Poetic Devices and Historical Context of Langston Hughes Poem “I, Too”

Langston Hughes’ “I, Too” was first published in 1926, which was also the era of Harlem Renaissance in the United States. In accordance with an online article titled “Harlem Renaissance” from history.com, the Harlem Renaissance can be considered as the golden age of African American culture.

“The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art.”

The online article also mentioned that Langston Hughes was one of the most influential black writers that made their works passed through some mainstream publishers and contributed to future of black writers and editors.

In order to find out the tone and other devices it uses, I would like to start by interpreting how the poem is read by the poet himself. According to how Hughes read his own poem in this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CUKyVrhPgM), I interpret that the tone he used as he pronounce word by word didn’t really sound that angry, it was calm with a hint of anger. Following is how I interpret how Hughes himself read the poem:

| I, too, sing | America. |

| I am the | darker | brother. |

| They send me | to eat in | the kitchen |

| When company comes, |

| But I laugh, |

| And eat well, |

| And grow strong. |

| Tomorrow, |

| I’ll be | at the table |

| When company comes. |

| Nobody’ll dare |

| Say to me, |

|“Eat in | the kitchen,” |

| Then. |

| Besides, |

| They’ll see how | beautiful I am |

| And be ashamed — |

| I, too, am | America. |

The first line “I, too, sing America” (1) voiced the narrator’s tone of anger and seeking for acceptance that he is also a part of America although he’s different for he later stated “I am the darker brother” (2). The first line contain no particular imagery for it was a denotative statement without using a certain kind of complicated metaphor to express the narrator’s anger. However, the second line uses figure of speech pars pro toto for the narrator mentioned only a part of his body, the darker skin, yet it means as a whole of his body. In fact, I think the whole poem can be said as pars pro toto. It seems like it speaks for the whole black community at that time, that the “I” in this poem was only a part of the black community when the “I” tries to represent all of the black people during the Harlem Renaissaince in United States.

Other than that, there is also an illustration of race discrimination in this poem. It can be seen in the line “They send me to eat in the kitchen / When company comes” (3–4), which showed that the narrator uses that event as an example of exclusion they were experiencing during that time. The line “But I laugh, / And eat well, / And grow strong” (5–7) said that the narrator decided to dismiss the unfair treatment, bear with everything decided to be patient when he was facing it. However, despite saying they were able to deal with it and believed that the discriminatory treatments they received would result them as a better and stronger person, the tone that is used in these lines, rather than sounded patient, it sounds like the narrator was grumpy and holding himself back.

The narrator of “I, Too” also stated that he believed and hoped that one day the discrimination towards him will come to an end. It can be seen from the following lines “Tomorrow, / I’ll be at the table / When company comes” (8–10). The lines said that the narrator believed black people will have their time when they finally have the same amount of opportunity in achieving their dreams. The usage of if conditional sentence in those lines shows that it was the narrator’s wishful thinking that is not yet came true. The following lines of the stanza also contributed the mood and expression of hopeful with a hint of anger:

“Nobody’ll dare

Say to me,

‘Eat in the kitchen,’

Then” (11–14).

In the next stanza, the narrator implied that when black people are given the same chance like other people from other races, people will know that they are just as qualified as people from other races and they will regret their discriminative treatment towards black people because of that. It can be seen in the third stanza that said “Besides, / They’ll see how beautiful I am / And be ashamed — ” (15–17), which showed resentment and a hint of desiring acceptance and recognition. Despite the calm yet patriotic tone that may seem like he was standing up for his people, the narrator who said that he laughed it off, in this stanza is seen to still hold grudges towards what happened to him. Therefore, it can be seen that he narrator who is the darker brother of America can’t stay neutral with his opinion against people of different race.

In conclusion, I see that this poem contain less imagery and more of denotative statements with a hint of anger and hopeful tone. It was brief and direct with little use of complicated metaphors and allusions. Despite the calm, patriotic, and standing-up-for-the-weak tone, there are some things the narrator said that are contradictory to the way he said it. For example, when he said he only laughed off the unfair treatment in a few lines ago, he later emerged grudge and a hint of wanting to revenge over what happened to him by saying “They’ll see how beautiful I am / And be ashamed — ” (16–17). The narrator also emphasized that he is a part of America by putting “I, too, sing America” and “I, too, am America” on the very first and last line of the poem.

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References

Hughes, Langston. “I, Too.” The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. N.p.: Knopf and Vintage, 1994. N. pag. Poets.org. Academy of American Poets. Web. 19 Dec 2017. <https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/i-too>.

I, Too by Langston Hughes — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CUKyVrhPgM

Preminger, A. (1965). Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. Princeton: ed. Via Rhythm and Meter in English Poetry on http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/88/meter.html. Web. 19 Dec 2017.

Staff, History.com. “Harlem Renaissance.” History.com. A+E Networks, 2010. Web. 19 Dec 2017. <http://www.history.com/topics/black-history/harlem-renaissance

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