The word cross has many denotations and it is clear that Hughes chose this title for a reason. He famously wrote about the period that Harlem was in vogue.
The Harlem Renaissance was a time of cultural social and artistic explosion taking place during the end of World War 1 and lasting through the mid 1930s.
Cross by langston hughes. Cross by the American poet Langston Hughes 19021967 is a short poem about the challenges of being a biracial person in a racist society. The poems speaker who was born to a white father and a Black mother feels deep uncertainty about life due to this biracial heritage. Langston Hughes - 1902-1967.
My old mans a white old man. And my old mothers black. If ever I cursed my white old man.
I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother. And wished she were in hell Im sorry for that evil wish.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet social activist novelist playwright short story writer and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance.
He famously wrote about the period that Harlem was in vogue. Langston Hughes purposely titles this poem Cross to symbolize a connection between his mother and his father since both were of different racial backgrounds based on the poem. Hughes includes the lines My old mans a white old man And my old mothers black 1- 2 to provide an introduction regarding his parents.
Cross My old mans a white old man And my old mothers black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished.
The speaker in Langston Hughes Cross is lamenting having been born of a mixed racial couple a white father and a black mother. The title implies two meanings. He is the cross between two individuals as are all human beings a cross between their parents.
But this speakers special situation of being a cross between two races causes him. Cross By Langston Hughes. My old mans a white old man And my old mothers black.
If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell Im sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well My old man died in a fine big house. My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where Im going to die. Cross Poem by Langston Hughes. Read Langston Hughes poemMy old mans a white old man And my old mothers black.
If ever I cursed my white old man. Langston Hughes begins the poem with a mention of the racial background of the speaker. He has a white father and a black mother.
He had wished evil for his father and mother during his bad days which he genuinely regrets now. He is particularly hurt for wishing that his mother was dead. He begins to understand that the anguish.
Langston Hughes died May 22 1967 in New York because of complications of prostate cancer. In memory of him the residences at his home in Harlem New York had given him a landmark status by the New York Preservation Commission and renamed it Langston Hughes Place. A Literary Analysis Of Cross By Langston Hughes.
Black people African American Race Pages. 3 749 words Published. Literary Analysis Paper of Cross.
As a writer and civil rights activist many of Langston Hughes poems speak to the real lives of backs in the South during the time of slavery and racial prejudice. Cross by Langston Hughes. The title symbolizes the connection between Langstons parents and himself.
I predict that the word cross means something is mixed that usually isnt or shouldnt be mixed. In this case what is mixed is the childs ethnicity. That is what the poem speaks about it speaks of the.
CROSS by Langston Hughes My old mans a white old man And my old mothers black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell Im sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack. I wonder where Im going to. The word cross has many denotations and it is clear that Hughes chose this title for a reason.
The poems subject matter came as a complete surprise to me because that idea had not came to me prior to actually reading the poem. Langston uses more colloquial language in this poem using phrases such as old man and referring to his mother as ma. Langston Hughes purposely titles this poem Cross to symbolize a connection between his mother and his father since both were of different racial backgrounds based on the poem.
Hughes includes the lines My old mans a white old man And my old mothers black 1-2 to provide an introduction regarding his parents. Poem Cross by Langston Hughes TP-CASTT Analysis Title Meaning The title of the poem cross is simply what it is. Using knowledge we know of Langston Hughes we know he speaks in his poem about slavery and African Americans in general.
We can make a prediction that the word. The poem Cross by Langston Hughes was written in the 1920s when the Caucasians and African Americans were segregated. In the poem the speaker is both white and black.
This leaves him being frustrated about which race he can identify himself with. Cross By Langston Hughes My old mans a white old man And my mother black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell Im sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well. My old man died in a fine big house. James Langston Hughes 1902-1967 was born in Joplin Missouri USA the great-great-grandson of Charles Henry Langston brother of John Mercer Langston the first Black American to be elected to public office.
He attended Central High School in Cleveland Ohio where he. Langston Hughes Biography. I enjoy the poem Cross because it focuses on the.
Paraphrasing the Poem Cross About Me. Rasheedah View my complete profile. Monday March 24 2008 Cross Analysis Being of a cross between two races he is neither white nor black.
He is not accepted by blacks because he is white and he is. Start studying Cross By Langston Hughes. Learn vocabulary terms and more with flashcards games and other study tools.
Cross by Langston Hughes. I wonder where Im gonna die Being neither white nor black 11-12 These are the last two lines of Cross a poem by Langston Hughes that describes the experience of a mixed-race person. The poem is written in stanzas with a rhyme scheme of ABCB.
The speaker expresses the frustration and grief that a. CrossMy old mans a white old man And my old mothers black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother An. Literary Analysis Paper of Cross As a writer and civil rights activist many of Langston Hughes poems speak to the real lives of backs in the South during the time of slavery and racial prejudice. The Harlem Renaissance was a time of cultural social and artistic explosion taking place during the end of World War 1 and lasting through the mid 1930s.