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Adfadf

Richard
Advanced Seminar in Poetry
Delbos 18:30
22/3/2011

The differentiations between Langston Hughes and Claude McKay are as displayed just as much as their similarities in the each of the poets individual work.   Both defined the culture and literature that came to be in the early 20th century movement known as the Harlem Renaissance.   Both Hughes and McKay display a metaphorical theme in their poems; yet idealize two styles of their own.   Hughes poems contain a sense of truth and honesty in a way where the reader gets a specific message from the reading.   McKay implements a more formal, yet indirect style in his poetry.   However, both poets capture the pure beauty and reality of African-American lifestyles with every tool from exceptional metaphors to the use of end-stopped lines and enjambment.   These poets expose the tradition and culture of early 19th century poetry.
Langston Hughes and Claude McKay both manage to relate a cultural sense of home to a current emotion or transition.   In the poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, Hughes relates ancient rives to the depth of his soul over the course of his life.   This metaphor is presented to the reader very early by reading “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.”   The Tenor of this metaphor is given to the reader as the river and the vehicle is clearly the soul.   This example of metaphorical poetry is a prime example of renaissance culture in not only Hughes work, but others as well.
Compared to Hughes, McKay’s use of metaphor is very similar in the way that they implement traditional and cultural emotion in the poetry.   In “The Tropics of New York”, McKay relates his home and the nature that surrounds it to the windows of New York filled with fruit.  
“And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
Sat in the window, bringing memories
Of...