Name _____________________________________________ Date ___________________ Period ____
Unit 5A: The Harlem Renaissance
Learning Objective: Students will gain background knowledge of the historical context necessary to
analyze Harlem Renaissance Literature. Students will read and analyze several Harlem Renaissance
poems by Langston Hughes. Students will read an autobiographical essay and analyze the author’s
perspective.
Day
Thurs/Fri
March 12-13, 15
Monday
March 16, 15
Tues/Wed
March 17-18, 15
Thurs/Fri
March 19-20, 15
Assignment
View “Crash Course: The Harlem Renaissance”
Read and annotate the biography of Langston Hughes.
Read and analyze “Harlem” by Langston Hughes.
Homework: Read and analyze “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes
(838-842).
Read and analyze “I Too” and “The Weary Blues” (843-844).
Partner Project: Choose 1 Langston Hughes poem.
Go to the computer lab to create 4 documents:
1) a TPCAST chart that analyzes the poem,
2) a brief paragraph that discusses the poetic devices such as imagery/ sensory
detail, figurative language, and rhythm
3) a collage of images that help illustrate the poem.
Read and analyze “How it Feels to be Colored Me” by Zora Neale Hurston (858865).
Answer the analysis questions.
Grade
Literary analysis: analyze speaker
You know that the speaker of a poem, like the narrator of a story, is the voice that talks to the reader. In
his poems, Langston Hughes created speakers who represented important aspects of African-American
culture. Sometimes his speaker is the voice of the culture itself. I’ve known rivers ancient as the world
and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. Hughes also uses his speakers to portray the
joys and struggles of working-class African Americans. In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone I
heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan— As you read each poem, try to identify the speaker of the
poem and what aspects of African-American life the speaker describes.
Reading skill: analyze rhythm and repetition
When Hughes began writing, most African-American poets tried to sound like the white poets they read
in school. Instead, Hughes drew his inspiration from jazz and blues music, using the rhythm and
repetition of these musical forms to structure his poetry. Musical elements found in Hughes’s poetry
include • jazz-influenced rhythm (the pattern of stressed and unstressed syllables) that features strong
accents, quick changes in rhythm, and irregular beats • rhythmic repetition of words and phrases, like
that used in blues lyrics • the refrain, one or more repeated lines of poetry that function like the chorus
of a song.
TPCASTT Analysis Chart – to be used for Analyzing Poetry or Songs
TERMS
Title
Explanation of the term
Look at the title of the poem
Paraphrase
Re-write the poem in your own words,
explaining what is literally being said. Do this
line-by-line.
Connotation Label positive, negative, and neutral words.
Keep in mind this could change throughout
the poem (that’s where “Shifts” come into
play).
Attitude
This is the speaker’s attitude or feeling
towards the subject in the poem.
Shifts in
Attitude
When connotation changes, or the rhythm of
a poem changes (when there is a “shift”), this
usually indicates a shift in tone or attitude.
Title
Look at the title again.
Theme
This is the point or overall purpose of the
poem.
Questions to Ask
Why is this the title?
If there is no title, why not? What does the
lack of the title suggest?
What do you think the poem might be about?
What is literally being said? Even if it doesn’t
make sense logically, what is the poet saying?
Looking at word choice, are the words
negative, positive, or neutral? How can you
tell?
Why are words positive, negative or neutral
(this will relate to “Theme” later)
How does the speaker feel about the subject?
What does the speaker want to occur?
What feelings are expressed in the poem?
Where do you notice shifts?
What I happening in the poem at these shifts?
What is the attitude shift? (It changes from
____ to ____.)
Were you right about what the poem would
be about?
Now that you’ve looked at the poem closely,
how does the title relate?
What is the poem about?
What is the poet trying to express about the
subject?
What is the point of the poem?
How it Feels to be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston
A. Describe the tone of lines 1–12. What does Hurston’s tone reveal about the way she sees
herself?
B. State the main idea of lines 38–44. What criticism is implied by the author’s statement?
C. Reread lines 51–52. Explain what is unusual about Hurston’s tone. What effect might this
comment have on an African-American reader at the time? Do you think that white readers in
the 1930’s would have a different perspective? Why or why not?
D. Describe the two responses that are contrasted in lines 88–91. What does this contrast imply
about the differences between whites and blacks?
E. Reread lines 105–111. Note how Hurston uses sentence fragments to highlight specific details in
her description. Quote one of the fragments.
Comprehension
1. Recall - In Hurston’s description, what kind of community was Eatonville?
2. Recall - What was the big change Hurston experienced at age 13?
3. Paraphrase - What is Hurston’s view on slavery?
4. Identify Main Ideas - Review the chart you created as you read. What is the main idea of the
essay? In what ways does race shape Hurston’s sense of identity?
5. Analyze Tone - Describe the tone of this essay. What point does Hurston make by choosing this
tone to discuss the subject of race?
6. Make Inferences - Judging from the anecdotes Hurston includes in her essay, what experiences
and traits does she consider distinctively African-American? Support your answer with details.