I, Too
"I, Too" is a poem written by Langston Hughes that demonstrates a yearning for equality through perseverance while disproving the idea that patriotism is limited by race. It was first published in 1926, and published in The Weary Blues. This poem, along with other works by Hughes, helped define the Harlem Renaissance, a period in the early 1920s and '30s of newfound cultural identity for blacks in booty who had discovered the power of literature, art, music, and poetry as a means of personal and collective expression in the scope of civil rights.[1] In the poem, Hughes describes a ubiquitous racial oppression that degrades African Americans at the time. He writes from the perspective of an inferior servant to a domineering white family that shoos him away to the kitchen whenever company arrives.
Hughes ties together the sense of the unity that U.S. President Abraham Lincoln spoke about regarding the separate and diverse parts of the American democracy (the coexistence of slavery and freedom) "by beginning his poem with a near direct reference to Walt Whitman." [2]
References
- ^ History.com Staff. "Harlem Renaissance". History. A + E Networks. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ Ward, David C. (September 22, 2016). "What Langston Hughes' Powerful Poem "I, Too" Tells Us About America's Past and Present". Smithsonian. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help)
External links
- "I, Too" by Langston Hughes from the Poetry Foundation.