild-fowl, Filled the rivers full of fishes: Why then are you not contented? Why then will you hunt each other? "I am weary of your quarrels, Weary of your wars and bloodshed, Weary of your prayers for vengeance, Of your wranglings and dissensions; All your strength is in your union, All your danger is in discord; Therefore be at peace henceforward, And as brothers live together. "I will send a Prophet to you, A Deliverer of the nations, Who shall guide you and shall teach you, Who shall toil and suffer with you. If you listen to his counsels, You will multiply and prosper; If his warnings pass unheeded, You will fade away and perish! "Bathe now in the stream before you, Wash the war-paint from your faces, Wash the blood-stains from your fingers, Bury your war-clubs and your weapons, Break the red stone from this quarry, Mould and make it into Peace-Pipes, Take the reeds that grow beside you, Deck them with your brightest feathers, Smoke the calumet together, And as brothers live henceforward!" Then upon the ground the warriors Threw their cloaks and shirts of deer-skin, Threw their weapons and their war-gear, Leaped into the rushing river, Washed the war-paint from their faces. Clear above them flowed the water, Clear and limpid from the footprints Of the Master of Life descending; Dark below them flowed the water, Soiled and stained with streaks of crimson, As if blood were mingled with it! From the river came the warriors, Clean and washed from all their war-paint; On the banks their clubs they buried, Buried all their warlike weapons. Gitche Manito, the mighty, The Great Spirit, the creator, Smiled upon his helpless children! And in silence all the warriors Broke the red stone of the quarry, Smoothed and formed it into Peace-Pipes, Broke the long reeds by the river, Decked them with their brightest feathers, And departed each one homeward, While the Master of Life, ascending, Through the opening of cloud-curtains, Through the doorways of the heaven, Vanished from before their faces, In the smoke that rolled around him, The Pukwana of the Peace-Pipe

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 * This is a pretty long poem with some deep meaning behind it. The narrator is literally telling them to stop fighting and start smoking the Peace-Pipe. He asks us why we waste our time fighting each other when there are so many "less deserving" things in this world such as cattle, oxen, deer, bison and many other animals. He is literally telling you to smoke the Peace-Pipe, but it does not necessarily mean that you need to do that. What Longfellow is trying to say that way is useless and solves nothing. We are all people, so what is the reason of fighting amongst our own kind? Instead we should band together and find a way to live in peace and unity. Whether it means literally smoking the Peace-Pipe, or finding that one thing that makes you completely tranquil. He is telling us to enjoy and utilize nature, instead of ruining it or abusing it. "Wash the war-paint from your faces, Wash the blood-stains from your fingers, Bury your war-clubs and your weapons, Break the red stone from this quarry, Mold and make it into Peace-Pipes." I think that this means to wash away all the wrong doing and shame in your life and learn to life peacefully for the future. Wash away all the anger and hate, and learn to embrace your people and only hunt animals, not humans. Take that thing that makes you completely tranquil and mold it into your routine and into your life. The Peace-Pipe is something that is mean to be played and smoke out of; Longfellow wants you to appericate live through peace, nature, and music. **


