Wridemy.com Free Papers Hughes uses a central metaphor of a staircase, one not made of crystal, to compare the mother’s life to. Why do you think this metaphor is effecti

Mother to Son

BY  LANGSTON HUGHES

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes. Copyright © 2002 by Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

Source: The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (University of Missouri Press (BkMk Press), 2002)

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Facing It 

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BY YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA

My black face fades,   

hiding inside the black granite.   

I said I wouldn't  

dammit: No tears.   

I'm stone. I'm flesh.   

My clouded reflection eyes me   

like a bird of prey, the profile of night   

slanted against morning. I turn   

this way—the stone lets me go.   

I turn that way—I'm inside   

the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

again, depending on the light   

to make a difference.   

I go down the 58,022 names,   

half-expecting to find   

my own in letters like smoke.   

I touch the name Andrew Johnson;   

I see the booby trap's white flash.   

Names shimmer on a woman's blouse   

but when she walks away   

the names stay on the wall.   

Brushstrokes flash, a red bird's   

wings cutting across my stare.   

The sky. A plane in the sky.   

A white vet's image floats   

closer to me, then his pale eyes   

look through mine. I'm a window.   

He's lost his right arm   

inside the stone. In the black mirror   

a woman’s trying to erase names:   

No, she's brushing a boy's hair.

Yusef Komunyakaa, “Facing It” from Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems. Copyright © 2001 by Yusef Komunyakaa. Reprinted with the permission of Wesleyan University Press.

Source: Pleasure Dome: New and Collected Poems (Wesleyan University Press, 2001)

·

Hello class,

After reading "Facing It,” by Yusef Komunyakaa, respond to the following prompts. Feel free to add any other insights if you wish. Some context: "Facing It" presents the poignant emotions of a Vietnam War veteran (in this case, the speaker of the poem is actually Komunyakaa who served as a war correspondent during the Vietnam War).

1. The poet incorporates the use of metaphors (i.e. "I'm stone," "I'm a window") and similes ("..letters like smoke," "My clouded reflection eyes me like a bird of prey..") to enrich imagery and to heighten the speaker's conflicted emotions. Choose one simile and then one metaphor and discuss the appropriateness of the image and its effect on the imagery–in other words, why do you feel the poet chose this particular image and what effect does it have? 2.  Can you determine two meanings to the title, "Facing It?" 3.  Although this poem was written about the Vietnam War, what relevance does it pose in our present world?

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Those Winter Sundays

BY  ROBERT HAYDEN

Sundays too my father got up early

and put his clothes on in the blueblack cold,

then with cracked hands that ached

from labor in the weekday weather made

banked fires blaze. No one ever thanked him.

I’d wake and hear the cold splintering, breaking.

When the rooms were warm, he’d call,

and slowly I would rise and dress,

fearing the chronic angers of that house,

Speaking indifferently to him,

who had driven out the cold

and polished my good shoes as well.

What did I know, what did I know

of love’s austere and lonely offices?

Robert Hayden, “Those Winter Sundays” from Collected Poems of Robert Hayden, edited by Frederick Glaysher. Copyright ©1966 by Robert Hayden. Reprinted with the permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

Source: Collected Poems of Robert Hayden (Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1985)

·

· Hello class,

· After reading "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden, please respond to the following discussion prompts. Feel free to add any other insights if you wish. When you have replied, please respond to at least one peer.

· Context: This poem is written from the perspective of Hayden as an adult looking back on his childhood.

· 1.  Why does the poem begin with the words "On Sundays too" (rather than say, "On Sundays?" without the use inclusion of "too"). Can you find any examples of sound devices such as alliteration or consonance (If needed, review definitions under Elements of Poetry/Module 5).

· 2.  Discuss briefly the speaker's feelings/observations as they shift slightly throughout the poem. It is helpful to incorporate adjectives to describe how the speaker might be feeling.

· 3.  How do you interpret "What did I know, what did I know / of love's austere and lonely offices?" And, why do you think "What did I know" is repeated twice?

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Happiness 

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BY  JANE KENYON

There’s just no accounting for happiness,

or the way it turns up like a prodigal

who comes back to the dust at your feet

having squandered a fortune far away.

And how can you not forgive?

You make a feast in honor of what

was lost, and take from its place the finest

garment, which you saved for an occasion

you could not imagine, and you weep night and day

to know that you were not abandoned,

that happiness saved its most extreme form

for you alone.

No, happiness is the uncle you never

knew about, who flies a single-engine plane

onto the grassy landing strip, hitchhikes

into town, and inquires at every door

until he finds you asleep midafternoon

as you so often are during the unmerciful

hours of your despair.

It comes to the monk in his cell.

It comes to the woman sweeping the street

with a birch broom, to the child

whose mother has passed out from drink.

It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing

a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,

and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots

in the night.

                     It even comes to the boulder

in the perpetual shade of pine barrens,

to rain falling on the open sea,

to the wineglass, weary of holding wine.

Jane Kenyon, “Happiness” from Otherwise: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 2005 by the Estate of Jane Kenyon. Reprinted with the permission of Graywolf Press, St. Paul, Minnesota, www.graywolfpress.org.

Source: Otherwise: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2005)

Class,

After reading "Happiness" by Jane Kenyon, please respond to the following prompts. Feel free to add other insights if you wish. After you are finished, please respond to at least one of your peers.

1. Kenyon uses a comparative device known as a simile to compare happiness with: "like a prodigal / who comes back to the dust at your feet / having squandered a fortune far away." She This image also utilizes personification with giving happiness a human quality.This is an intentional Biblical reference. Why do you think this comparison is effective and what was Kenyon perhaps trying to get across? Feel free to Google the reference if you are unsure of its biblical meaning.

2. Kenyon gives many descriptive examples of who/what happiness "comes" to–i.e. a monk in his cell, a sweeper, a dog, a clerk and so forth. This is simple but still powerful and even if complicated, yet uplifting imagery. Pick at least two images (you can choose from what is presented in the prompt or from others that are in the poem) and comment upon them.

3. According to Poetry Foundation, "Jane Kenyon was noted for verse that probed the inner psyche, particularly with regard to her own battle against the depression that lasted throughout much of her adult life" (par. 1). Is there evidence within the poem that might allude to the poet's personal struggles? Please cite specific lines.

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