My favourite poet (Lesson 2)

Langston Hughes

James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Lincoln, Illinois, that Hughes began writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. During these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

Hughes, who claimed Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman as his primary influences, is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing, as in "Montage of a Dream Deferred." His life and work were enormously important in shaping the artistic contributions of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. Unlike other notable black poets of the period—Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Countee Cullen—Hughes refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. He wanted to tell the stories of his people in ways that reflected their actual culture, including both their suffering and their love of music, laughter, and language itself.

Langston Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer in May 22, 1967, in New York. In his memory, his residence at 20 East 127th Street in Harlem, New York City, has been given landmark status by the New York City Preservation Commission, and East 127th Street has been renamed "Langston Hughes Place."

In addition to leaving us a large body of poetic work, Hughes wrote eleven plays and countless works of prose, including the well-known “Simple” books: Simple Speaks His Mind, Simple Stakes a Claim,Simple Takes a Wife, and Simple's Uncle Sam. He edited the anthologies The Poetry of the Negro and The Book of Negro Folklore, wrote an acclaimed autobiography (The Big Sea) and co-wrote the play Mule Bone with Zora Neale Hurston.

I felt that this poet has a hard ilife when he was young. His parents were divorced and he was raised by his grandma until the age of thirteen. But still he is a great poet. Not only did he write poems, he also wrote Proses, Drama, Poetry in Translation and Translation. I think that the poems he write is totally awesome. His poems are interesting and rhyming, that is why I liked him, his poem, his drama etc. I think he is a very talented person, he is able to write such wonderdul poems. He really is a great person and I liked him. His poems are famous, but unfortunately he died in the year of 1967. He is the best poet in my heart.

http://poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/83

Three poems done by Langston Hughes

The Weary Blues

by Langston Hughes
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15612

POET TO BIGOTI have done so little
For you,
And you have done so little
For me,
That we have good reason
Never to agree.I, however,
Have such meagre
Power,
Clutching at a
Moment,
While you control
An hour.But your hour is
A stone.My Moment is
A flower.

http://www.poetrymagazine.com/archives/2000/Feb2000/hughes.htm

DREAM VARIATIONS
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Dark like me--
That is my dream! To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done.
Rest at pale evening . . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

http://www.poetrymagazine.com/archives/2000/Feb2000/hughes.htm

First Lesson

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/poems/528

Q1. There are not many use of figurative language in this poem. Unlike other poems, this poem is "short and sweet". There is only one figurative language in this poem which is"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood". In my point of view, I think this figuurative language is"personification" because the two roads which appears in the poem is similar to two person seperate with each other. The poet uses simple words and short sentenses which attract my attentation easily. The poet has a different way of writing poems compare to the other poet.

Q2. I like this poem because it is simple, short and easy to understand. Some of the other poems which I found are long and difficult to comprehend. This poem has a deep meaning. It tells us that in life, there will be many decision you should choose. In the poem, it writes that there are two roads to choose and the poet choose the shorter one which is a correct choice. The two roads represents the choices we can make. The poem mainly tells us we should think carefully whenever we make a decision. The choice you make can be right or wrong. Think before you act.

Fourth Book Review

Book Review

Title : Charlotte’s web

Author: E.B.White


Charlotte’s web is a very interesting story. The story is mainly about how a spider calls Charlotte saves the life of a pig names Wilbur. The book is not very long and it attracts my attention easily and I finished reading it in a few hours. I highly recommend this book to others as it is a very touching story.

There was a young girl named Fern. She saved a little pig called Wilbur when her father was planning to kill it as Wilbur was too small to be sold. Fern kept Wilbur as a pet. Fern spent her free time with Wilbur the pig that she loved and the other barn animals that played a large part in the life of Wilbur. Soon, Wilbur grew older and bigger. Fern had also grown older and was more matured. She had more friends now and did not pay as much attention as before. As Wilbur had increased in so much size, Fern’s father decided to kill Wilbur. Charlotte, the large grey spider, befriended Wilbur and helped him deal with the shocking news that his life would end as bacon on someone’s plate. Charlotte went as far as coming up with an interesting plan that only this spider could carry out with the help of Templeton the rat (who never went anything unless there was something in it for himself) to help Wilbur escaped death. In the end, Charlotte was dead after giving birth to her baby spiders. But Charlotte was always remembered in Wilbur’s heart.

Done by: Zhang Jing

Third Book Review

Book Review

Title : Robinson Crusoe

Author: Daniel Defoe

Illustrated by: Gerald McCann


This storybook is about the life and strange surprising adventure of Robinson Crusoe. Robinson Crusoe, an ordinary young Englishman, decides to run away from home and go to the sea. A great storm forewarns him that life will be dangerous. Later, he is captured by pirates and is enslaved. But Robinson escapes and is back to the sea. He is cast ashore on a desert island which is his home for twenty-eight years. Robinson manages to live on the island in comfort and safety entirely by his own wits and ingenuity. He builds house, secures food, domesticates animals, even establish a “countryseat”. His encounter with the cannibals, his rescue of Friday, who becomes his servant, and his strange escape from the island. But in the end, he is able to leave the island and reunite with his family. He is back in England on 11th of June, in the year of 1687, having been thirty-five years absent.

Done by: Zhang Jing

Second Book Review

Book Review

Title : Things not seen

Author: Andrew Clements


This book was about Bobby who became an invisible boy. Bobby Philip was an average fifteen-year-old boy. He woke up one morning and he could not see himself in the mirror. Bobby was not blind or dreaming, he was invisible. The whole family was not able to see him, but could only hear his voice. They were very worried about him. There was not any rhyme or reason for Bobby’s new condition and even his dad who was a physicist could not figure out the reason. As a result, Bobby was not able to go school and there were no friends for him. He was a missing person.

Luckily, he met Alicia who was a blind girl. Bobby could not resist talking to her and trusted her. He first met her at the library as Bobby bumped into her. After that, they had met a few more times and became good friends. She was angry with Bobby at first as she thought it was impossible for a person to be invisible. But soon she realised Bobby was telling the truth. Later, Alicia told her parents about Bobby.

Bobby’s invisibility results in terrible consequences. The police department from Bobby’s school was worrying about Bobby who was absent for school for a long period of time. Hence they called the police and went to Bobby’s house to look for him. They did not find him. Bobby’s parents were threatened. They would be sent to jail for the disappearance of Bobby Philip.
They had left a total of five days to resolve the problem. There was only a very little time. Bobby’s parents and Alicia’s

First Book Review

Book Review

Title : Seven Spiders Spinning

Author: Gregory Maguire


This storybook is a short novel, but the storyline is really interesting. The story is about seven tarantulas. The story begins when seven baby Siberian snow spiders frozen in a glacier. They defrost and escape to Hamlet, Vermont.

The protagonist of the story is Pearl who is a student. She is a very brave and clever girl. Her teacher is Miss Green. One night, when Pearl walked through Foggy Hollow, she saw a tarantula and she captured it for her “Show And Tell”. The other six spiders witness the kidnap of their siblings. One by one, they tried to save the spider, but failed. Finally, there was only one spider left. The spider bite Mrs Green and Mrs Green fainted immediately. She was later saved by her students by mixing chemicals. The last spider was eventually dead. It is a very exciting and shivering story.



Done by: Zhang Jing