Langston Hughes is a towering intellectual figure and the first African American to earn a living solely through writing literature. His career began during an important time in American History known as the Harlem Renaissance, which was a celebration of Black artistic expression.For this week, I assigned several short, yet powerful poems by Hughes. His aim was to showcase the lives of working class Black people in a realistic way. Rather than creating idealized notions of life in cities, Hughes wanted to show the struggles and frustrations that his neighbors encountered on a daily basis.A contemporary of Hughes is Elizabeth Bishop, a poet born into an affluent New England family. I present them both to you this week to show the dynamic range of Modernist poetry.
1. Consider Bishop's "The Fish," which was one of her greatest war-time poems, published in 1940, just before America joined the war. Is the poem inspirational, depressing? Why? In what ways do the fish and/or the narrator represent America?
Levine, Robert S., editor. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 10th ed., vol. E, W.W. Norton & Company, 2022. Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery,