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Poetry: The Harlem Renaissance
Part I: Background Information
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In the early 1920s, African American artists, writers, musicians, and performers were part of a great cultural
movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.
The huge migration to the North after WWI brought African Americans of all ages and walks of life to the
thriving New York City neighborhood called Harlem.
Against this backdrop, Harlem Renaissance artists insisted that the African American be accepted as “a
collaborator and participant in American civilization.”
In autobiographies, short stories, novels, and folklore, African American writers affirmed the role of black talent
in American culture and focused on different aspects of black life in Harlem, the South, Europe, the Caribbean,
and even Russia.
They addressed issues of race, class, religion, and gender.
Some writers focused entirely on black characters, while others addressed relationships among people of
different races.
Some writers attacked racism; others addressed issues within black communities.
A byproduct of African American writing was the affirmation that black dialects were as legitimate as standard
English.
Part II: Literary Term Review
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Alliteration- the repetition of the same or similar consonant sounds in words that are close together
Metaphor- a figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without the use of a specific
word of comparison
Mood- the overall feeling created in a piece of writing
Onomatopoeia- the use of a word whose sound imitates or suggests its meaning
Refrain-a repeated line
Repetition- the recurrence of certain sounds, words, phrases, or lines in a poem to achieve rhythmic or
emotional effects
Rhythm- the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in a line of prose or poetry
Scene-an image, either explicit or implied, from a story or poem
Setting-the time and location of a story or poem
Simile-a figure of speech that makes an explicit comparison between two unlike things, using a word such as
like, as, than, or resembles
Part III: Poems
Read each poem three times and fill in the chart. Then, answer the questions that follow the poems.
Tableau
(For Donald Duff)
By Countee Cullen
Locked arm in arm they cross the way,
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day,
The sable pride of night.
From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk.
Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder.
1st reading
1.
2nd reading
3rd reading
What exactly are the two boys in the tableau doing?
2. Why are “the dark folk” and “the fair folk” indignant? How do the boys respond?
3. What metaphor in the first stanza describes the black boy? The white boy?
4. Two more metaphors are used in the third stanza. Who or what is “the path of thunder”?
5. How do the metaphors make you feel about the boys?
6. What do you have to know about the social context of the poem in order to understand why such a
commonplace thing as a friendship between two boys could evoke such a dramatic response?
Incident
By Countee Cullen
Once, riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.
Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”
I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.
1st reading
1.
2nd reading
3rd reading
Who are the two people in this poem, and what exactly happens between them?
2. What do you think leads the “Baltimorean” to act as he does? Are his actions more disturbing because he is a
child?
3. What does the word incident suggest to you? Why do you think Cullen chose this as the title?
4. The speaker never directly states his emotional response to the experience. How do you think this incident
affected him?
The Weary Blues
By Langston Hughes
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway . . .
He did a lazy sway . . .
To the tune o' those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
"Ain't got nobody in all this world,
Ain't got nobody but ma self.
I's gwine to quit ma frownin'
And put ma troubles on the shelf."
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more—
"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied—
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
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.
1st reading
1.
2nd reading
3rd reading
What scene do you see as you read this poem?
2. How does the message of the blues singer’s first verse contrast with that of the second verse?
3. What similes in the poem’s last line describe how the singer sleeps? What do you think the last five words
suggest?
4. How would you describe the overall mood of the poem?
5. Describe how the poem’s structure suggests the rhythm of blues music.
6. List some examples of alliteration and onomatopoeia found in this poem.
Harlem
By Langston Hughes
Here on the edge of hell
Stands Harlem Remembering the old lies,
The old kicks in the back,
The old “Be patient”
They told us before.
Sure, we remember.
Now when the man at the corner store
Says sugar’s gone up another two cents,
And bread one,
And there’s a new tax on cigarettes We remember the job we never had,
Never could get,
And can’t have now
Because we’re colored.
So we stand here
On the edge of hell
In Harlem
And look out on the world
And wonder
What we’re gonna do
In the face of what
We remember.
1st reading
1.
2nd reading
3rd reading
What mood does the speaker immediately create with this description of the poem’s setting: “Here on the edge
of hell/Stands Harlem”?
2. Name the specific hardships and injustices that the people of Harlem remember, according to the speaker.
3. What is the effect of repetition of the word remember?
4. How do you interpret the poem’s final stanza?
5. What is the overall mood of the poem?
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
By Langston Hughes
I've known rivers:
I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown
deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans, and I've seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I've known rivers:
Ancient, dusky rivers.
My soul has grown
deep like the rivers.
1st reading
1.
2nd reading
3rd reading
What specific rivers does the speaker name?
2. Who is “I” in the poem?
3. What special connections may African Americans have with each of these rivers?
4. In the last line, what comparison does the speaker make?
5. What instances of repetition occur in the poem? What line acts as a refrain? What is the emotional effect of
this repetition?
the mississippi river empties into the gulf
By Lucille Clifton
and the gulf enters the sea and so forth,
none of them emptying anything,
all of them carrying yesterday
forever on their white tipped backs,
all of them dragging forward tomorrow.
it is the great circulation
of the earth's body, like the blood
of the gods, this river in which the past
is always flowing. every water
is the same water coming round.
everyday someone is standing on the edge
of this river, staring into time,
whispering mistakenly:
only here. only now.
1st reading
1.
2nd reading
3rd reading
What river is she describing?
2. What does the river remind this speaker of in lines 6-10?
3. How does she connect the river with human life?
Part IV: Paired Passages
For each of the Venn diagrams, fill in details from each poem. Then, summarize your findings in a paragraph.
“Tableau”
“Incident”
In a paragraph, describe the similarities and differences of these two poems.
“The Weary Blues”
“Harlem”
In a paragraph, describe the similarities and differences of these two poems.
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”
“the mississippi river empties into the gulf”
In a paragraph, describe the similarities and differences of these two poems.