African American Literature: Poem Analysis

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Through one month learning during this winter break, I read a lot of poems from the book of “The Norton Anthology of African American Literature”, and most of poems are talking about the African-American’s life. I took the course online through hangouts each Monday morning. It is an interactive lesson that we could ask questions and make presentation during the lecture time. Also, it was my first time to use VoiceThread to post my opinions on assigned reading.
One year ago, I chose Anthropology as my first course when I entered university. For the reasons of my major, it is important to learn all kinds of culture. In that course, I learned about the ethnicity, racial distinction, the reasons of population diversity in America, as well as its changes. At the same …show more content…
In my opinion, this class is mainly talking about that in the environment of racial discrimination in the United States, African-Americans struggled with white people and federal government in order to gain equality and a better life. From some assigned readings, I have known many novelists and poets, for example, Paul Laurence Dunbar, W.E.B. DuBois, as well as Langston Hughes, etc. From the miserable they described, I seem to be able to see the ethnic life which in their eyes. For instance, in Langston Hughes’s poem--“The Weary Blues”, he said: “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.” (1307) This is a typical verse to describe a Negro life. Blues originated from the black. It would give people the feeling of nervous and helpless. Therefore, under the verse and tune, the author described a lonely night, a painful and helpless black people, who is sleeping in the corner of the street. Overall, from slavery to freedom, from inequality to equality, they had been in the struggle and tried to change their
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