Comparison Of Great Poets

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Comparison of Great Poets

James I. Fitts Jr

North Carolina Central University

Langston Hughes and Claude Mckay

Comparison of Great Poets

James Mercer Langston Hughes known by many as simply Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on February 1, 1902. His very first poem "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" went into publication in Crisis magazine June, 1921. Mr. Hughes studied at the University of Columbia deciding to leave after only one year in order to travel. The promotion of his poetry was done by Vachel Lindsay with his first book "The Weary Blues" being published in the year of 1926. He also enrolled in the historically African American Lincoln University graduating in 1929. Mr. Hughes was known for his many writings in poetry, plays, and prose, also having the ability to write his very own column for the Chicago Defender. Sadly Mr. Hughes passed away May 22, 1967. (Sanders, Rampersad, and Bass, 2004)

Mr. Festus Claudius Mckay mostly known as Claude Mckay was born in Sunny Ville, Jamaica on September 15, 1890. Mr. Mckay published the "Songs of Jamaica", which is a book of verse that is written in Jamaican dialect before coming to the United States in 1912. (Cooper, 1987) He was a man of many talents being a poet, author, Civil Rights Activist and also a Children’s Activist. Mr. Mckay went to Tuskegee Institute for only a few months deciding to leave there in order to study agriculture at Kansas State Teachers College. There were many subjects that Mr. Mckay wrote about including romantic love, using passionate language and issues of his Jamaican home. He also wrote about political and social issues. McKay’s accomplishments in the early part of the twentieth century paved the way for the Harlem Renaissance becoming respected by the younger African American poets. Mr. Claude Mckay passed away on May 22, 1948.

Langston Hughes and Claude McKay were both known for their great works of poetry especially during the Harlem Renaissance Period. Their works have similarities along with noticeable differences. If one were to look at the structure of their poems you would find that Mr. McKay’s poems show more of a precise composition using ten syllables for each line, with Mr. Hughes following the composition of a more Shakespearean nature which he thought would add more worth to his poems when seen by Caucasian men. As you read Mr. Hughes poems you will notice very little structure to his work, for instance in the poem "Mulatto" his writing appears to be disorganized throughout the page, ironically once you start reading the poem it comes together to form a meaning. Langston Hughes seems as if he is more relaxed in his writings like in the case of the poem "Theme for English B" which seems as if he didn’t put much thought into it and was a rush job for a English class that ends up intertwining together to form a great ending to his work of art.

The ability of Langston Hughes and Claude Mckay to have their poems have intertwining endings is an important similarity, with both poets discussing issues that were important to the African American race (which are issues they both dealt with being of African American Heritage) during the Harlem Renaissance Era. Each poet wrote about Harlem, New York as seen through their eyes, in their own distinctive way of writing.

When speaking of the majority of Mr. McKay’s writings take for instance "If We Must Die," "America," and "To the White Friends," it is obvious that he is expressing his feelings about how African Americans should stand up and fight Caucasians for their respect and the right to be an equal part of this country. In the poem "If We Must Die," Mr. Mckay states, "If we die, O let us nobly die, so that our precious blood may not be shed in vain; then even the monsters we defy shall be constrained to honor us through dead!" (1919) This is where I find that Mr. Langston Hughes poems differ in opinion of those of Mr. Mckay. Where Mr. Mckay displays his feelings of death and fighting, Mr. Hughes talks about the beauty of the African American race with poems such as "The Negro Speaks in Rivers" and the poem "The Weary Blues." Langston Hughes talks about ways to talk to Caucasians in order to figure out how to get along and prosper in arts. He displays those hopes in the poem "Theme for English B," stating, "You are white, yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That’s American. Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me. Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are; that’s true! As I learn from you, I guess you learn from me, although you’re older and white and somewhat more free." (1951). It is clearly shown Mr. Hughes support in regards to African American and Caucasians coming together as one and showing unity which what our country was founded on.

Both Langston Hughes and Claude Mckay write poems where they talk about the life of African Americans and their struggles while living in Harlem, take for instance Mr. McKay’s poem "Harlem Shadow," where he talks about how hard it is to live in Harlem’s rough environment, where women are forced to sell their bodies or become harlots as written in the poem. He is explaining in his poem the atmosphere he sees on nights in Harlem, "In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass to bend and barter to desires call." (1922) Together both poets become the voice of Harlem with poems showing how much they understood the struggles of those living in that environment. The difference in their poems is that Mr. Mckay is more descriptive and visual with his poetry by showing how the women looked, what they were wearing, and what they were going to do. Mr. Hughes writings are centered on the struggles of his people and he isn’t as descriptive or doesn’t use humor to describe how he sees things. Emily Thomas stated, "that the poetry of Claude Mckay and Langston Hughes was a new form of combative black laugh that could reach places where physically African Americans couldn’t, thus uniquely challenging the Caucasian control of public space." (Chasar, 2013)