Langston Hughes's "Bop"

In Langston Hughes’s “Bop,” the narrator and fictional character Simple discuss the evolution of jazz music and its relationship with the oppression of blacks. This essay, written in 1949 as a column in the Chicago Defender, brings attention and reveals to white people the immense amount of racial discrimination between whites and blacks during that time period. Hughes, being a successful poet, playwright, and blacks right activist, expresses his disdain for the abhorrent mistreatment of black people by connecting it with “be-bop.”

Hughes uses a huge connection throughout the whole narrative between jazz music and black oppression to reveal the heinous treatment of blacks. He uses two fictional characters, Simple and the narrator, to discuss how “be-bop” came to be. Simple, one of the two characters in the essay, explains to the narrator the origin and evolution of jazz music. Although the narrator claims that “Be-bop is passe, gone, finished,” Simple insists that although “it may be gone, its riffs remain behind” (190). Like be-bop, although huge acts of black oppression have gone and past, there are still elements of racial discrimination everywhere.

Hughes wants to show that although many people think that racial oppression does not occur anymore, there are still several instances where they occur. He uses another example through Simple who claims that the reason why “many white folks don’t dig Bop” is because “white folks do not get their heads beat just for being white” (191). Here, Hughes uses the connection to show that white people do not understand jazz music because they have not gone through the rough, oppressing experience that black people have. By using this analogy between music and racial discrimination, Hughes is successfully able to portray to his audience the idea that black oppression should be stopped. Hughes’s connection also includes an element of pathos. Using the example of how a white person cannot relate to a type of music made by blacks because they are not treated equally highlights the difference between how whites and blacks were treated at the time. Highlighting this aspect of racial discrimination tugs on the audience’s heartstrings, evoking an emotion of guilt for not taking action for such a huge mistreatment between races.

Nina Simone was a famous jazz pianist and a huge civil rights activist. Many other rights activists like Hansberry, Baldwin and even Langston Hughes himself admired her talent for jazz as well as her contribution to end racial discrimination.

E.B. White's "Once More to the Lake"

With a heart yearning to revisit his past, a father takes his son on a trip to a lake that he frequently visited as a child. While on the trip, the father struggles to balance his past memories at the lake with the present moments occurring at the lake with his son. He recalls actions that he did himself as a child with the actions of his son. When he and his son go out fishing, the lines between the past and present begin to blur, for as he looked at his son, he “felt dizzy and didn’t know which rod I [he] was at the end of” (181). As he continues his trip with his son, the father meets other aspects that are the same as his past. This comes to show that despite the father’s aging, the nature and beauty of the lake is timeless. Written as a personal narrative by E.B. White, this essay comes to show that while nature and memories are timeless, growing up is an inevitable fate that everyone must come to terms with. White uses juxtaposition between himself and his son, Joel, to show that his past self and Joel in the present are the same, the only difference being age and time. He shows that everything--from dragonflies to waitresses to fishing--stayed the same when he is with Joel from when he was a child. However, as the narrative progresses, White comes to realize that even though the lake stayed the same, he has not. He comes to terms that he is in fact growing up, feeling “the chill of death” as he watches his son going out for a swim (185). White registers the fact that his memories are just memories, and that he must accept his growing up and the idea that morality is inevitable. By using a narrative to share his personal experience in realizing the bitter truth of growing up, White successfully portrays his message that morality is something that cannot be avoided, as much as people try to cover it up with memories.

This image reveals a picture of the Piccadilly Circus juxtaposed with what it looks like current day. Similar to the nature of the lake, this image portrays that even though time goes by, memories and the beauty of an environment stay constant.

Robert Frost's "The Figure A Poem Makes"

In “The Figure a Poem Makes,” Robert Frost expresses his impression on poems and the nature behind them. He views poetry as an art, frequently comparing it to an aspect of life such as love. He highlights the similarities between both love and a poem’s figures, stating that they both “begin in delight and end(s) in wisdom” (177). Like love, poetry begins with delight, before going through a series of events and as a result gaining knowledge and wisdom.

Frost had a growing popularity by the late 1930s, as a well-known poet with a large, famous collection of poetry. This allows his audience to find credence in both his works as a poet and a critic on poetry.

The essay, being the preface for Frost’s “1939 Collected Poems,” is aimed towards people that read his poetry. Through the essay, Frost’s audience to understand what poetry is before reading Frost’s collection of poems. He uses several rhetorical devices, one of the most prominent ones being analogies. He uses an overall analogy between poetry and love, stating that like love, “a poem may be worked over once it is in being, but may not be worried into being” (178). By using an analogy such as love, the audience is able to grasp a better understanding of what Frost feels that poetry is. Love is an emotion that everyone has experienced and knows what is like, so comparing that emotion with poetry helps the audience to relate to how Frost feels about poetry and how he thinks poetry should make people feel. Frost also compares poetry with art. He explains how artists, unlike scholars, “differ most importantly in the way their knowledge is come by” (178). He then goes on to explain how like artists, poets do not obtain knowledge through “projected lines of logic,” but instead gain knowledge through experience and writing.

Frost successfully delivers his purpose to his audience that poetry is much more than writing. It is instead comparable to love an art, for it allows for wisdom and obtains knowledge in different ways. He uses analogies and figurative language to grasp the audience’s hearts and minds in an effort to have his readers better understand the nature of poetry.

As Frost stated, poetry is an art.
This image is a drawing of an eye made up of lines from famous poems.