Hughes and Alvarez poems

I really enjoyed most of Langston Hughes’s poems. “I, Too” was one of my favorites. It made me think how so many people do not consider people with a skin color different from white American. My favorite part was “Tomorrow I’ll me at the table when company comes”. No matter what the speaker knew that one day he would be treated like everyone else. The style of this poem if very effective, the first and last line are similar but at first he just states that he sings America, the last one says I, too am America. The speaker of this poem is clearly an African-American. I would say the setting was some time during the years America practiced slavery, and was at his slave owner’s home.

Another one of Hughes poems I like was “Negro”. This poem was about a black person’s life. I believe this poem was about the whole African -American population, rather than just one person, over an extend period of time. I really like the style of this poem as well. Each stanza starts out with a refrain, what the black person has been, and then goes into more detail. As with most of Hughes’s poems I believe the setting of this poem to be around the early 1900’s.

The poem “Cross” by Hughes is about a person struggling with their identity. I take the part about his mom being white and his dad being white as literal because during this time I’m sure there were a lot of slave owners having relations with their slaves. The speaker seems to feel bad for any wrong doing he has done to either of his parents, and seems to miss them. The most important verse of this poem would be “Being neither white nor black”.  The speaker was talking about himself, being a cross between white and black.

“Red Silk Stockings” by Hughes is a poem about a little black girl getting dressed up for the white boys. The speaker is talking to the little girl. There is definitely some strong black southern dialect in this poem. I believe this poem was probably during the time after slaves had been freed. The girl has nice clothing, something most slaves couldn’t afford, she is free to walk where she pleases, something that was not allowed during slavery. I don’t quite understand the significant of the speaker tell the girl to let the white boys look at her legs.

I did not like most of Julia Alvarez’s poems. They were hard for me to understand and get any meaning out of. The poem “Sometime the Words Are So Close” is about a woman who feels she is more herself when she writes poetry. I believe the speaker is trying to persuade the reader to start writing poetry.