Keaton Lundie

Professor Diehl

HUMN 2010

April 15, 2022

Analog Paper # 2: Love Song for Lucinda by Langston Hughes

Love Song for Lucinda is a poem written by Langston Hughes in the 50s. The essence of

this poem is about the effect of love it has on you. Hughes is very descriptive when writing this

piece of work because he uses objects and things people are familiar with to get his point across.

Reading his poem, students definitely understand some of the seven Greek loves, such as

pragma, agape, and philia. This poem gives readers imagination. Hughes words are personified

in this poem to give understanding of the significance of love. Reading each line it will make one

think, he is really trying hard to get his point across or he is really passionate on writing about

love. This poem heavily relates to a scene in Boyz in the Hood where Tre really wanted his

girlfriend Brandi and confided in her after he was emasculated by the police in South Central

LA.

Hughes first openings lines really tell readers how he will signify love through figurative

language like a metaphor. He says, “Love, is a ripe plum growing on a purple tree. That is very

interesting to describe love because there is so much meaning in just about every word. Looking

at the color purple, it tends to mean royalty, wisdom, bravery, and spirituality. Hughes chose that

color to describe the tree intentionally because if two become together in love it is a loyal thing.

Arguably, looking at it from that perspective even further I think they will operate in wisdom and

become spirituality strong from each other. Hughes uses a tree with the color purple. As we all
know tree are very significant in sustaining life on planet Earth. We absolutely need it to survive

no excuses. In this sense he is relating love to an everlasting life force that never ends. In a sense

Hughes is saying love is just that powerful. Also, looking at the way he placed tree in his poem

one can say love is for everyone and is surrounded by everyone. Trees are literally all over the

planet along with people. And using a ripe plum to describe love holds a lot of weight too. A ripe

fruit means it is more sweet and easier to eat. In his sense this means love is meant to be

something positive that has a really good affect on us. It also meant to be plausible to the human

eye such as fruit. Lastly, in analyzing his word play the verb “growing” is interesting too.

Because it is like he is using that word to make the point that people are not perfect, but in love

they will grow together and in the end it will be a positive life force (tree/plum) and spirituality

strong along with love making individuals more royal (purple).

Out of all of the seven Greek love types, agape fit the best for this occasion. Agape is

love that is universal and is not bound to necessarily one thing or one type. The other types of

love have restrictions. For example, philia is a type of love that focus on a friendship and/or

thing in that nature. So, in comparing Hughes poem, he does not specify to a single being. He is

just very descriptive and writes figuratively to prove his thesis which is love will have a huge

affect on you forever. He also, uses things in the universe that humans did not create to describe

love like trees, plums, and mountains. All three of those things serve great purpose to sustaining

life within the universe.

Tre from John Singleton’s Boyz in the Hood was pulled over, harassed, and had his life

threatened over profiling. This action broke him pretty badly to the point he went to his girlfriend

Brandi to breakdown and cry to express his feelings. Tre had a very good relationship with Fury

whom is his dad, and Ricky his best friend. And yet he did not break down to neither one of them
at all. Arguably I think because the love he experienced with her allowed him to be vulnerable

that no other person have seen i.e. his best friend and father who raised him from a little boy to a

grown man. Hughes writes, “And its’ spell of enchantment will never let you be”. That is

basically saying love have the power to chance you and turn you into someone else or change

you.

Overall Hughes written a poem that was written like a picture when in reslity it is just

words. That speaks to him wanting people to know just how important love is to him and what it

means. Agape captures universal love and knows no bounds to anyone or anything. Hughes

choices and nouns he uses to make his poetry relates to agape love the most in comparison to the

other six. Sometimes when people meet the right person, that individual will see a side of them

that no one else gets to see.