Read Hughes' poetry beginning with "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" on p. 835, "Mother to Son" p. 832. "I, Too" p.836, "The Weary Blues" p. 836, "Madam and Her Madam" p. 841 and "Theme for English B" p. 844. (Attached PDF's of these poems)Answer each of these questions in a few sentences with specific thoughts and examples from the work.
1. Hughes was greatly influenced by the poet Wait Whitman. Can you detect these influences in poems written by Hughes?
2. In the poem, "The Weary Blues" the musician literally collapses when he's finished singing: "He slept like a rock or a man that's dead." What do the lyrics or the sound of the blues song within this poem suggest about the relationship between blues and death? Does the music act as a catalyst, a cure, or both?
3. In Too, Sing America" Hughes presents a vision of the country. While there seems to be a core of patriotism within his body of work,Hughes's views of America are complicated. What do you see as some of the complications or tensions here?
4. In the poem, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" four rivers are named: the Euphrates, the Congo, the Nile, and the Mississippi. What special significance do these four rivers have in terms of creating the world of the poem? What historical or cultural worlds do they help us imagine? How is the history of humanity related to the history of an individual man in this poem?
5. In the poem, The Negro Speaks of Rivers" what effect does the image of rivers create in the African-American history and experience?Why are the rivers ancient and dusky?
6. The poem, "Madam and her Madam" ends with refusal of love. How does this conflict and refusal work to create a larger picture of race relations in the world of this poem? How does the poem work to build the character of "Madam"?
7. Place Hughes's work in the context of African-American musical forms invented in Harlem in the early twentieth century. Is poetry the way Hughes writes it, like jazz, a new genre? What are its characteristics?
8. Hughes's poetry makes room for the experiences of women.Analyze "Mother to Son," and "Madam and Her Madam," and explore the way he turns women's experiences into emblems of African-American experience. How does the old saying "no pain, no gain" relate?
9. Traditional critics have not called Hughes's poetry modernist, and yet his poetry reflects modernism both in his themes, his use of the image, and in terms of style. Can you locate specific points where you can see Hughes's modernist tendencies?
10. Is there an experience of your own (or of someone you know) of which one or more of the poems has reminded you? Describe it.
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