Week 11 poems

I enjoyed most of the poems this week. They were a little easier for me to understand than some of the others from the past weeks.

"The Negro Speaks of Rivers" By Langston Hughes

The poem talks about "rivers" , but I think that the rivers really stand for African men and women that he knew or learned about and tried to relate with.  These people are from all over the world and lived differently from each other depending on the time and location they lived.  As he learns more about his ancestors over time he grows bigger and stronger like the rivers have that he mentions in the poem.

"I, Too" By Langston Hughes

This poem talks about how black people "the darker brother", use to be sent to the kitchen to eat when company "white people" came over.  When he says "I laugh, eat well, and grow strong" he means that he hopes for a change and knows that being healthy mentally and physically will help.  He knows African Americans have to fight for a change and equal rights or nothing will ever change.  He believes that when that change comes white people will be ashamed of how they treated African Americans differently.  The first and last line means that even though we have different colored skin doesn't mean we are different.  We are all Americans and deserve to be treated equally.

"Mother to Son" By Langston Hughes

I really liked this poem. It is about a mother fighting for a better life for her and her child.  She is telling her son that her life has been very hard, but she has never given up and no matter how hard he thinks life is he should never give up.  Nothing is easy and if you want something out of life you have to fight for it.  Giving up is not and option.  The only thing I didn't understand was what the word "crystal" stood for.

"Dream Variation" By Langston Hughes

What I got out of the title was that this person is dreaming for change.  He wants to be able to walk around and dance when everyone is treated equally and not discriminated against "the white day is done".  He wants white people not to be afraid of black people because of the color of their skin, "while night comes on gently Dark like me".  I think the first two lines means that he wants to be about to stand in front of someone white with power and be able to have that same kind of power.

"Dusting" By Julia Alvarez

Julia Alverez was born during a time when women stayed at home and took care of the household chores and raised the children.  The men were the bread winners, money makers.  She watched her mother clean house and cook everyday and knew that, that was not what she wanted to do.  To her, her mother had no life of her own, she was a nobody, invisible, "anonymous".  So to have the life she wanted she educated herself, "I refused with every mark to be like her".