Harlem Renaissance Poets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Harlem Renaissance Poets - Essay Example Musicians, poets and actors started celebrating their black identity and demanding for equality in the society. Some of the notable Harlem Renaissance poets that excelled in creating new cultural awareness and identity include James Weldon Johnson and Langston Hughes (Reid, 2001). James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) He was born in Florida in 1871, and studied English literature at Atlanta University. His intention of studies was to further the rights and interests of black people in the society. He wrote several poems that were refereed as the ‘Negro National Anthem’. He criticized the African American who had ignored their black roots to assimilate in White community. His poems mainly explore the need to form black racial identity and culture. In addition, he succeeded in securing leadership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and inspired the equal rights struggles of the Southern African Americans after he took a trip to Georgia (Rei d, 2001). He finally died in 1938. ‘Lift every voice and sing’ James Weldon uses this poem to strengthen the Black people in demanding for the end of racial segregation through demonstrating how past struggles against slavery and Jim Crow laws have been successful. His poem demonstrates double consciousness since he begins by asserting that ‘lift every voice’ (Weldon, 2013, L.1). He argues the African Americans to remain faithful and continue with their struggles until victory (Weldon, 2013, L.10). He demonstrates that the past slavery struggles have not been easy by asserting that ‘stony the road we trod, bitter the chastening rod’ (Weldon, 2013, L.11-12). His poem reminds the African American through ‘weary feet’ and ‘silent tears’ God has provided them with the ‘light’ and hopes African Americans will stay on the path (Weldon, 2013, L. 22-23). He cautions the Black people not to let their ‘hearts drunk with wine of the world’ and urges them to remain ‘true to native land’ (Weldon, 2013, L.33). Langston Hughes (1902-1967) Langston Hughes was born in Missouri and joined Columbia University for his higher education (Reid, 2001). The poet is one of the prolific poets during Harlem Renaissance due to his personal experience with inequality in the society. He travelled to both Europe and Africa and personally experienced the segregation in White dominated society. He often mingled his poetry work with black jazz music in order to promote the black cultural identity and self-awareness of the culture. ‘I, Too, Sing America’ Hughes demonstrates the racial segregation in this poem. The poem contains various aspects of double consciousness since it articulates the struggles that Black people face in the society. Hughes incorporates W.EB DuBoi’s beliefs of a fair society in the poem by asserting that ‘he also sings America’. The †˜I’ identifies the Black minority. He uses strong symbolism by asserting that ‘ I am the darker brother’ which translates that both White people and African Americans have the same source of humanity (Hughes, 2013,L. 1). Use of ‘They’ implies the ignorant White race. Hughes still asserts that ‘I laugh, eat well and grow strong’ meaning that Black people have their own cultural identity despite the segregation in

English Language Learners Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

English Language Learners - Essay Example So, Slavit et al (2002) introduces many ways to learn second language along with highlighting similarities and differences. The main obstacle while learning English as a second language characterizes the students into two categories social and unsocial. For those students who possess a social and outgoing attitude, it is easier to learn as they are carefree about the mistakes and try experimenting the language while imitating phrases. Here they are not concerned about the mistakes. On the other hand it is difficult to learn English for those who possess a shy attitude and are conscious to what they should say and what not. Such students are unsocial and are concerned about grammatical mistakes. Hence it is difficult for them to utter and imitate phrases. ‘Errors’ and ‘Social Interaction’ are two profound approaches, which help a learner to learn the best of a language. Errors are the indicators of progress and if dealt positively can lead a child towards language perfection. In this context in case of errors it is not encouraging to adopt an attitude that points out errors in a learner, instead a better strategy is to highlight the correct form in the form of a model. Social interaction is another way of learning which not only is helpful in grasping new concepts but also encourages an individual to take part in oral and written language development through talking and listening. This is the reason for why today there is a growing trend of ‘chat forums’. According to Drucker (2003) there is a strong interconnection between listening and reading. This is evident from the fact that children who are able to read a little are when subjected to learn phonetic words, they found an ease to develop interest, which is helpful in learning and memorizing phonetic words, while on the other hand those words that are bore to pronounce are not remembered easily. In this context