American Literature RC 2002 - Unit1t08

8 The Harlem Renaissance
When have you felt a creative spark

to make or do something? What
inspired you? What was the out-
come of your inspiration? In the
1920s, the Harlem neighborhood
in New York City experienced a
creative explosion of African
American literature, art, and
music. The selections in this theme
celebrate this fertile era and reveal
the unique vision of several of its
writers. As you read, try to
imagine the sources of inspiration
that led these writers to create
such works.
THEME PROJECTS
Internet Project
Guide to the Harlem Renaissance Essays,
poetry, paintings, and sculpture from the
Harlem Renaissance abound on the World
Wide Web.
1. Use a search engine to find writings and
artwork from the Harlem Renaissance. Be
sure to look for some of the authors or
works from this theme. Aspects of Negro Life: Song of the Towers, 1934. Aaron Douglas. Oil on canvas,
2. Evaluate each Web site you find. Is the 9 x 9 ft. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library.
information interesting? Does it seem to be accurate?
Which artists and writings are represented? represent. Find examples of their writing that reflect
3. Prepare an Internet guide to the Harlem Renaissance in these beliefs.
which you recommend particular Web sites. For each site, 2. Take the role of one of these people while your partner
include a written overview, sample pages, and reasons for takes the other, and stage a formal debate for your class
your recommendation. on the purpose of African American literature during
Listening and Speaking the Harlem Renaissance. Keep in mind the social and
economic climate of the 1920s as you shape your
A Writers’ Debate The writers of the Harlem Renaissance
arguments.
didn’t always agree on the purpose of their work.
1. With a partner, research two Harlem Renaissance writers
who held different beliefs about what their work should
BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 717

Before You Read
My City
Meet to as the black national anthem. Later,

he took up a post as U.S. consul,
James Weldon Johnson
first in Venezuela and then in
While many young writers were just Nicaragua. During this time, he
starting out during the Harlem began publishing poems.
Renaissance, James Weldon When he returned to the
Johnson was entering the most United States in 1914, he became
productive period of his highly a journalist for an African
successful life. At the beginning of American newspaper and later a
the Harlem Renaissance, the forty- Civil Rights activist and a lobbyist
nine-year-old Johnson had already for the NAACP. His final career
been a high school principal, a news- was as a professor of literature and
paper editor, a lawyer, a songwriter, a writing at Fisk University in Nashville,
foreign consul, a novelist, an editorial Tennessee. The position was created
writer, and the head of the National specifically for him, due, in large part, to his
Association for the Advancement of Colored literary accomplishments during the Harlem
People (NAACP). For many, Johnson’s vigorous Renaissance. Throughout his life, Johnson wrote
artistic and intellectual activities represented the poetry. He wrote in a variety of styles ranging from
spirit of the age. For Johnson himself, the writing the simple dialect poem to the urbane sonnet. He
of poetry and the fight for African American also anthologized other African American poets in
equality served the same goal—winning a the popular and widely acclaimed collection, Book
respected place in American society for people of American Negro Poetry.
of African American heritage.
Johnson grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, in a
middle-class family. His mother, a schoolteacher in “ The world does not know that a people is
great until that people produces great literature
Florida, gave him his early training in literature
and music. As a student at Atlanta University, he
and art.
” —Johnson
responded to the school’s philosophy that educated
African Americans should devote their lives to
public service, especially to helping less fortunate James Weldon Johnson was born in 1871 and died in 1938.
African Americans. When he finished college at
age twenty-three, he took a job as the principal of
Reading Further
the school he had attended in Jacksonville. He
If you would like to read more by or about James Weldon
also worked for several summers as a teacher in
Johnson, try these books:
poor, rural, African American schools.
At age thirty-one, Johnson resigned as school Poetry: God’s Trombones, by James Weldon Johnson,
principal and began a varied and dazzling career. presents seven sermons written in free verse and consid-
For a time, he was a successful Broadway composer, ered some of Johnson’s most influential poems.
working in New York with his brother, Rosamond, Autobiography: Along This Way.
also a composer. Among his many lyrics, Johnson Biography: James Weldon Johnson, by Robert E.
wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often referred Fleming, gives a clear chronology of his life.
718 UNIT 5
Before You Read
Reading Focus
Close your eyes and visualize a place that you love. It might be a comfortable chair
in your living room, a neighborhood street you like to walk down, a lively beach, or
some other place.
Journal Describe the place in your journal and write about how you would feel if
you could never visit that place again.
Setting a Purpose Read “My City” to discover James Weldon Johnson’s feel-
ings about a particular place.
Building Background
The Time and Place
During the 1920s and early 1930s, many African American
writers and artists lived in Harlem, a community of
Manhattan. (Manhattan is a borough of New York City.)
These writers and artists contributed to the Harlem
Renaissance, a flowering of black culture that had its roots in
the ideas of prominent African American leaders, such as
W. E. B. DuBois (1868–1963). DuBois believed that to
achieve social equality African Americans must not adopt the
values of white America; instead they must work to express
their own cultural heritage and, in doing so, renew their
racial pride. James Weldon Johnson knew and respected
DuBois. He agreed with many of DuBois’s ideas and
reflected them in his own writing.
W. E. B. DuBois
Literary Influences
Harlem From a young age, James Weldon Johnson was extremely
The well educated and well read. His mother, a schoolteacher,
Bronx New York City
passed on to him a knowledge of, and love for, English lit-
New Jersey erature. He earned both an undergraduate and a graduate
New York degree from Atlanta University and studied for a time at
City Columbia University in New York City under the school’s
Manhattan
most distinguished professor of literature, Brander
New York
Matthews. At the beginning of his literary career, Johnson
Queens
often modeled his writing after classic poets of the English
language. He wrote poems in a formal style, using
Brooklyn
rhymed verse in conventional forms, such as the sonnet.
Staten
During the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, Johnson
Island began experimenting with free verse. Inspired by the
powerful speaking rhythms of African American preachers,
ATLANTIC OCEAN
he wrote a collection of poems styled after folk sermons,
called God’s Trombones.

Fulton and Nostrand, 1958. Jacob Lawrence. Tempera on Masonite, 24 x 30 in.
Private collection. Courtesy Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York.
J a m e s We l d o n J o h n s o n
When I come down to sleep death’s endless night,
The threshold of the unknown dark to cross,
What to me then will be the keenest loss,
When this bright world blurs on my fading sight?
5 Will it be that no more I shall see the trees
Or smell the flowers or hear the singing birds
Or watch the flashing streams or patient herds?
No. I am sure it will be none of these.
But, ah! Manhattan’s sights and sounds, her smells,

10 Her crowds, her throbbing force, the thrill that comes
From being of her a part, her subtle° spells,
Her shining towers, her avenues, her slums—
O God! the stark,° unutterable° pity,
To be dead, and never again behold my city.
11 Things that are subtle are faint, barely noticeable, or not obvious.
13 Here, stark means “absolute” and unutterable means “too deep or great to
be put into words.”
720
Active Reading and Critical Thinking
Responding to Literature
Personal Response Literary Criticism
What questions would you like to ask the speaker of “My In describing a visit Johnson made to New York City,
City”? Jot them down. Next to each one, write a brief reason Kenneth Kinnamon writes that Johnson “took a
for your question. Whitmanesque pleasure in the bustling movement and
noise of the great city.” Compare “My City” to poems by
Analyzing Literature Whitman on pages 403 through 415. Would you describe as
“Whitmanesque” the pleasure the speaker takes in the city?
Recall and Interpret
Why or why not? Write your answer in a brief essay, citing
1. What question does the speaker pose for himself at the
details from the poems for support.
beginning of the poem? What phase of life is implied in
the question?
2. What possible answers does the speaker first explore?
Why might he propose these answers?
3. What answer does the speaker finally provide? What rea- Literary ELEMENTS
sons does he give? What does this answer tell you about
the speaker’s personality? Octave and Sestet
4. What, according to the speaker, is “the stark, unutterable Poets often divide their poems into stanzas, or groups of
pity”? Why might the speaker feel this way about the city? verse lines that form a unit. Stanzas organize a poem
into thoughts, much as paragraphs help to organize
Evaluate and Connect prose. Two common types of stanzas are the octave, or
5. How does the rhyme scheme contribute to the poem’s stanza of eight lines, and the sestet, or stanza of six lines.
impact? Explain. (See Literary Terms Handbook, page Many sonnets, such as “My City,” feature these two
R13.) stanza forms. In such sonnets, the octave presents the
6. A caesura is a pronounced pause in the middle of a line main idea of the poem, and the sestet expands upon,
of poetry. Where does Johnson use caesuras in the contradicts, or develops this idea.
poem? What do they help reveal about the speaker’s 1. What idea is expressed in the octave of “My City”?
emotions? 2. How is this idea developed in the sestet of the poem?
7. Overall, do you like this poem? Why or why not? Relate
3. How does the division of this poem into an octave
your answer to the poem’s message, imagery, form, or all
and sestet contribute to its effectiveness?
of these.
8. Refer back to your response to the Reading Focus on • See Literary Terms Handbook,
page 719. In this poem, the speaker expresses a prefer- p. R15.
ence for the city over the natural world. Which do you
prefer? Why?
Extending Your Response

Interdisciplinary Activity Learning for Life
Art: Illustrate a Scene In this poem, Johnson presents a A Brochure of Poetic Places What shining towers,
rich and moving picture of Manhattan. Using crayons, pen- avenues, and sights might Johnson be referring to in
cils, or paints, create a work of art that captures Johnson’s “My City”? Using a map and tourist information about
feelings about the city. Before you begin to work, reread the Manhattan, locate places that match his descriptions. Then
poem so that you remember which aspects of the city partic- create an illustrated tourism guide for Johnson’s “city.”
ularly appealed to Johnson. Share your work with the class.
Save your work for your portfolio.

Magazine Article
What’s so special about the hometown
of Harlem Renaissance writer Zora
Neale Hurston’s childhood? That’s a
controversial question for some people.
A Place to Be Free CANADA NH

MN VT ME
by Constance Johnson—
U.S. News & World Report, March 2, 1992 WI
NY MA
MI
IA
PA CT RI
forty-five white OH
PRINCEVILLE, N.C.—“We IL IN NJ
KS WV DE
MO
were first,” says 84-year-old residents until 1900, KY
VA MD
Susanna Thomas, thrusting when it became nearly OK TN
Raleigh Princeville
NC
her bony finger forward. “I all black. AR SC
MS AL GA
don’t know what those peo- By 1920, many of TX
ATLANTIC
LA OCEAN
ple are talking about.” She these [all-black] towns Eatonville
means the residents of had been wiped out by Orlando
Eatonville, Florida, who agricultural depressions FL
claim that their 2-square-mile and other calamities.

burg north of Orlando is the Fewer than 30 all-black
oldest all-black, self-governed towns remain today. Princeville Mayor Glennie
town in the United States. That’s where the current dis- Matthewson recalls that his
The origins of the dispute pute comes in. To save their desire to become a lawyer
date back more than a cen- town, Princeville’s mayor and dawned as he sat on his un-
tury. In the decades after the other leaders in the commu- educated father’s lap while
Civil War, freed slaves moved nity of 1,700 people are try- the elder Matthewson
across the United States cre- ing to get it designated as the presided over misdemeanor
ating hundreds of all-black first all-black town in the cases in the black-run town.
towns. Some, like Princeville, National Register of Historic For 74-year-old Mable Dancy,
were founded on unoccupied Places. Eatonville, with a Princeville may have failed to
land in the shadows of nearby population of 3,000, is pursu- live up to its billing as “the
white towns. In others, like ing the same designation. All center of the world.” But it
Eatonville, residents bought the officials hope that the did fulfill another important
their land. Most of the towns recognition will attract visi- role: “This was the only place
offered the chance for blacks tors who can help prop up we could be free,” she says.
to govern themselves. Prince- their sagging economies.
ville was incorporated in In some ways, trying to
1885 and Eatonville in 1887. win the battle over which
But Eatonville officials say was first . . . misses the real Analyzing Media
their town, founded entirely point of pride about these 1. Why does each town want to be
by blacks, was the first incor- towns. Certain qualities recognized as the nation’s first all-
porated all-black town already qualify Princeville African American town?
because Princeville had about as a national treasure.
2. Which town do you think should
get that designation? Explain.
722 UNIT 5
Before You Read
from Dust Tracks on a Road
Meet individualist who resisted

membership in any school of
Zora Neale Hurston
thought. Her ideas sometimes
In 1973 the writer Alice got her into trouble with
Walker traveled to Fort Pierce, fellow writers, and over the
Florida, to visit Zora Neale years, her popularity declined.
Hurston’s grave. What Walker Though she published widely,
found looked “more like an Hurston made little money
abandoned field” than a ceme- from her books. By the time
tery, she said. There among the of her death, she was
waist-high weeds and yellow penniless.
wildflowers was a large sunken Today, thanks to Walker
rectangle—Hurston’s grave. and other admirers, Hurston’s
Walker ordered a headstone for books are widely read, and she
the grave site. is remembered for her ability to capture the rich
“I wanted to mark Zora’s grave so that one day traditions and poetic speech of southern black
all our daughters and sons would be able to locate culture. Her book Mules and Men, which includes
the remains of a human mountain in Florida’s and folklore from black communities in Florida and
America’s so frequently flat terrain,” Walker Louisiana, is recognized as the first history of
explained. African American folklore written by an African
Hurston grew up in Eatonville, Florida, one of American. Her most admired novel, Their Eyes
the first incorporated black towns in the United Were Watching God, a sensitive portrayal of a
States. There her family found a refuge from much young black woman’s progress toward realizing
of the racism of the late 1800s and early 1900s. her identity and independence, has sold more than
Her father worked as a Baptist preacher and served a million copies since its republication in 1969.
as the town’s mayor. Her mother, who taught her I Love Myself When I Am Laughing, a final volume
to read, was a great source of encouragement. that includes a collection of Hurston’s stories,
Only thirteen when her mother died, Hurston folklore, and essays, was published in 1979.
spent the next two decades working as a waitress, a
manicurist, and a maid, while trying to get a high “All clumps of people turn out to be individuals
school education. At age sixteen, she joined a on close inspection.
”
traveling theatrical group that brought her to New
York City during the Harlem Renaissance. Finally “of a herd instinct. Or if I must be connected
I am so put together that I do not have much
Hurston enrolled in Howard University, then later with the flock, let me be the shepherd my
Barnard College, where she earned a degree in
anthropology. Hurston used her training to collect
ownself. That is just the way I am made.
”
the folklore of Eatonville and other southern “ There is no agony like bearing an untold story
African American communities. She later used
this material as a source for much of her writing.
inside you.
” —Hurston
Although considered an important figure in

the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston was a fierce Zora Neale Hurston was born in 1891 and died in 1960.

Before You Read
Reading Focus
Think about a time when a surprise event changed your life in some way.
Chart It! Fill in a chart like the one below to show how a surprise event affected
you. Add as many outcomes as you need.
Setting a Purpose Read to learn about the outcomes of a surprise event in
Zora Neale Hurston’s life.
Outcome
Surprise event Outcome
Outcome
Building Background
The Time and Place
This story takes place in Eatonville, Florida, around 1900,
a time when white people controlled most communities in
the United States. In Eatonville, however, African Americans
were the leaders and decision makers. In her writing, Zora
Neale Hurston celebrated her hometown’s customs, speech,
and determination to maintain its independence.
Did You Know?

Although Dust Tracks on a Road is a fascinating auto-
biography, it hides as much as it reveals about the
author’s life. Hurston never tells when she was born,
never mentions her second marriage, and contradicts
details about her life that she wrote in private letters to
friends. It is impossible to say exactly why Hurston chose
to hide and sometimes misrepresent herself. Perhaps the
truth was too painful to tell, or perhaps she wanted her
readers to see her in a certain way.
Vocabulary Preview
brazenness (brā zən əs) n. defiant behavior; boldness; snicker (snikər) n. a snide, partly suppressed laugh, often
p. 725 expressing disrespect; p. 727
exalt (i zolt) v. to lift up; to put in high spirits; p. 726 indifferent (in difər ənt) adj. lacking feeling or
concern; p. 729
724 UNIT 5
Zora Neale Hurston Harlem Series, no. 28: The Libraries Are Appreciated, 1943. Jacob Lawrence.
Gouache on paper, 14¹⁄₂ x 21¹⁄₄ in. Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA.
I used to take a seat on top of the gate-post and Nevertheless, I kept right on gazing at them,
watch the world go by. One way to Orlando ran and “going a piece of the way” whenever I could
past my house, so the carriages and cars would make it. The village seemed dull to me most of
pass before me. The movement made me glad to the time. If the village was singing a chorus, I
see it. Often the white travelers would hail1 me, must have missed the tune.
but more often I hailed them, and asked, “Don’t Perhaps a year before the old man3 died, I
you want me to go a piece of the way with you?” came to know two other white people for
They always did. I know now that I must have myself. They were women.
caused a great deal of amusement among them, It came about this way. The whites who
but my self-assurance must have carried the came down from the North were often brought
point, for I was always invited to come along. I’d by their friends to visit the village school. A
ride up the road for perhaps a half-mile, then Negro school was something strange to them,
walk back. I did not do this with the permission and while they were always sympathetic and
of my parents, nor with their foreknowledge. kind, curiosity must have been present, also.
When they found out about it later, I usually got They came and went, came and went. Always,
a whipping. My grandmother worried about my the room was hurriedly put in order, and we were
forward ways a great deal. She had known slav- threatened with a prompt and bloody death if
ery and to her my brazenness was unthinkable. we cut one caper4 while the visitors were
“Git down offa dat gate-post! You li’l sow, present. We always sang a spiritual, led by Mr.
you! Git down! Setting up dere looking dem Calhoun himself. Mrs. Calhoun always stood in
white folks right in de face! They’s gowine2 to the back, with a palmetto switch5 in her hand as
lynch you, yet. And don’t stand in dat doorway
gazing out at ’em neither. Youse too brazen to 3. The old man, a white farmer who was a friend of Hurston’s
live long.” family, took Zora Neale fishing and gave her advice.
4. Cut one caper is slang for “play a trick or prank” or “behave
extravagantly or noisily.”
1. Hail means “to greet.” 5. A palmetto switch, a whip used for discipline, was made from
2. Gowine is dialect for “going.” the flexible stem of a leaf from a palmetto palm.
Vocabulary
brazenness (brā zən əs) n. defiant behavior; boldness

a squelcher. We were all little angels for the That is how it was that my eyes were not
duration, because we’d better be. She would cut in the book, working out the paragraph which
her eyes6 and give us a glare that meant trouble, I knew would be mine by counting the chil-
then turn her face towards the visitors and beam dren ahead of me. I was observing our visitors,
as much as to say it was a great privilege and who held a book between them, following the
pleasure to teach lovely children like us. They lesson. They had shiny hair, mostly brownish.
couldn’t see that palmetto hickory in her hand One had a looping gold chain around her
behind all those benches, but we knew where neck. The other one was dressed all over in
our angelic behavior was coming from. black and white with a pretty finger ring on
Usually, the visitors gave warning a day her left hand. But the thing that held my eyes
ahead and we would be cautioned to put on were their fingers. They were long and thin,
shoes, comb our heads, and see to ears and and very white, except up near the tips.
fingernails. There was a close inspection of There they were baby pink. I had never seen
every one of us before we marched in that such hands. It was a fascinating discovery for
morning. Knotty heads, dirty ears and finger- me. I wondered how they felt. I would have
nails got hauled out of line, strapped and sent given those hands more attention, but the
home to lick the calf 7 over again. child before me was almost through. My turn
This particular afternoon, the two young next, so I got on my mark, bringing my eyes
ladies just popped in. Mr. Calhoun was flus- back to the book and made sure of my place.
tered,8 but he put on the best show he could. Some of the stories I had re-read several times,
He dismissed the class that he was teaching and this Greco-Roman myth was one of my
up at the front of the room, then called the favorites. I was exalted by it, and that is the way
fifth grade in reading. That was my class. I read my paragraph.
So we took our readers and went up front. “Yes, Jupiter10 had seen her (Persephone). He
We stood up in the usual line, and opened to the had seen the maiden picking flowers in the field.
lesson. It was the story of Pluto and Persephone.9 He had seen the chariot of the dark monarch
It was new and hard to the class in general, pause by the maiden’s side. He had seen him
and Mr. Calhoun was very uncomfortable as when he seized Persephone. He had seen the
the readers stumbled along, spelling out words black horses leap down Mount Aetna’s11 fiery
with their lips, and in mumbling undertones throat. Persephone was now in Pluto’s dark
before they exposed them experimentally to realm and he had made her his wife.”
the teacher’s ears. The two women looked at each other and
Then it came to me. I was fifth or sixth down then back to me. Mr. Calhoun broke out with
the line. The story was not new to me, because I a proud smile beneath his bristly moustache,
had read my reader through from lid to lid, the and instead of the next child taking up where
first week that Papa had bought it for me. I had ended, he nodded to me to go on. So
I read the story to the end, where flying
Mercury, the messenger of the Gods, brought
6. Cut her eyes is slang for “look at with scorn or contempt.”
7. Lick the calf is slang for “get cleaned up.”
8. Flustered means “nervous” or “agitated.” 10. In Roman mythology, Jupiter is king of the gods and Pluto’s
9. The myth of Pluto and Persephone (pər sefə nē) explains the brother.
origin of the seasons. Pluto is god of the underworld, and 11. Mount Aetna (etnə) (also spelled Etna) is a volcano in
Persephone is his wife. eastern Sicily, Italy.
Vocabulary
exalt (i zolt) v. to lift up; to put in high spirits
726 UNIT 5
Zora Neale Hurston

Persephone back to the sunlit earth and restored “Shake hands with the ladies, Zora Neale,”
her to the arms of Dame Ceres, her mother, Mr. Calhoun prompted and they took my hand
that the world might have springtime and sum- one after the other and smiled. They asked me if
mer flowers, autumn I loved school, and I lied that I did. There was
and harvest. But some truth in it, because I liked geography and
because she had bit- reading, and I liked to play at recess time.
ten the pomegranate Whoever it was invented writing and arithmetic
while in Pluto’s king- got no thanks from me. Neither did I like the
dom, she must return arrangement where the teacher could sit up
to him for three there with a palmetto stem and lick me when-
months of each year, ever he saw fit. I hated things I couldn’t do any-
and be his queen. thing about. But I knew better than to bring that
Did You Know? Then the world had up right there, so I said yes, I loved school.
A pomegranate winter, until she re- “I can tell you do,” Brown Taffeta gleamed.
(pomə ran´it) is a round
fruit containing many small turned to earth. She patted my head, and was lucky enough not
seeds in a red pulp. The class was to get sandspurs12 in her hand. Children who roll
dismissed and the and tumble in the grass in Florida are apt to get
visitors smiled us away and went into a low- sandspurs in their hair. They shook hands with
voiced conversation with Mr. Calhoun for a me again and I went back to my seat.
few minutes. They glanced my way once or When school let out at three o’clock, Mr.
twice and I began to worry. Not only was I Calhoun told me to wait. When everybody had
barefooted, but my feet and legs were dusty. My gone, he told me I was to go to the Park House,
hair was more uncombed than usual, and my that was the hotel in Maitland, the next after-
nails were not shiny clean. Oh, I’m going to noon to call upon Mrs. Johnstone and Miss
catch it now. Those ladies saw me, too. Mr. Hurd. I must tell Mama to see that I was clean
Calhoun is promising to ’tend to me. So and brushed from head to feet, and I must wear
I thought. shoes and stockings. The ladies liked me, he
Then Mr. Calhoun called me. I went up said, and I must be on my best behavior.
thinking how awful it was to get a whipping The next day I was let out of school an hour
before company. Furthermore, I heard a early, and went home to be stood up in a tub of
snicker run over the room. Hennie Clark and suds and be scrubbed and have my ears dug into.
Stell Brazzle did it out loud, so I would be sure My sandy hair sported a red ribbon to match my
to hear them. The smart-aleck was going to red and white checked gingham dress, starched
get it. I slipped one hand behind me and until it could stand alone. Mama saw to it that
switched my dress tail at them, indicating my shoes were on the right feet, since I was care-
scorn. less about left and right. Last thing, I was given
“Come here, Zora Neale,” Mr. Calhoun a handkerchief to carry, warned again about my
cooed as I reached the desk. He put his hand behavior, and sent off, with my big brother John
on my shoulder and gave me little pats. The to go as far as the hotel gate with me.
ladies smiled and held out those flower-
looking fingers towards me. I seized the 12. Sandspurs (also called sandburs) are spiny burs that grow
opportunity for a good look. on a grass of the same name.
Vocabulary
snicker (snikər) n. a snide, partly suppressed laugh, often expressing disrespect

First thing, the ladies gave me strange dull and without life, and I pretended they
things, like stuffed dates and preserved gin- were not there. If white people liked trashy
ger, and encouraged me to eat all that I singing like that, there must be something
wanted. Then they showed me their Japanese funny about them that I had not noticed
dolls and just talked. I was then handed a before. I stuck to the pretty ones where the
copy of Scribner’s Magazine, and asked to read words marched to a throb I could feel.
a place that was pointed out to me. After a A month or so after the two young ladies
paragraph or two, I was told with smiles, that returned to Minnesota, they sent me a huge
that would do. box packed with clothes and books. The red
I was led out on the grounds and they took coat with a wide cir-
my picture under a palm tree. They handed cular collar and the
me what was to me then a heavy cylinder red tam pleased me
done up in fancy paper, tied with a ribbon, more than any of the
and they told me goodbye, asking me not to other things. My
open it until I got home. chums pretended not
My brother was waiting for me down by to like anything that
the lake, and we hurried home, eager to see I had, but even then
what was in the thing. It was too heavy to be I knew that they
candy or anything like that. John insisted on were jealous. Old
toting it for me. Smarty had gotten
My mother made John give it back to me by them again. The Did You Know?
and let me open it. Perhaps, I shall never clothes were not A tam (short for tam-o’-
shanter) is a soft Scottish cap
experience such joy again. The nearest thing new, but they were with a fitted headband. It
to that moment was the telegram accepting very good. I shone often has a center pom-pom.
my first book. One hundred goldy-new pen- like the morning sun.
nies rolled out of the cylinder. Their gleam lit But the books gave me more pleasure than
up the world. It was not avarice13 that moved the clothes. I had never been too keen on
me. It was the beauty of the thing. I stood on dressing up. It called for hard scrubbings with
the mountain. Mama let me play with my pen- Octagon soap suds getting in my eyes, and
nies for a while, then put them away for me none too gentle fingers scrubbing my neck
to keep. and gouging in my ears.
That was only the beginning. The next day In that box were Gulliver’s Travels,
I received an Episcopal hymn-book bound in Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Dick Whittington,
white leather with a golden cross stamped into Greek and Roman Myths, and best of all,
the front cover, a copy of The Swiss Family Norse Tales. Why did the Norse tales strike
Robinson, and a book of fairy tales. so deeply into my soul? I do not know, but
I set about to commit the song words to they did. I seemed to remember seeing Thor14
memory. There was no music written there, swing his mighty short-handled hammer as
just the words. But there was to my conscious- he sped across the sky in rumbling thunder,
ness music in between them just the same. lightning flashing from the tread of his steeds
“When I survey the Wondrous Cross” seemed and the wheels of his chariot. The great and
the most beautiful to me, so I committed that
to memory first of all. Some of them seemed
14. In Norse mythology, Thor is the god of thunder. His magical
hammer returns to him like a boomerang after being
13. Avarice is greed, or excessive desire for wealth. thrown.
728 UNIT 5
Zora Neale Hurston

good Odin,15 who went down to the well of Rudyard Kipling in his Jungle Books. I loved
knowledge to drink, and was told that the his talking snakes as much as I did the hero.
price of a drink from that fountain was an eye. I came to start reading the Bible through
Odin drank deeply, then plucked out one eye my mother. She gave me a licking one after-
without a murmur and handed it to the griz- noon for repeating something I had overheard
zly keeper, and walked away. That held a neighbor telling her. She locked me in her
majesty for me. room after the whipping, and the Bible was the
Of the Greeks, Hercules moved me most. only thing in there for me to read. I happened
I followed him eagerly on his tasks. The story to open to the place where David18 was doing
of the choice of Hercules as a boy when he some mighty smiting,19 and I got interested.
met Pleasure and Duty, and put his hand in David went here and he went there, and no
that of Duty and followed her steep way to matter where he went, he smote ’em hip and
the blue hills of fame and glory, which she thigh. Then he sung songs to his harp awhile,
pointed out at the end, moved me profoundly. and went out and smote some more. Not one
I resolved16 to be like him. The tricks and time did David stop and preach about sins and
turns of the other Gods and Goddesses left things. All David wanted to know from God
me cold. There were other thin books about was who to kill and when. He took care of the
this and that sweet and gentle little girl who other details himself. Never a quiet moment. I
gave up her heart to Christ and good works. liked him a lot. So I read a great deal more in
Almost always they died from it, preaching as the Bible, hunting for some more active people
they passed.17 I was utterly indifferent to their like David. Except for the beautiful language
deaths. In the first place I could not conceive of Luke and Paul,20 the New Testament still
of death, and in the next place they never plays a poor second to the Old Testament for
had any funerals that amounted to a hill of me. The Jews had a God who laid about21 Him
beans, so I didn’t care how soon they rolled when they needed Him. I could see no use
up their big, soulful, blue eyes and kicked the waiting till Judgment Day to see a man who
bucket. They had no meat on their bones. was just crying for a good killing, to be told to
But I also met Hans Andersen and Robert go and roast.22 My idea was to give him a good
Louis Stevenson. They seemed to know what I killing first, and then if he got roasted later on,
wanted to hear and said it in a way that so much the better.
tingled me. Just a little below these friends was
18. David was the second king of Judah and Israel. He killed the
15. Odin (¯ō din), the father of Thor, is the supreme god in giant Goliath.
Norse mythology and the creator of the first man and 19. Smiting means “striking hard, as with a hand or a weapon,
woman. Odin traded an eye for a drink from the well of so as to cause serious injury or death.”
wisdom, which was guarded by a giant. 20. Luke and Paul were authors of much of the New Testament
16. Resolved means “decided.” of the Christian Bible.
17. Passed is short for “passed on” or “passed away” and 21. Laid about means “hit out in all directions.”
means “died.” 22. Roast is slang for “burn in hell.”
Vocabulary
indifferent (in difər ənt) adj. lacking feeling or concern

Personal Response 13. Think back to what you were like when you were in the
How did you react to the narrator? Find specific passages fifth grade. Does Hurston do a good job of recreating the
that influenced your opinion of her. Share your responses thoughts of a fifth grader? Support your answer with
with the class. examples.
14. How do you think you would have reacted if you were in
Analyzing Literature Zora Neale’s place in this story? Explain.
15. If you wanted to use books to describe your interests,
Recall opinions, and impressions—as Hurston does—which
1. What does Zora Neale do at the beginning of the selec- books would you choose, and why?
tion? How do her parents and grandmother react to
what she does?
2. How do the teachers and students react to the white
visitors?
3. What draws the attention of the two white ladies to Literary ELEMENTS
Zora Neale?
4. How do the ladies reward Zora Neale? Local Color
5. Which gifts from the two ladies does Zora Neale enjoy The use of details to show the unique character of a
the most? place and its inhabitants is called local color. When
writers use local color, they look for details that appeal
Interpret
6. How would you explain the difference between Zora to the five senses. Some writers, including Zora Neale
Neale’s attitude toward the white travelers passing Hurston, specialize in bringing to life the customs,
through and the attitudes of her parents and grand- language, geography, and feeling of the places they
mother? write about.
7. Why do you suppose the teachers and students react as 1. What kinds of details does Hurston use to show the
they do to the white visitors? local color of Eatonville, Florida? Make a chart of
8. When Zora Neale reads aloud from the story of details, using such categories as dress, dialect, and
Persephone, what does she reveal about her personality customs as headings. Under each heading, include a
and abilities? Explain your answer, using details from the
few examples from the selection.
selection.
9. From her reaction to the ladies and their gifts, how would 2. What sense or senses does Hurston seem to appeal
you describe Zora Neale’s attitude toward the ladies? to most in the selection? Support your answer with
10. What do you think Zora Neale gains from the gifts she details from the selection.
receives? 3. Write a few sentences to show the local color of your
school. Use details that appeal to each of the five
Evaluate and Connect
senses.
11. In your opinion, does Hurston do a good job of portray-
ing the setting (the time and the place) in which she • See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R9.
grew up? Explain.
12. Look back at the chart you made for the Reading Focus
on page 724. How does the importance of your surprise
event compare with Zora Neale’s?
730 UNIT 5
Literature and Writing
Writing About Literature Personal Writing
Analyzing Characterization You can learn about a Meaningful Gift Zora Neale is moved by the gifts she
character from his or her actions and words, from the receives from the ladies who visit her school. Think of a time
reactions of others to the character, and from direct when you received a gift that was especially important to
description. Write a few paragraphs explaining how the you. Write a letter to the person who gave it to you describ-
author shows young Zora Neale’s self-confidence. Include ing your reaction to the gift. You may or may not choose to
examples from the selection. send the letter.

Literature Groups telling it as a storyteller would. Use expressions, gestures,
True or False? Critics have complained that Hurston’s and different voices to capture the characters’ personalities.
autobiography isn’t always factual. In your group, discuss the Then tell the story to the class.
following: Does it matter to you if Hurston’s autobiography is
absolutely true or not? What reasons might a writer have for Listening and Speaking
distorting the facts in his or her autobiography? Do you think Listening to the Locals One of Hurston’s trademarks as a
these are valid reasons? Why or why not? Share your conclu- writer is capturing the unique speech, or dialect, of the
sions with the class. community in which she grew up. Write a few passages that
capture the speech patterns of your own community. Share
Performing and discuss your writing with a partner. Did you notice
Storytelling Choose one of the myths or stories men- similar speech patterns?
tioned in this selection. Read it several times and practice
VOCABULARY
SkillMinilesson
• Analogies
Analogies are comparisons based on relationships 1. reporter : reveal :: critic :
between words and ideas. The relationship between the a. judge b. discover c. reprimand
words in some analogies is that of worker and action. 2. snicker : laugh :: smirk :
tailor : sew :: chef : cook
a. giggle b. grin c. frown
A tailor sews; a chef cooks.
3. shyness : brazenness :: calmness :
To finish an analogy, decide on the relationship repre-
a. timidness b. serenity c. tension
sented by the first two words. Then apply that relation-
4. police : regulate :: soldiers :
ship to the second set of words.
PRACTICE Choose the word that best completes a. complain b. travel c. fight
each analogy. Some of the analogies are based on the • For more about analogies, see Communications
relationship of worker and action. Skills Handbook, pp. R83–R84.

Creating Unified Paragraphs
Clear, unified writing doesn’t happen by accident. A writer must think carefully about the ideas
he or she wants to present in a piece of writing and then plan how to develop those ideas in
paragraphs. Each paragraph must support the main idea of the piece of writing, and each
sentence in a paragraph must support the main idea of that paragraph. For example, look at this
paragraph from Dust Tracks on a Road. Notice how the details provided in the body of the
paragraph all support Hurston’s claim that the Norse tales appealed to her very strongly.
“Whittington,
In that box were Gulliver’s Travels, Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Dick
Greek and Roman Myths, and best of all, Norse
Tales. Why did the Norse tales strike so deeply into my soul? I
do not know, but they did. I seemed to remember seeing Thor
swing his mighty short-handled hammer as he sped across the
sky in rumbling thunder, lightning flashing from the tread of his
steeds and the wheels of his chariot. The great and good Odin,
who went down to the well of knowledge to drink, and was told
that the price of a drink from that fountain was an eye. Odin
drank deeply, then plucked out one eye without a murmur and
handed it to the grizzly keeper, and walked away. That held
majesty for me.
”
To write a unified paragraph, begin with a topic sentence that states the main idea of the
paragraph. Then add one or more pieces of supporting information to the topic sentence.
Supporting information may be
• descriptive details, which may be sensory—appealing to one or more of the five senses
• reasons
• facts and/or statistics
• examples and/or incidents
Be careful, however, to avoid adding information that is not relevant. After you draft a
paragraph, go back and cross out parts that do not support your main idea at all or that offer
only weak support.
EXERCISE
Write a paragraph explaining what you like or do not like about the selection from Dust Tracks on
a Road or another selection from this theme. Be sure to include a topic sentence and support it
with details, reasons, facts, or examples.
732 UNIT 5
Before You Read
If We Must Die and The Tropics in New York
Meet After returning to the United States

in 1934, McKay had a hard time sup-
Claude McKay
porting himself. Two collections of his
Some critics have identified the pub- poetry, Spring in New Hampshire and
lication of “If We Must Die” in 1919 Other Poems (1920) and Harlem
as the spark that ignited the Harlem Shadows (1922), had met with great
Renaissance. This poem by Claude acclaim while he was abroad.
McKay inspired many African However, his fiction and nonfiction
Americans and gave them a new sense writing was never as popular. By his
of pride. death at age fifty-seven, McKay had
McKay was born and raised in rural become almost unknown.
Jamaica. He published his first book of verse,
Songs of Jamaica, in 1912. When he first came to the
United States at age twenty-two, he was shocked by
“ There was among [the African American
poets] a voice too powerful to be confined to the
the country’s racial discrimination. “I had heard of circle of race, a voice that carried further and
prejudice in America but never dreamed of it being made America in general aware; it was that of
so intensely bitter,” he later wrote. McKay spent
much of his life looking for ways to counter the
Claude McKay.
” —James Weldon Johnson
“ignoble cruelty” of racism. He grappled with differ-
ent political beliefs and traveled and lived in Europe
and Africa during the Harlem Renaissance. Claude McKay was born in 1890 and died in 1948.
Reading Focus Building Background

What examples do you know of The Time and Place
people who faced violence, death, or Tensions between African Americans and whites erupted into race riots during the
other hardships because of their summer of 1919, when inflation was high and competition for jobs was fierce. The
race, religion, or ethnicity? worst riot left thirty-eight people dead and more than three hundred injured in
Chicago. A waiter in a railroad dining car, McKay and his fellow African American
Journal Write a journal entry
workers feared being attacked. It was during this summer that Claude McKay wrote
about one of these examples.
“If We Must Die.”
Describe how the person or people
facing oppression responded to the
Literary Influences
situation.
Jamaica was a British colony when McKay was a child. English was the language of
Setting a Purpose Read to the schools, and McKay grew up reading the works of English writers, including
find out how one poet responds William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.
to an unjust situation.
Research
Claude McKay grew up in Jamaica in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Use the library
or the Internet to learn more about Jamaica at that time. Then, as you read McKay’s
poetry, think about how his childhood in Jamaica may have influenced his later
writing and his perceptions of urban life in the United States.

If we must die, let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious° spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed° lot.
5 If we must die, O let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained° to honor us though dead!
O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!
10 Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,
And for their thousand blows deal one deathblow!
What though before us lies the open grave?
Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
2 Inglorious means “shameful” or “disgraceful.”

4 Accursed (ə kursid) means “being under a curse” or “doomed.”
8 Constrained means “forced.”
Claude McKay
Two Heads, 1946. Charles White. Watercolor, 16³⁄₄ x 24¹⁄₄ in. Courtesy Heritage Gallery, Los Angeles.
734 UNIT 5
Fruit Stand Vendor, 1994. Hyacinth Manning. Acrylic on canvas,
Claude McKay
28 x 22 in. Private collection.
Viewing the drawing: How does this painting help you visualize
the tropics McKay describes?
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,

Cocoa in pods and alligator pears,
And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit,
Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs,
5 Set in the window, bringing memories

Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills,
And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies
In benediction° over nun-like hills.
My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;

10 A wave of longing through my body swept,
And, hungry for the old, familiar ways,
I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.
8 A benediction is a blessing.

Personal Response
Which image from the poems stands out in your mind? What effect does this image have on you?
Share your responses with a classmate.
Analyzing Literature
1. What two animals does the speaker name? Which is the hunter and which is the hunted?
With whom does the speaker identify? Explain.
2. How does the speaker want his kinsmen to behave? Why do you suppose this is important
to him?
3. How do the reactions advocated by the speaker compare with those of the person or
people you wrote about for the Reading Focus on page 733?
4. Theme Connections Some critics believe that Claude McKay’s poem “If We Must Die”
marks the start of the Harlem Renaissance. Explain why this poem might have led to such a
creative outpouring.

5. What does the speaker see in the window? What memories does the sight bring?
6. How does the speaker react physically when he recalls his memories? Why might he have
this reaction?
7. Which sensory details (see page R14) in the poem help you picture the tropics best?
Explain.
8. What feelings about times or places in your past does this poem express for you?
Literary ELEMENTS
Shakespearean Sonnet presented in the three quatrains, and the couplet contains
A sonnet is a lyric poem of fourteen lines, typically written the conclusion.
in iambic pentameter and usually following strict patterns
of stanza divisions and rhyme. A Shakespearean, or 1. Which of the McKay poems is a Shakespearean
English, sonnet is a type of sonnet developed in England sonnet? How do you know?
and made famous by William Shakespeare. It is organized 2. Explain the main idea presented in the three quatrains
into three quatrains (groups of four lines) followed by a of the Shakespearean sonnet McKay wrote. Then
rhymed couplet (a pair of lines). The lines have the describe the conclusion.
rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg. A main thought is • See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R15.
736 UNIT 5
Radio Transcript
People’s lives are often influenced by
their communities and the events that
take place there. Artists, such as the
one featured below, help give expres-
sion to that influence.
Artist Jacob Lawrence

National Public Radio, from Morning Edition, June 9, 1998
BOB EDWARDS, host LAWRENCE

As part of the Harlem Renaissance, Jacob I knew many of the older people. Some,
Lawrence was among those who helped like Langston Hughes, I met. Claude
move the black experience into the main- McKay I knew well. He befriended me. I’m
stream of America’s artistic consciousness sure it had a great deal of influence on me
after World War I. Many of the writers and and my work.
musicians went on to gain worldwide recog- DRUMMOND
nition—Zora Neale Hurston, Langston Lawrence’s paintings tell stories, says
Hughes, Duke Ellington. Patricia Hills, who teaches art history at
Behind those famous figures was a Boston University and has written fre-
vibrant community of visual artists whose quently about Lawrence. That’s why she
participation in the Harlem Renaissance calls him a pictorial Gryot.
often is overlooked. Jacob Lawrence is the PATRICIA HILLS
last living member of the group and his “Gryot,” as you know, is a French word, it
work is part of a touring exhibition dedi- comes from West Africa. It means “a story-
cated to it. teller.” You know, the person in the com-
WILLIAM DRUMMOND, reporter munity who knows the history and tells
One particular series of paintings stands the story. That’s one of the reasons he’s
out. [Jacob Lawrence’s] scenes from the life [Lawrence] done a lot of works in series,
of Toussaint l’Ouverture . . . consist of because the series allows him to tell the
forty-one panels depicting the life of the kind of story that he wants to tell. He’s
Haitian general who came to be a symbol really interested in people. He’s interested
of black pride in 1930s America because of in his own community.
his successful rebellion against French rule
a century earlier.
The paintings were the subject of
Lawrence’s first exhibition in 1938 at the Analyzing Media
Harlem YMCA. By then, Jacob Lawrence 1. Are storytellers important in
was just 20 years old and the Harlem
today’s society? Explain why or
Renaissance was coming to an end.
When the movement began Lawrence why not.
was just a toddler, but he grew up taking in 2. Based on this interview, what, in
all that was going on around him. your opinion, is Jacob Lawrence’s
significance to the Harlem
Renaissance?
Before You Read
I, Too and The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Meet Throughout his life

Hughes was a “poet of the
Langston Hughes
people” who spent much time
When Langston Hughes was traveling across the country to
nineteen, his father offered to read his poetry. He integrated
send him to college in Europe so the rhythms of blues and jazz
Hughes could escape from the music in his writings and used
racism and segregation that the language of the people he
affected every part of American encountered. Hughes saw
life. Hughes refused, however, beauty in the wisdom, humor,
explaining, “More than Paris, or and strength of the people he
the Shakespeare country, or portrayed.
Berlin, or the Alps, I wanted to Although best known as a
see Harlem, the greatest Negro city in the world.” poet, Hughes also wrote fiction, drama, popular
Hughes spent the rest of his life celebrating songs, and satirical sketches about an uneducated
Harlem and African American life. but perceptive character named Simple. In
Born in Joplin, Missouri, Hughes came from a addition, he worked on anthologies and transla-
family of abolitionists. His grandfather, James tions and helped the careers of many younger
Mercer, was the first African American elected to writers.
public office. Despite having a wealthy father,
Hughes knew what it meant to live in poverty. By
the age of twelve, he had already lived in six “ It is the duty of the younger Negro artist . . .
to change through the force of his art that old
different cities because his divorced mother was whispering ‘I want to be white’ to ‘why should
always moving around looking for work. He also I want to be white? I am a Negro—and
lived for a time with his grandmother, who told
him stories about heroic ancestors who had fought
beautiful!’
”
slavery and racism. She helped instill in Hughes a
lasting sense of pride in his heritage and culture. “ I didn’t know the upper-class Negroes well
enough to write much about them. I knew only
Hughes began writing poetry in high school. He the people I had grown up with, and they
attended Columbia University for a year but found weren’t people whose shoes were always shined,
the school to be too large and impersonal. Instead who had been to Harvard, or who had heard of
he went to live in his beloved Harlem, where he
had a hard time finding a job. Finally he took a job
Bach. But they seemed to me good people, too.
—Hughes
”
as a merchant sailor, traveling to Africa and
Europe. When he returned to the United States he
continued writing poetry. While working as a hotel “when
Hughes . . . was unashamedly black at a time
blackness was démodé [not fashionable],
busboy in Washington, Hughes gained the atten- and he didn’t go much beyond one of his earliest
tion of poet Vachel Lindsay by leaving three
poems by his plate. Lindsay later read these peoms
themes, black is beautiful.
” —Lindsay Patterson
at a recital. Hughes eventually earned a college
degree from Lincoln University. In 1926 his first
book, The Weary Blues, was published. Langston Hughes was born in 1902 and died in 1967.
738 UNIT 5
Before You Read
Reading Focus
What makes you who you are? Think about the forces that have shaped and
influenced your life.
Quickwrite Jot down the names of some of the people and events that have
helped shape your identity.
Setting a Purpose Read to find out what the speakers of two poems reveal
about themselves.
Building Background
The Time and Place
When Hughes began writing in the 1920s, little progress had Hughes’s college-educated mother moved from city to
been made in securing basic rights for African Americans. In city looking for work but found only menial jobs. In Harlem,
the South laws legalized segregation, and in the North black many artists, writers, and intellectuals hoped their artistic
workers were generally hired only for low-wage jobs. movement would help bring about an end to such
Hughes’s father had moved to Mexico because he was fed discrimination.
up with discrimination in the United States.
Harlem, New York City, 1920s or early 1930s.

Langston Hughes
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
5 But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
10 When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
15 Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
Man or Take My Mother Home #2, 1959. Charles White. Pen and ink
drawing. Collection of Harry Belafonte. Courtesy Heritage Gallery,
Los Angeles.
Viewing the drawing: What qualities of the poem do you see
reflected in this image? Explain.
740 UNIT 5
Langston Hughes
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates° when dawns were young.

5 I built my hut near the Congo° and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile° and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln
went down to New Orleans,° and I’ve seen its muddy
bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers:

Ancient, dusky° rivers.
10 My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
4 The Euphrates (ū frā tēz) River flows from Turkey through Syria and Iraq. Many
ancient civilizations flourished in the area between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
5 The Congo, also called the Zaire, is a river in central Africa.
6 The Nile, which runs through northeast Africa, is the longest river in the world.
7 According to legend, Abraham Lincoln decided that slavery should be abolished
after witnessing his first slave auction in New Orleans, Louisiana, along the
Mississippi River.
9 Dusky means “dark in color” or “murky.”

Personal Response
Which lines from the poems did you find most memorable or powerful? Read the lines aloud to
the class. Then explain why you find these lines so memorable or powerful.
1. How is the speaker of the poem treated? How does the speaker respond to this treatment?
What is the identity of the speaker and of the other people in the poem?
2. How will things be different “tomorrow”? What do you think the change will represent?
How do you think the speaker expects this change to come about?
3. What statement does the speaker make in the final line of the poem? Why might he feel
the need to make this statement?
4. How would you describe the mood of this poem? What elements of the poem contribute
to this mood? Explain. (See Literary Terms Handbook, page R10.)
5. What historical realities does this poem reflect?

6. In line 2, how does the speaker describe the rivers he has known? For what reason might
he emphasize their age?
7. To what rivers does the speaker refer in lines 4–7? What do the activities associated with
these rivers communicate about the history of African Americans? In your opinion, what
do the rivers symbolize, or stand for?
8. What is the final line of the poem? What does this line suggest about how the history of
the speaker’s people has affected the speaker?
9. Look carefully at the shape of this poem. In your opinion, does the poem’s shape suit its
content? Explain.
10. What do you know about the historical places and time periods referred to in the poem?
What more would you like to know about those places and time periods after reading
the poem?
Literary Criticism
Critic R. Baxter Miller makes the following statement about and twentieth centuries.” Do you agree with Miller’s reading
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”: “Through the images of water of the poem? Explain your answer in a brief paragraph, citing
and pyramid, the verse suggests the endurance of human details from the poem for support.
spirituality from the time of ancient Egypt to the nineteenth
742 UNIT 5
Literary ELEMENTS
Repetition
Repetition occurs when a sound, word, phrase, or line is 1. Hughes repeats the title of “I, Too” in the first and final
repeated within a piece of writing. In poetry, repetition lines of the poem. What idea might he be trying to
can emphasize words or ideas and can add a musical emphasize through this repetition?
quality. For example, the phrase “I’ve known rivers” 2. What is the slight difference between these lines?
appears three times in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” This What does the change emphasize?
repetition sounds like a song refrain, and it ties together • See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R13.
the beginning and ending of the poem.

Writing About Literature Creative Writing
Analyzing Theme The theme of a literary work is the main A Bit About You These poems emphasize the importance
idea that the writer is trying to communicate to the reader. of history and nation in shaping one’s identity. Look back at
Write a sentence for each of Hughes’s poems that you think the items you listed for the Reading Focus on page 739.
captures its theme. Then write a paragraph that compares Write a poem, song lyrics, or a brief essay that conveys how
the themes. Explore how the themes are similar and how these people and events have helped shape your identity.
they are different.

Literature Groups Performing
Picture It Work as a group to plan a sketch for each of the Choral Reading Work with a small group to prepare a
two poems. You may want to begin by discussing the feeling choral reading of either “I, Too” or “The Negro Speaks of
and meaning of each poem. Then discuss ways to convey Rivers.” Determine your audience and purpose—for example,
your interpretations and work together to create rough to inspire pride among children. Decide how to divide up the
sketches. Share your sketches with other groups and discuss reading of the poem among group members. Practice your
the similarities and differences between them. reading and perform it for the class. After your reading, invite
constructive comments from the class.
Interdisciplinary Activity
Geography: River Country In “The Negro Speaks of Learning for Life
Rivers,” the speaker refers to four rivers. Choose one of the Evaluate Reviews Use your library or the Internet to
rivers and use the library or the Internet to research some of research reviews of and commentaries on Langston Hughes’s
the cultures that grew up around that river. Be sure to find poetry. Look for reviews of specific poems or of collections.
out what contributions these cultures made to the rest of the Choose two or three of the reviews of poems you have read
world. Present your findings to the class as an oral report. and write an evaluation of those reviews. Based on your
reading of the poems, do the reviews you found seem
accurate? Explain your answer in your evaluation.

Before You Read
from Songs for Signare
Meet for independence. Under his leader-

ship, Senegal gained nationhood in
Léopold Sédar Senghor
1960. Senghor served as Senegal’s pres-
Early in World War II, French soldier ident for twenty years, retiring in 1980.
Léopold Sédar Senghor (sā dar Senghor began writing poetry as a
senhor) was captured by the Nazis. student in Paris. Writing gave him an
He and fellow prisoners of African outlet for exploring his identity as an
descent were made to line up against a African immersed in French culture,
wall. As the Nazis prepared to shoot and later for exploring the uniqueness
them, Senghor shouted “Long live of his own Senegalese culture. Songs for
France! Long live Black Africa!” Before the shots Signare was originally written in French, and it was
were fired, a white French prisoner intervened, published in 1961.
and Senghor and the others were allowed to live.
The incident highlights Senghor’s dual identity as
an African and a Frenchman.
“Tomorrow I will continue on my way
to Europe, to the embassy,
Senghor grew up in Senegal, which at that time
was part of French West Africa. An exceptional
Already homesick for my black Land.
”
student, he earned a scholarship to study in France. “ To assimilate, not to be assimilated
”
—Senghor
After graduating from the Sorbonne in Paris, he
taught in French schools. After World War II,
Senghor became involved in the African movement Léopold Sédar Senghor was born in 1906.

Which objects in your home tell the Senghor and African Culture
most about your life and cultural Although Senghor often wrote of his beloved homeland Senegal, in fact he was
heritage? interested in all of Africa. In his poem, he refers to masks, which play an important
role in many different African cultures. He also mentions ritual stools, which were the
List It! List the objects in your
seats of kings and other important people. The weaving of mats and cloth is a
home that tell something about you
revered art form throughout Africa, as well.
and your heritage. Choose four
Senghor wrote Songs for Signare to be read or sung to the accompaniment of
objects that best represent you.
the khalam (KHalam), a four-stringed African lute. Songs for Signare was originally
Setting a Purpose Read to titled Songs for Naeett, for Senghor’s wife. In the later title, signare (which comes
find out what objects tell about one from the Portuguese word senhora) refers to “a well-born Senegalese woman.”
poet’s cultural heritage. Scholars believe that, under either title, the poem addresses the woman as a
metaphor for Africa itself.
Literary Influences
When Senghor was a student in Paris in the late 1920s, he was introduced to the
works of Harlem Renaissance writers. He was so impressed by their works that, even
though he knew very little English, he learned some of the Harlem Renaissance
poems by heart.
744 UNIT 5
WORLD LITERATURE
Léopold S. Senghor
Tr a n s l a t e d b y J o h n R e e d a n d C l i v e Wa k e

(For khalam)
And we shall be steeped my dear in the presence of Africa.

Furniture from Guinea° and Congo,° heavy and polished,
somber and serene.
On the walls, pure primordial° masks distant and yet present.
Stools of honor for hereditary guests, for the
Princes of the High Lands.
5 Wild perfumes, thick mats of silence
Cushions of shade and leisure, the noise of a
wellspring° of peace.
Classic words. In a distance, antiphonal singing
like Sudanese° cloths
And then, friendly lamp, your kindness to soothe this
obsessive presence
White black and red, oh red as the African soil.
Signare (si narē´)

2 Guinea is a region of West Africa that borders the Atlantic Ocean.
Congo is the name of a central African country.
3 Primordial means “primitive” or “existing at the beginning.”
6 A wellspring is a source of continual supply.
7 Anything Sudanese is from Sudan, an African country located just
south of Egypt.
Antelope Headdress. Bamana people

of Upper Niger region of Mali, Africa.
Wood, height: 38¹₂ in. Private collection.

Personal Response
What reactions did you have while reading this selection from Songs for Literary
Signare? What was it about the poem that inspired you to react this way?
Share your responses with a group of classmates. ELEMENTS
Analyzing Literature Lyric Poetry
Recall and Interpret Poems that tell a story are called
1. What is the speaker steeped in according to line 1? What do you think the narrative poems. In contrast, poems
speaker means by this? that focus on personal thoughts and
2. List the objects that the speaker mentions in the poem. From the speaker’s feelings are called lyric poems. The
descriptions of these objects, how would you characterize the place that he word lyric refers to an ancient Greek
imagines? musical instrument, the lyre. Long ago
3. How does the speaker describe the “words” referred to in line 7? Why the Greeks recited poetry to the music
might the speaker describe these words in this way? of the lyre.
4. To what might the speaker be referring when he says “this obsessive pres- Lyric poems can take many forms.
ence”? How would you explain the speaker’s strong feelings for Africa and They may follow a rhyme scheme, or
African objects? they may be written in free verse. All the
poems in this theme are examples of
Evaluate and Connect lyric poetry.
5. Is the writer successful in giving you an idea of what the “presence of 1. What are the main thoughts and
Africa” looks, sounds, and feels like? Explain your answer, citing details emotions conveyed in the poem
from the poem. by Senghor?
6. What have you learned about the poem’s speaker? (See Literary Terms
2. What vivid words and phrases con-
Handbook, page R15.) What attitudes does the speaker communicate?
tribute to the effect these thoughts
Explain.
and emotions have?
7. Think about the impressions you’ve gained about life on the continent of
Africa from books, television, school, or firsthand experience. Does the • See Literary Terms Handbook,
poem match your impressions? Why or why not? p. R9.
8. How do the objects mentioned in the poem compare with those you
chose to represent yourself for the Reading Focus on page 744? Tell how
they are alike and different.

Writing About Literature Performing
Contrasting Images Senghor uses pairs of opposites such The Song of the Poet With a group, come up with music
as “somber and serene,” “distant and yet present,” and to accompany the poem, using either musical instruments or
“noise of . . . peace.” Choose one of these examples of a recording. Consider the sounds, feelings, and ideas of the
opposites and write a paragraph explaining what you think it poem. Practice reading the poem with the music and then
means in the poem. perform it for the class.
746 UNIT 5
Critical Thinking
COMPARING
selections
and and
COMPARE TONE
The tone of a piece of writing is the attitude the writer conveys toward the subject,
characters, events, or audience. (See Literary Terms Handbook, page R15.) In a few
paragraphs, answer the following questions about comparing the tones of these
three poems.
1. What is the tone of each of the poems?
2. In what ways do details help bring out the tone of each poem?
3. Which of Hughes’s poems has a tone more similar to Senghor’s poem? Explain.
COMPARE CULTURES
Both Langston Hughes and Léopold Sédar Senghor were important poets who helped
other Africans and African Americans appreciate their own cultures. With a group of
classmates, list the images that Hughes and Senghor use to convey information about
their cultures. Discuss what you learn about each culture from the poems. How are the
cultures similar? How are they different? Share your conclusions with the class by
presenting an oral report.
COMPARE POETIC DEVICES
Choose one of Hughes’s poems to compare with Senghor’s poem. Make a three-
column chart like the one below. List poetic devices—such as alliteration, repetition,
and rhyme—in the first column and record examples of the devices that you find in
each poem in the second and third columns. Then answer the questions listed below
the chart.
Poetic Device Hughes’s poem Senghor’s poem
1. Which devices does each poet use most? What do they add to each poem?
2. Which poem do you like best? Explain why. How did the use of poetic devices affect
your choice?

Before You Read
Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem
Meet She quickly became friends with the only other

African American woman in the building, famed
Helene Johnson
Harlem Renaissance writer Zora Neale Hurston.
“ [Johnson’s] poetry is marked by an often
lovely lyricism in which genteel sensuality and a
Before long, Johnson was socializing with Harlem’s
literary elite and publishing her poems in literary
usually muted expression of racial pride are journals.
blended.
”
—The Norton Anthology of African American Literature
During the 1930s, Johnson married William
Warner Hubbell. In 1940 the couple had a
When she was nineteen, Helene Johnson traveled daughter, Abigail. The demands of marriage,
from her hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, to motherhood, and full-time employment eventually
New York City to accept her first poetry award. kept Johnson too busy to write much. As she said
She had received an honorable mention in the in an interview, “To write anything (it can be
annual poetry contest of the popular African poetry or anything at all), you have to have time.
American magazine Opportunity. Once Johnson You have to sit and rock . . . or look out the
saw and experienced the excitement of New York window, and something will come by.”
City at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, she Today, Johnson is remembered as one of the
decided to stay. She remained in New York City youngest and most promising writers of the Harlem
for more than a half century. Renaissance, a woman who was very proud of her
When Johnson first moved to New York City, cultural heritage and exhibited strong concern for
she lived in one of the few apartment buildings life in Harlem.
outside Harlem that rented to African Americans. Helene Johnson was born in 1907 and died in 1995.

Think about a person in your neighbor- The Time and Place
hood who particularly stands out. What Harlem was known as a ghetto in the 1920s and 1930s. Despite its overcrowding and
type of person is he or she? What is it poverty, Harlem’s African American residents found much better housing there than
that makes this person stand out? elsewhere in New York City. In her poetry, Johnson wanted to reflect the more
Chart It! In a chart like the one modest and everyday realities of living in Harlem.
shown below, name one of this per-
son’s defining personality traits. Then Literary Influences
list gestures, physical attributes, and Johnson’s education and family strongly influenced her. She counted the British
behaviors that reveal this important poets Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Percy Bysshe Shelley and American poets Walt
personality trait. Whitman and Carl Sandburg among her favorites. Johnson also received inspiration
and support from her cousin, the writer Dorothy West, who moved with Johnson to
Personality Trait: Cheerful New York and became an editor of Challenge, a publication that promoted young
Gestures African American writers.
Physical attributes
Behaviors Research
Use the library or the Internet to research the poetry of one of Helene Johnson’s
Setting a Purpose Read to literary influences mentioned above. Read a few selections by that poet. Then, as
understand one poet’s impressions you read Johnson’s “Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem,” look for influences from the
of someone in her community who poet you researched.
stands out.
748 UNIT 5
Permission was denied to
reproduce this image in an
electronic format. Please
refer to the printed book.
Helene Johnson
You are disdainful° and magnificent—
Your perfect body and your pompous° gait,
Your dark eyes flashing solemnly with hate,

Small wonder that you are incompetent
5 To imitate those whom you so despise—
Your shoulders towering high above the throng,
Your head thrown back in rich, barbaric song,
Negro Head, before 1930. Palm trees and mangoes stretched before your eyes.
Nancy Elizabeth Prophet. Let others toil and sweat for labor’s sake
Wood, height: 20¹⁄₂ in. 10 And wring from grasping hands their meed° of gold.
Museum of Art, Rhode
Island School of Design. Why urge ahead your supercilious° feet?
Gift of Miss Eleanor B. Green. Scorn will efface° each footprint that you make.
I love your laughter arrogant and bold.
You are too splendid for this city street.
1 Disdainful means “full of scorn.”

2 Pompous means “having an exaggerated sense of self-importance.”
10 A meed is a well-deserved compensation or payment.
11 Supercilious (s¯¯¯
oo´pər silē əs) means “haughty” or “arrogant.”
12 Efface means “to rub out” or “to erase.”

Personal Response
Which line or lines from the poem are most memorable to you? Why? Share Literary
your responses with a classmate.
ELEMENTS
Scansion
Recall and Interpret The analysis of a poem to determine its
1. With what adjectives does the speaker first describe her subject? Why meter, or rhythmic pattern, is called
might she use both positive and negative adjectives? scansion. When you scan a line of
2. In what way is the subject “incompetent”? Whom might the subject poetry, you notice its beats, or stressed
“despise”? Why? and unstressed syllables, and determine
3. What physical traits make the subject stand out? How would you charac- whether or not the beats in a line form a
terize the subject from the description in lines 6–8? particular pattern.
4. What does the speaker say that others, not the subject, should do? Why? To scan a line of poetry, mark the
5. What does the speaker love about her subject? Why might she describe stressed syllables with a () and
the subject as “too splendid for this city street”? unstressed syllables with a (). For
example:
Evaluate and Connect I love your laught
er arr
ogant and b
old
6. What is the speaker’s tone in this poem (see page R16)? Support your

You are too splendid for this cit y
answer with details from the poem.
7. Connotation refers to the associations or suggestions that go beyond a street.
word’s literal meaning. What might Johnson be suggesting with the 1. Copy the first two lines of Johnson’s
phrase “Palm trees and mangoes”? poem and mark the stressed and
8. In your opinion, is the subject of Johnson’s poem a specific person or a unstressed syllables.
representative for a group of people? Explain. 2. Scan another poem in this theme.
9. Johnson uses vivid language to convey her subject. What language would Does it have a regular rhythmic
you use to describe the person you referred to for the Reading Focus on pattern or no pattern?
page 748? • See Literary Terms Handbook,
10. Summarize the theme, or main idea, of this poem. Which words and p. R14.
phrases from the poem are most effective in supporting the theme?
Explain your response.

Writing About Literature Interdisciplinary Activity
Analyze Diction Write a two- or three-paragraph analysis Music: Song of Myself Johnson creates a vivid image of
of Johnson’s diction, or word choice, in this poem. What her subject’s “rich, barbaric song.” What song would best
does her diction suggest to you about the poem’s setting, describe you? Compose a song that reveals a quality that
subject, and theme? How does her diction affect the way you defines your personality. Share your song with the class.
read and understand the poem?
750 UNIT 5
ART Visions from Harlem
During the Harlem Renaissance, African American writers
weren’t the only people who flocked to a little-known
district of Manhattan to explore their cultural identity.
African American dancers, actors, musicians, painters, and sculptors were as much a
part of this artistic explosion of the 1920s and 1930s as were poets, novel-
ists, and playwrights. Before long, the intense creative spirit spilled out of
Harlem, which had become the heart and soul of African American
culture. African American artists across the country began painting,
sculpting, drawing, and taking photographs.
Artists of the Harlem Renaissance shared a single goal in their
work: to express their identity as both Africans and Americans.
However, their approaches varied. Some artists sought to
capture details of everyday life, including the tensions of a
segregated society. Some celebrated their African heritage.
Others wanted to portray the dignity and independence of their
people. Still other African American artists chose to focus on
elements of folklore in their art.
The Harlem Renaissance marked the first time that many
African American artists could work professionally at their
craft. Foundations offered private funding to African
American artists. Public art projects employed many artists Lift Every Voice and Sing or The Harp,
during the Great Depression of the 1930s. As a result, 1939. Augusta Savage. Plaster with
black paint finish, height: 9 ft. The
African Americans were able to infuse America’s cultural Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
landscape with their vitality and their dreams. Library, Yale University. Photograph by
Carl van Vechten.
Work with a small group of classmates to

research a Harlem Renaissance artist such as Jacob
Lawrence, Aaron Douglas, Loïs Mailou Jones, Palmer
Hayden, Malvin Gray Johnson, Hale Woodruff, or
Augusta Savage. Plan a brief presentation that includes
music from the time or a dramatic reading about
the artist.
Self Portrait, 1934. Malvin Gray Johnson. Oil on canvas,

mounted on canvas, 38¹₂ x 30 in. National Museum of
American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Before You Read
Storm Ending and November Cotton Flower
Meet literary journals, Toomer turned his

interests to religion and philosophy,
Jean Toomer
and he wrote a number of essays on
Jean Toomer wrote only one major these subjects. Ultimately, Toomer
work, but it has been called “the became a Quaker and lived his last
most impressive product” of the years as a recluse.
Harlem Renaissance. Published in Today, Toomer is recognized as
1923, this book, Cane, is an experi- one of the most talented figures of
mental mixture of drama, prose, and the Harlem Renaissance for his expe-
poetry that includes the two poems you rimental style and his success in captur-
are about to read. In Cane, Toomer ing both southern culture and the spiritual
describes African American culture in both confusion experienced by many of his
the rural South and the industrial North using generation.
rich, musical language.
Toomer was born in Washington, D.C., and “I was neither white nor black, but simply an
attended college in several parts of the country. He
taught school in Georgia, where he absorbed the
American.
” —Toomer
sights and sounds that went into Cane. After set-
tling in Harlem and contributing to a variety of Jean Toomer was born in 1894 and died in 1967.

What are the most immediate Did You Know?
thoughts and images that the word For two months in the summer of 1921, Jean Toomer served as acting head of an
flower brings to your mind? agricultural school in Georgia. Traditionally, Georgia had depended heavily on cotton
as a major crop, but during the 1920s, the state’s cotton crop was devastated by boll
Freewrite Write for two or three
weevils—destructive insects that attack cotton plants. Because so much of the cotton
minutes about the word flower.
crop was destroyed, many farmers were ruined financially, and agricultural workers,
Begin with the first image that forms
many of them African American, were forced to migrate to the North in search of
in your mind and let your ideas flow.
employment.
Setting a Purpose Read
to discover how one poet uses Research
images of flowers. Use the library or the
Internet to research
cotton growing in the
South in the 1920s. As
you read “November
Cotton Flower,” think
about what you have
learned in your research.
Does it help you under-
stand the poem? Explain.
Boll weevil
752 UNIT 5
J e a n To o m e r
Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads,
Great, hollow, bell-like flowers,
Rumbling in the wind,
Stretching clappers to strike our ears . .
Full-lipped flowers
Bitten by the sun
Bleeding rain
Dripping rain like golden honey—
And the sweet earth flying from the thunder.
Landscape, 1914. Henry Ossawa Tanner. Oil on artist’s board. Private collection.
Courtesy The Sheldon Ross Gallery, Birmingham, MI.

Sharecropper Boy, 1938. Hale Aspacio Woodruff. Oil
on canvas, 20 x 15 in. The Harmon and Harriet Kelley
Foundation for the Arts, San Antonio, TX.
Viewing the painting: What characteristics do
you find in this young man’s face that help you
understand the point of the poem? Explain.
J e a n To o m e r
Boll weevil’s coming, and the winter’s cold,
Made cotton stalks look rusty, seasons old,
And cotton, scarce as any southern snow,
Was vanishing; the branch,° so pinched and slow,
5 Failed in its function as the autumn rake;
Drought fighting soil had caused the soil to take
All water from the streams; dead birds were found
In wells a hundred feet below the ground—
Such was the season when the flower bloomed.
10 Old folks were startled, and it soon assumed
Significance. Superstition saw
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year.
4 Here, branch means “creek” or “stream.”

Personal Response
Which images from these poems do you find most surprising or unexpected? Why?
1. To what does Toomer compare thunder in “Storm Ending”? What does this comparison
suggest about his attitude toward the storm?
2. How does the earth respond to the thunder? Why might Toomer have chosen this
response for the earth?
3. This poem is rich in sensory details—details that appeal to one or more of the five senses
(See Literary Terms Handbook, page R14). How does the poem differ from a scientific
description of a storm?
4. How does your attitude toward thunderstorms compare with those expressed in the poem?
Explain your answer.

5. What two things, according to lines 1–2, make the cotton look rusty? What happens to the
cotton in lines 3–4?
6. What event in the poem startles “old folks”? In your opinion, why might that event take on
significance?
7. What two things has “Superstition” never seen before? What do these two things suggest
about the effects of the sudden bloom on most people? What might the cotton flower
symbolize? Explain.
8. The poem is a Petrarchan sonnet, a verse form consisting of an eight-line section followed
by a six-line section. What change in thinking takes place from the first section to the
second? Is the change significant? Explain.

Interdisciplinary Activity Creative Writing
Art: Budding Responses In these poems, Jean Toomer Shall I Compare Thee? Using your response to the
uses the images of flowers. Two visual artists who were capti- Reading Focus on page 752, write a poem comparing a
vated by flowers were Vincent van Gogh and Georgia flower with something very different from a flower. In your
O’Keeffe. Look for examples of their images of flowers and poem, try to include details that appeal to at least two of
use those images for inspiration to paint or draw a picture of the senses.
a flower that could illustrate Toomer’s poem “Storm Ending.”

Before You Read
A black man talks of reaping and Any Human to Another
Meet Meet
Arna Bontemps Countee Cullen
Proud of his heritage, Countee Cullen’s life
Arna Bontemps was marked by contra-
(ban tam) was disap- dictions. As a writer, he
pointed by the lack of was known for speaking
information on the out against poetry that
history of African was “racial,” yet he wrote
Americans available at forcefully about racial
his childhood school and injustice. A twentieth-
his local library. As a writer, he spent much of his century American, he turned to highly structured
life filling the gaps in traditional accounts of and traditional verse forms from the European
African American history and literature. past. Although Cullen’s early work won much
Bontemps was born in Louisiana and grew up in praise, he received little recognition after he
California. In 1923, at the height of the Harlem reached his thirties.
Renaissance, Bontemps came to New York. He Cullen grew up and went to school in New
soon won recognition for his poetry and for his York City. While a graduate student at Harvard
first novel, God Sends Sunday. He also began University, he studied and admired traditional
writing literature for children. European poetic forms. He modeled his poetry
In 1943 Bontemps became the librarian at Fisk after the work of John Keats, an English Romantic
University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he poet. Still, James Weldon Johnson noted that “the
devoted himself to recording the history of African best of his poetry is motivated by race.” Before
Americans. He said that his book The Story of the Cullen had finished college, his first book of
Negro “consists mainly of things I learned after I poems, Color, was published and received critical
left school that I wish I had known much earlier.” acclaim.
Bontemps went on to write more than twenty-five Cullen published several collections of poetry
books, including The Harlem Renaissance after Color, but his literary reputation declined
Remembered and Golden Slippers, the first children’s gradually. In his thirties he began teaching junior
anthology of African American poetry. high school in New York City, a job that he held
until his death.
“ How dare anyone, parent, schoolteacher, or

merely literary critic, tell me not to act
colored?
” “raceI find that I am actuated by a strong sense of
—Bontemps
consciousness.
” —Cullen
Arna Bontemps was born in 1902 and died in 1973. Countee Cullen was born in 1903 and died in 1946.
756 UNIT 5
Before You Read
Reading Focus
African American writer James Baldwin, who was once a student of Countee Cullen,
wrote, “Color is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.”
Discuss With a group of students, discuss the meaning of this quotation. Do you
agree or disagree with Baldwin?
Setting a Purpose Read to discover how two poets view race and human
relationships.
Building Background
Literary Purposes
The Harlem Renaissance, like any literary movement, was not
a club whose members all agreed. It was a collection of
passionate artists who often disagreed on questions of style,
content, and literary purpose. Many writers then and later
criticized Countee Cullen for his use of conservative, “white”
forms and themes. They felt that in his attempt to keep
poetry colorblind, Cullen was betraying African Americans.
Cullen answered these writers in a poem, “To Certain
Critics,” in which he wrote:
For never shall the clan
Confine my singing to its ways
Beyond the ways of man.
.....
How shall the shepherd heart then thrill
To only the darker lamb?
Arna Bontemps, on the other hand, saw color-blind
writing as neither possible nor desirable.
He once wrote that “the shedding” of African
American culture “is not only impossible but
unthinkable.”
A Collaboration
Bontemps and Cullen worked together in the
mid-1940s to create a play based on God Sends
Sunday, a novel by Bontemps. They called the
play St. Louis Woman. Some African American The Crisis, an important journal
critics objected to the play because it focused on of the Harlem Renaissance.
African Americans living in poverty. Cullen was
quite hurt by these criticisms. He never saw the
play produced because he died suddenly,
shortly before the play opened.

Permission was denied to
reproduce this image in an
electronic format. Please
refer to the printed book.
Share Croppers, c. 1941. Robert Gwathmey. Watercolor, 45 x 32.4 cm. ©Estate of

Robert Gwathmey⁄Licensed by VAGA, New York⁄San Diego Museum of Art.
Museum purchase with funds provided by Mrs. Leon D. Bonnet.
I have sown beside all waters in my day.

I planted deep, within my heart the fear
that wind or fowl would take the grain away.
I planted safe against this stark, lean year.
5 I scattered seed enough to plant the land

in rows from Canada to Mexico
but for my reaping only what the hand
can hold at once is all that I can show.
Yet what I sowed and what the orchard yields

10 my brother’s sons are gathering stalk and root;
small wonder then my children glean° in fields

they have not sown, and feed on bitter fruit.
Arna Bontemps
11 Glean means “to gather grain left on a field after reaping.”
758 UNIT 5
The ills I sorrow at
Not me alone
Like an arrow,
Pierce to the marrow,
5 Through the fat

And past the bone.
Countee Cullen
Your grief and mine
Must intertwine
Like sea and river,
10 Be fused and mingle,
Diverse yet single,
Forever and forever.
Let no man be so proud

And confident,
15 To think he is allowed
A little tent
Pitched in a meadow
Of sun and shadow
All his little own.
20 Joy may be shy, unique,

Friendly to a few,
Sorrow never scorned to speak
To any who
Were false or true.
25 Your every grief

Like a blade
Shining and unsheathed°
Must strike me down.
Of bitter aloes° wreathed,
30 My sorrow must be laid
On your head like a crown.
Civilization is a method of living, an attitude of equal respect for all
men. From the series Great Ideas of Western Man, 1955. George
Giusti. India ink and gouache on paper sheet, 24⁷⁄₈ x 18⁵⁄₁₆ in. National
27 Unsheathed means “removed from a protective case.”
Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.
29 Aloes refers to the spiny leaves of the aloe plant,
Viewing the art: In your opinion, which stanza from “Any whose juices are used to make a bitter medicine.
Human to Another” does this painting best illustrate? Why?

Personal Response
Which poem affected you more? Why? Jot down some notes in your journal and then share your
response with a classmate.
1. What is the work done by the speaker in the poem? How would you explain the fears and
concerns expressed in the first stanza?
2. Who are “my brother’s sons,” and what are they doing? Why, in your opinion, are they
able to act in such a way?
3. What does the speaker mean by “my children glean in fields they have not sown”? What
might be the “bitter fruit” the children feed on? Explain.
4. In this poem, Bontemps uses end rhyme (see page R13). What ideas might Bontemps be
trying to emphasize through his use of rhyme?
5. How, in your opinion, might this poem illustrate the Baldwin quote you read in the
Reading Focus on page 757?
6. In the poem, some people gain from the work of others. Is it fair to benefit from the labor
of others? Explain.
Recall and Intepret

7. A simile is a comparison that uses words such as like or as. What similes does the writer
use in the first and second stanzas? What ideas do they support?
8. What visual image does the poet use in the third stanza? What warning is implied here?
9. What qualities are contrasted in the two final stanzas? What images are attributed to each
quality? Why, in your opinion, might Cullen have selected those particular images?
10. Whom does the speaker address? Why does the speaker say that his grief must be mixed
with that of his audience?
11. In this poem, Cullen personifies, or gives human attributes to, the emotions of joy and
sorrow. What might be the purpose of this personification?
12. Do you agree with the argument that the speaker makes? Why or why not? To which indi-
viduals or groups might you address this poem today?
Literary Criticism
“Many came to believe . . .,” writes Shirley Lumpkin, that whether Lumpkin’s words apply to the poem “Any Human to
Cullen “exclude[d] from his poetry . . . any hint of vernacular Another.” Give examples from the poem to support your
[language] or musicality.” Write a paragraph exploring answer.
760 UNIT 5
Literary ELEMENTS
Stanza
A stanza is a group of lines that form a unit in a poem. 2. Cullen’s “Any Human to Another” uses a freer type of
The stanzas in a poem are separated by white space and stanza form than that used in Bontemps’s “A black
are similar in structure, often having the same number of man talks of reaping.” In what ways do the stanzas in
lines, meter, and rhyme scheme (see pages R9 and Cullen’s poem reflect the definition given above? How
R13). A stanza usually focuses on a single idea, much like do they differ?
a paragraph does, and each new stanza typically has a
3. What effect does each poet create through his choice
new focus.
of stanza form?
1. Look at “A black man talks of reaping.” How many
stanzas does it have? How many lines are in each • See Literary Terms Handbook, p. R15.
stanza? What idea is presented in each stanza?

Writing About Literature Creative Writing
Extended Metaphor The poem “A black man talks of Responding Through Poetry Both poets wrote their
reaping” includes an extended metaphor, a metaphor that poems in response to events and attitudes of the time. Think
is developed over more than one line. The metaphor is of an event or an issue that troubles you today. Write a
implied instead of stated directly. What comparison is the poem responding to the topic. Include your personal
poet making in this poem? Write two or three paragraphs thoughts and hopes but also consider whether you plan to
stating what the metaphor is and how it is extended through speak for just yourself or for a group of people. If you wish,
the poem. share your finished poem with your class.

Literature Groups Interdisciplinary Activity
What’s in a Name? Bontemps has been called “the con- Music: Companion Piece People have always used music
science of his era.” Judging from “A black man talks of reap- to help tell their stories. Research one type of music, such as
ing,” does the name fit Bontemps? On the basis of “Any blues or folk music, and select a song that would be a good
Human to Another,” do you think Cullen should share this companion piece to one of the poems. Then, play a record-
title? Discuss these questions with your group. Then present ing of the song for classmates and discuss why you think it
the results of your discussion to the class. captures the spirit of the poem.
Learning for Life Reading Further

Interview Questions Suppose that you are a reporter dur- If you enjoyed these poems, you might try this collection:
ing the Harlem Renaissance, and you have the opportunity The Lost Zoo, by Countee Cullen, a book for children that
to interview Bontemps or Cullen about their poems. Choose contains Cullen’s poems with illustrations by Brian Pinkney.
the author you’d most like to interview and prepare a list of
questions you have about the poem. If possible, research the Save your work for your portfolio.
answers to your questions. Then share your findings with
the class.

Writing Workshop
Creative Writing: Poem E VALUATION R UBRIC
By the time you complete this Writing
M any of the poems you have read in this theme involve places or ideas Workshop, you will have
that inspire deep affection or desire. Langston Hughes’s expression of • written a poem about a particular
cultural hope and pride is evident in “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” as is place or idea that has influenced or
Claude McKay’s intense longing for the “dewy dawns, and mystical blue affected you
skies” of his native Jamaica in his poem “The Tropics in New York.” What • used imagery and figurative language
to convey ideas and impressions
places or ideas inspire you? In this workshop, you will write a poem about
• incorporated precise and vivid
a place or idea that has influenced or affected you. language
• presented a poem that is free of
• As you write your poem, refer to the Writing Handbook, pp. R62–R77. unintentional errors in grammar,
usage, and mechanics
The Writing Process

PREWRITING
PREWRITING TIP
You will be presenting Explore ideas
your poem to others, so Here are some suggestions for helping you find a subject for your poem.
be sure to write about
only those feelings, • Skim the poems in Theme 8. Do any of the places or ideas in these poems remind you of
places, and ideas you something you want to write about?
are willing to share. • Think of a place or idea that intrigues you. Could you write about a childhood getaway place,
an idea or feeling inspired by a trip, or a holiday with family or friends?
Explore your responses

Sometimes the ideas and feelings expressed in a poem are so similar to yours that you respond
to the poem immediately. That poem might then inspire you to write on a similar topic or in a
similar style. Choose a poem from this theme that especially appealed to you. In a chart like the
one begun here, write the idea or place described in the poem and the poet’s response to it.
Then record connections the poem has to your life.
STUDENT MODEL
Poem My City
Idea or Place Manhattan
Poet’s Response Poet loves the sights, sounds, smells, and crowds
My Response While the poet’s city isn’t like my area, I was moved by
his obvious love of the place. The flowers, birds, and
streams that he won’t remember are exactly the
things that mean the most to me.
Complete Student Model on page R102.
762 UNIT 5
Writing Workshop
Choose your purpose and audience
Your purpose is to write a poem that expresses your feelings about a place or idea you choose.
Think of friends or relatives who might enjoy your writing.
Freewrite about your place or idea

Poets look for precise, exciting words and phrases to convey their ideas. Create a collection of
such words and phrases for yourself by freewriting about your topic. The springboards below can
help get you started.
• What specific images come
to mind when you think
about the place? What
sights, sounds, and smells
do you remember most?
• Do you associate certain
feelings or ideas with the
place? What are they?
• What actions can be associ-
ated with this place? What
reactions do they evoke
in you?
After you finish your free-
writing, underline main ideas,
descriptions, or feelings you
might want to include in your
writing. Then plan your poem.
Make a plan
To plan your poem, ask yourself questions about possible themes, tone, and structure. Refer to
the ideas you generated while prewriting, as the student did in the model below.
STUDENT MODEL
1. What ideas or feelings do I most want to express?

The unhappiness I felt at first and then the calming, inspiring influence of
the brook.
2. What tone best expresses these feelings and ideas? Do I want my poem to sound wishful?
Anxious? Overwhelmed?
At first, I’m sad, maybe a bit overwhelmed; but finally, the brook and all the
beauty soothe me and give my spirits a lift.
3. What form will I use for my poem? Do I prefer a strict or loose form? Do I want to use regular
rhythm? How about rhyme?
I don’t think a regular rhythm and rhyme would work, since my feelings are
in turmoil. But I think I’d like to try a tight verse form to keep my poem from
getting too emotional.
Complete Student Model on page R102.

Writing Workshop
DRAFTING
DRAFTING TIP
Remember that a poem Write your draft STUDENT MODEL
should have a distinc- To begin writing your draft, choose
tive sound as well as a word, an image, or a description From within I feel screaming,
vivid words and images. from your prewriting that captures As I stand at the edge of the trees.
As you write, think
your impressions. Then start draft-
about how your poem Above me tall sharpened fangs,
ing your poem around it. For
sounds and if the sound
supports the meaning. example, the student who decided Dripping with the bloody red of autumn,
to write about the brook was Shred the gusty spiteful wind
moved by the autumn colors, the
natural beauty, and crystal waters. That takes away my woeful sorrows
And hurls them back at me.
Complete Student Model on p. R102.
REVISING
REVISING TIP
Take out phrases or Evaluate your work
images you thought After you write your poem, set it aside for a few hours or a day. When you go back to it, read the
were clever when you draft aloud to yourself and listen to how it sounds. Does the poem clearly convey the thoughts and
wrote them but that no feelings you had intended? To clarify confusing lines or expressions, reexamine your word choices.
longer appeal to you.
You don’t have to use fancy, complicated language in a poem. Your poem will be most effective if
Revise the poem so that
it really says what you
you write in your own voice, using words that you would use in your normal speech. Eliminate
want it to say. unnecessary adverbs or adjectives and replace weak verbs with stronger, more active ones.
Get an audience reaction

Don’t hand your poem to anyone yet. Read it aloud to a friend and ask for reactions based on the
Rubric for Revising. Then make any needed changes.
STUDENT MODEL R UBRIC FOR R EVISING

a Your revised poem should have
From within I feel screaming,
o p e n mo u t h a strong feeling or message about a
As I stand at the edge of the trees. place or idea
loft y
Above me tall sharpened fangs, imagery and figurative language
that help convey the feeling or
Dripping with the bloody red of autumn, message
Shred the gusty spiteful wind precise and vivid language
That takes away my woeful sorrows an appropriate rhythm and form
And hurls them back at me.
Your revised poem should be free of
cry words or phrases that are not
I feel sad and scared. appropriate to the tone and content
misspellings and other distracting
Complete Student Model on p. R102. errors
764 UNIT 5
Writing Workshop
EDITING/PROOFREADING
Poets sometimes ignore traditional rules of grammar, usage, mechanics, and spelling to send a
specific message or to create a desired tone in their work. If you choose to do so, you will still
need to check over your work to make sure you haven’t included unintentional errors that could
confuse your readers. Use the Proofreading Checklist on the inside back cover of this book to
check for unintentional errors.
Grammar Hint
You might choose to use parallel structure to state ideas
that are equally important. Note, for example, the
parallelism in lines from the student model. The student
chose to end each stanza with a two-word sentence
beginning with I and ending with a verb in the present
tense:
I cry. I follow. I sit. I fly.
STUDENT MODEL
From within I feel a screaming,

Stan di ng Complete Student Model
I stand at the open mouth of woods.
For a complete version of the model
Above me lofty sharpened fangs, developed in this workshop, refer to
Writing Workshop Models, p. R102.
Dripping with the red of autumn,
Complete Student Model on p. R102.
PUBLISHING/PRESENTING
PRESENTING TIP
If you are presenting your poem in written form, think about adding an illustration. You might Pay special attention to
also consider submitting your poem to a literary magazine. the appearance of your
poem—its shape adds to
its meaning. Where
should the lines break?
Reflecting Which lines should be
indented?
Use your journal to help you reflect on writing your poem. What did you find most difficult
about writing this poem? What did you enjoy most? How has writing a poem changed your
appreciation of the poems you have read? Then set some goals for your next piece of writing.
How will you profit from what you’ve learned?

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE
Unit Assessment
Personal Response Evaluate and Set Goals
1. Which selections would you like to discuss with some- Evaluate

one a generation older than you are? What would you 1. What did you contribute to your class’s overall under-
ask about? Explain. standing of the issues in this unit?
2. As a result of your work in this unit, how would you 2. What was most difficult reading or assignment for you
evaluate the following statements? in this unit? Why?
• Literature is influenced by important events. • Explain why you found a particular selection or
• Literature opens new ways for people of each era assignment to be difficult.
to explore their own times. • How did you handle the difficulty? What was the
• Discussing poetry with a group is an aid to inter- outcome?
preting writers’ ideas. • Do you expect to find the same difficulty with
similar material? Why or why not?
3. How would you assess your work in this unit using the
Analyzing Literature following scale? Give at least two reasons for your
assessment.
What ideas do you think were most important in shaping 4 = outstanding 3 = good 2 = fair 1 = weak
the new directions that Americans took during the early 4. If you had another week to work on this unit, what
decades of the twentieth century? Choose one concept, would you hope to learn? Which skills would you hope
such as one of the following: to strengthen?
• personal freedom Set Goals
• interaction among different peoples 1. Set a goal for the next unit. Focus on improving a skill,
• increasing urbanization such as listening, speaking, evaluating statements, or
• attacking biases analyzing poetry.
Briefly define the concept you chose and identify two or
2. Discuss your goal with your teacher.
three selections that contain examples of the concept.
3. Plan steps to achieve your goal.
Then explain how each selection increased your aware-
4. Plan checkpoints at which you can judge your work.
ness and understanding of the concept.
5. Think of ways to evaluate your finished work.
Build Your Portfolio

Select Choose pieces of writing you completed for Reflect Write a few notes to accompany the
this unit and add them to your portfolio. Use these selections you have made for your portfolio. Use these
questions to help you make your selection: questions to guide you:
• Which was the most enjoyable for you? • What are the piece’s strengths and weaknesses?
• Which represents your best work? • What did working on the piece teach you?
• Which piece of writing contains ideas or information • How would you revise the piece today?
that you are most interested in researching further?
766 UNIT 5
Reading on Your Own
If you have enjoyed the literature in this unit, you might
also be interested in the following books.
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston In Hurston’s famous novel of the
1930s, Janie Crawford, a strong and self-reliant African American
woman, makes a journey back to her roots in search of her own
identity. Considered by many to be Hurston’s finest work, Their
Eyes Were Watching God was first published in 1937 but was
not well received by critics of the time. Out of print for decades,
the book achieved great popularity once it was reissued.
The Great Gatsby

by F. Scott Fitzgerald The “roaring 1920s”
come to life in this famous story of Jay Gatsby, a
self-made man, and the woman he has loved
for years. Gatsby’s story is narrated by his Long
Island neighbor Nick Carraway. In The Great
Gatsby, Fitzgerald portrays the empty glamour
of the wealthy class during the Jazz Age.
Having Our Say:

The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years
by Sarah and A. Elizabeth Delaney Two feisty African
American women who each lived to be more than a century
old tell their life stories. They describe the social history of
the twentieth century as they witnessed and experienced it,
from the days of Jim Crow laws to the Harlem Renaissance,
the Civil Rights movement, and beyond.
Collected Poems
by Edna St. Vincent Millay; Norma Millay, editor The definitive collection
of Millay’s poetry, this volume was compiled by Millay’s sister after the
poet’s death. Published in 1957, the collection continues to appeal to
today’s readers. One reviewer of this book refers to the “grace and depth”
and “stunning beauty” of Millay’s poetry.

Standardized Test Practice
The passage below is followed by seven questions based on its content. Select the
best answer and write the corresponding letter on your paper.
NATURAL SCIENCE: This passage is adapted from Stephen experiment and found that indeed they did
Hawking’s The Illustrated Brief History of Time (©1988 and hit the ground at the same time.
1996 by Stephen Hawking). Galileo’s measurements were used by
Newton as the basis of his laws of motion. In
Our present ideas about the motion of 45 Galileo’s experiments, as a body rolled down
bodies date back to Galileo and Newton. the slope it was always acted on by the same
Before them people believed Aristotle, who force (its weight), and the effect was to make it
said that the natural state of a body was to be constantly increase its speed. This showed that
5 at rest and that it moved only if driven by a the real effect of a force is always to change the
force or impulse. It followed that a heavy body 50 speed of a body, rather than just to set it mov-
should fall faster than a light one, because it ing, as was previously thought. It also meant
would have a greater pull toward the earth. that whenever a body is not acted on by any
The Aristotelian tradition also held that force, it will keep on moving in a straight line
10 one could work out all the laws that govern at the same speed. This idea was first stated
the universe by pure thought: it was not nec- 55 explicitly in Newton’s Principia Mathematica,
essary to check by observation. So no one published in 1687, and is known as Newton’s
until Galileo bothered to see whether bodies first law. What happens to a body when a force
of different weight did in fact fall at different does act on it is given by Newton’s second law.
15 speeds. It is said that Galileo demonstrated This states that the body will accelerate, or
that Aristotle’s belief was false by dropping 60 change its speed, at a rate that is proportional
weights from the leaning tower of Pisa. The to the force. (For example, the acceleration is
story is almost certainly untrue, but Galileo twice as great if the force is twice as great.)
did do something equivalent: he rolled balls The acceleration is also smaller the greater the
20 of different weights down a smooth slope. mass (or quantity of matter) of the body. (The
The situation is similar to that of heavy bod- 65 same force acting on a body of twice the mass
ies falling vertically, but it is easier to observe will produce half the acceleration.) A familiar
because the speeds are lesser. Galileo’s mea- example is provided by a car: the more power-
surements indicated that each body ful the engine, the greater the acceleration, but
25 increased its speed at the same rate, no mat- the heavier the car, the smaller the accelera-
ter what its weight. For example, if a ball is 70 tion for the same engine. In addition to his
released on a slope that drops by one meter laws of motion, Newton discovered a law to
for every ten meters of length, the ball will describe the force of gravity, which states that
travel down the slope at a speed of about one every body attracts every other body with a
30 meter per second after one second, two force that is proportional to the mass of each
meters per second after two seconds, and so 75 body. Thus the force between two bodies
on, however heavy the ball. Of course a lead would be twice as strong if one of the bodies
weight would fall faster than a feather, but (say, body A) had its mass doubled. This is
that is only because a feather is slowed by air what you might expect because one could
35 resistance. If one drops two bodies that don’t think of the new body A as being made of two
have much air resistance, such as two differ- 80 bodies with the original mass. Each would
ent lead weights, they fall at the same rate. attract body B with the original force. Thus the
On the moon, where there is no air to slow total force between A and B would be twice
things down, the astronaut David R. Scott the original force. And if, say, one of the bod-
40 performed the feather and lead weight ies had twice the mass, and the other had
768 UNIT 5
Standardized Test Practice
85 three times the mass, then the force would be 5. The passage suggests that one feature of the
six times as strong. One can now see why all moon is that the moon:
bodies fall at the same rate: a body of twice the
A. has no gravity
weight will have twice the force of gravity
B. is a terrible place to perform
pulling it down, but it will also have twice the
experiments
90 mass. According to Newton’s second law, these
C. has a large amount of air resistance
two effects will exactly cancel each other, so
D. has no atmosphere to create air
the acceleration will be the same in all cases.
resistance
1. According to the passage, Galileo rolled 6. One of the main observations made in the
balls of different weight down a smooth second paragraph (lines 9–42) is that:
slope in order to:
F. the natural state of a body is at rest
A. show that a body in motion will G. no one can tell if bodies of different weight
continue moving fall at different times
B. measure the distance the balls H. Galileo dropped weights from the leaning
traveled tower of Pisa to prove Aristotle’s theory
C. compare the speed of the balls J. according to Aristotle, it was not necessary
D. demonstrate the force of gravity to prove the laws that govern the universe
2. As it is used in line 55, the word explicitly by observation
most nearly means: 7. How does the example of a car (lines
F. definitively 66–70) function in the passage?
G. scientifically A. It distinguishes between heavy cars and
H. radically lighter cars.
J. vaguely B. It provides an example of Newton’s second
3. According to the passage, Galileo deter- law in everyday terms.
C. It makes the point that cars with bigger
mined that whenever a body is not acted
engines accelerate faster.
on by another force, the body will: D. It revises the theory that a heavy car will
A. stop moving move more quickly.
B. decelerate and move at a slower speed
C. accelerate to move at a faster speed
D. continue to move at the current speed
4. According to the passage, all of the follow-
ing are involved in Newton’s second law
EXCEPT:
F. proportional rate
G. force
H. air resistance
J. acceleration

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8 The Harlem Renaissance

When have you felt a creative spark

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 717

Meet to as the black national anthem. Later,

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 719

But, ah! Manhattan’s sights and sounds, her smells,

Extending Your Response

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 721

A Place to Be Free CANADA NH

claim that their 2-square-mile and other calamities.

Meet individualist who resisted

Although considered an important figure in

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 723

Surprise event Outcome

Did You Know?

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 725

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 727

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 729

Extending Your Response

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 731

Meet After returning to the United States

Reading Focus Building Background

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 733

2 Inglorious means “shameful” or “disgraceful.”

Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root,

5 Set in the window, bringing memories

My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze;

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 735

Recall and Interpret

Artist Jacob Lawrence

BOB EDWARDS, host LAWRENCE

Meet Throughout his life

Harlem, New York City, 1920s or early 1930s.

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 739

I am the darker brother.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

I bathed in the Euphrates° when dawns were young.

I’ve known rivers:

10 My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 741

Recall and Interpret

Literature and Writing

Extending Your Response

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 743

Meet for independence. Under his leader-

Reading Focus Building Background

And we shall be steeped my dear in the presence of Africa.

Signare (si narē´)

Antelope Headdress. Bamana people

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 745

Extending Your Response

COMPARE POETIC DEVICES

Poetic Device Hughes’s poem Senghor’s poem

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 747

Meet She quickly became friends with the only other

Reading Focus Building Background

Your dark eyes flashing solemnly with hate,

1 Disdainful means “full of scorn.”

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 749

Extending Your Response

Work with a small group of classmates to

Self Portrait, 1934. Malvin Gray Johnson. Oil on canvas,

BEGINNINGS OF THE MODERN AGE 751