Name: _________________________________________________________________
Harlem Renaissance
Poetry Worksheet
“Any Human to Another” by Countee Cullen (942)
1. Paraphrase: What does this poem say literally?
2. According to the speaker, which emotion—JOY or SORROW—is more
common?
3. Poetic Elements: Identify and Explain
 Rhyme Scheme:
 Meter:
 Imagery (1 image that stands out):
 Tone (what is the author’s attitude regarding the subject and one line
to support your opinion)
 Figures of Speech (simile, metaphor, personification, allusion) find one
in the poem and explain what it means or how it is used in the poem.
4. Theme: What do you think the poet is trying to teach us in this poem?
What is the point? What do the speaker’s ideas about sorrow and grief
suggest the theme of the poem might be?
“A Black Man Talks of Reaping” by Arna Bontemps (947)
1. Paraphrase (doesn’t have to be line by line)—what does this poem say
literally?
2. Rhyme scheme and Meter—what are they?
3. Explain the poem’s allusion to the biblical saying, “whatsoever a man
sows, that shall he also reap.” What does the poem say about this idea?
Does Bontemps agree?
4. Throughout the poem, images of planting and harvesting a field are used
as an extended metaphor for personal struggles.
a. What does “the orchard” stand for in this poem (ln.9)—in a broader
context, what is the orchard a metaphor for?
b. In context of the poem, who are “My brother’s sons” (ln. 10)
c. Why do the speaker’s “brother’s sons” gather “stalk and root”—in
other words, why do other people get to reap the harvest of the
speaker’s work? What is the speaker comparing this stealing of the
harvest to in real life?
d. What do the speaker’s own children get as a result of all of his hard
work (ln. 11)?
e. Why is the fruit the speaker’s children feed on “bitter”? What can
this bitter fruit be compared to?