Langston Hughes And Countee Cullen

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Langston Hughes and Countee Cullen are two major figures with very similar themes within their poems. The two early twentieth century authors delve into their writings during the Harlem Renaissance. During this time, African Americans were facing difficult challenges of their African heritage while still wanting to be apart of and accepted in the predominately white society. Between the two authors, they shared a common goal of racial equality and also supplying the residents of Harlem, New York an awareness of African American’s everyday lives. In both of their poems, “Yet Do I Marvel” and “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” it is proven to be true. Hughes and Cullen are iconic and prolific writers of the Harlem Renaissance and many critics through …show more content…
“Cullen demanded that black poets be considered as American poets, ultimately without any special racial designation” (2240). Race was such an impacting aspect of his life and he wanted to share that through his poems. The speaker comes across confused as to why such wonderful and loving God would curse him by making him black. Fred Fetrow discusses the story as it comes across as misinterpreted, which then makes Cullen a misunderstood poet. Throughout the poem, Fetrow points out that it contains “three quatrains and one couplet, which represent the four specific examples of Cullen’s apparent injustice” (Fetrow 103). “The speaker claims not to understand what appear to be unjust punishments, although he assumes these apparent injustices are explicable by God” (Fetrow 103). In looking at Cullen’s poem the beginning of “Yet Do I Marvel” emphasizes undeserved punishment that God has rained down on him. Fetrow analyzes the line, “the little buried mole continues blind”(2241). He discusses that the mole “scarcely needs a vision to thrive in his underground habitat; rather than being punished, the mole is perfectly equipped for survival. Certainly the mole does not perceive or experience his lot as a punishment.” Basically Fetrow means that in Cullen’s theology, instead of God making us in his own image physically, Cullen takes it in a spiritual sense that “equips man for …show more content…
Toward the end of high school he learned to write poetry and with the support of his mother he chose to focus his work on urban black life. Throughout his writings, “early and late, Hughes’ poems demands that African Americans be acknowledged as owners of the culture they gave to the United States and as fully enfranchised American citizens”(2222). In Langston Hughes poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” it is to be inferred that the speaker is an older man and he tells of his adventures with the rivers. In Sharon Jones article, from the start she critiques that Hughes’ text “reveals how Hughes’s use of language illustrates the interrelatedness of people throughout the African diaspora during different time periods” (Jones 74). Hughes had a powerful conviction towards race and Jones states that he “evoked a strong transnational stance”(Jones 75). In his poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” the speaker mentions five different rivers in which he has experienced and made memories with. In growing with the rivers the speaker states that, “my soul has grown deep like the rivers”(2223). Jones suggests that through this quote, “the speaker’s emotional and spiritual state parallels these rivers and reveals a type of empathy, identification, and understanding of the natural world”(Jones 77). The speaker shows a change and growth within the soul. “Langston Hughes embodied the guiding
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