Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

Selected Poems of Langston Hughes

The two texts I chose to compare from the Selected Poems of Langston Hughes were “Cora” and “Georgia Dusk”. While both poems have a similar tone, the structure and poetic devices of the two differ from one another greatly. “Cora” and “Georgia Dusk” both have a gloomy tone. They both contain words and expressions of sadness and both are about sorrow. Hughes' expresses this tone, however, through different point-of-views, poem lengths, and rhyming styles.

Cora is a short poem containing one stanza.

I broke my heart this mornin'

Ain't got no heart no more.

Next time a man comes near me

Gonna shut an' lock my door

Cause they treat me mean–

The ones I love.

They always treat me mean.

The language is very colloquial and improper. Many words are shortened with the use of an apostrophe. The message, though, is straightforward and simple: The narrator's heart is broken and has lost hope in finding a trustful and respectful man. Punctuation lacks variety, but we do, however, see the use of a dash at the end of line 5. This adds emphasis to the fact that the narrator's loved ones are always mean. It acts as a clarifier for the 'they', showing that 'they' means "the ones I love." Rhyming isn't prevalent in this poem. There is only one set of rhyming words - 'more' and 'door'.

Almost immediately, we can determine that this poem is in fact from a woman's perspective (more than likely considering the time period of this poem). Her heart was broken by a man, and she has decided that she'll now remain conservative and introverted to prevent herself from being hurt again. The next time a man comes near her, she will figuratively "shut an' lock her door" - meaning to say, she'll shut them out from her heart and mind. It can be assumed that she has had difficulties with men before when she states that 'they' always treat her poorly.

Georgia Dusk is a reasonably longer poem written by Hughes, containing 3 stanzas...