Pick one for me, thanks.

Poetry has a role in society , not only to serve as part of the aesthetics or of the arts . It also gives us a view of what the society is in the context of when it was written and what the author is trying to express through words . The words as a tool in poetry may seem ordinary when used in ordinary circumstance . Yet , these words can hold more emotion and thought , however brief it was presented

What makes a good poetry ? It is not only in the idea or thought of what

the author is trying to express . What makes a good poetry beautiful is in how the writer makes use of the words , lines , and spaces and indents The rhythm of the poem can make a significant impact in the expression of the idea . Even the structure of words can make a difference in interpreting what the poem wants to impart to its readers . The usage of commas , periods , and the spaces , can hold deeper meaning than when words are used

What makes a good writer of poetry ? It is through the intimate knowledge by the writer on the subject he /she wants to tell us . Even when the subject is a taboo or uninteresting in reality , the writer can make its readers suspend their objections and judgments , opening a room to rethink and explore on the subject

Using two poet 's works as comparison , we can see how prosody can be represented in the text . Using selected poems by these two Langston Hughes and Gwendolyn Brooks , also helps us in determining how significant prosody in the completeness of the poems

Born in 1902 , Langston Hughes was raised mainly by his maternal grandmother , who was also a great influence in his life . Though he has also lived with each of his parents for irregular periods , he has also felt desolation and parental neglect which led him to turn to the comfort of the beauty of literature

He has traveled abroad , working at variety of jobs . He went back to the United States in 1924 , after working in Africa and living in Paris for several months . By the time he returned , he was already well known as a gifted poet in African literary circles . He has written a lot of books and poetry on his time and is known as one of the major in the literary movement called the Harlem Movement . He involved himself in radical politics , traveling abroad as a correspondent . And although he has been awarded in Senegal as a historic artist at the First World Festival of Negro Arts in 1966 , back at home , he was rejected by the younger generation of black . And in that same year , he died

Langston Hughes "The Weary Blues " speaks of a weary man hearing blues being sung while walking along an avenue

"I heard that Negro sing , that old piano moan -

"Ain 't got nobody in all this world

Ain 't got nobody but ma self (Hughes L8-20

Blues is the musical form that was used in this poem but it also signifies the emotional state of the speaker in the poem . We can see that the term the blues " relates not only in the state where the speaker was in but we cab find that the lyrics of the in the musical form called "the blues " relates to what the speaker was feeling right there and then . Since the speaker is walking down Lennox Avenue , it is implied already that the speaker is black since this area is populated and is a home for African Americans in this era

Knowing the context of this poem can help us in understanding more about this poem . What contributed to the weariness expressed not only by the musician but also with the speaker are the economic and social conditions of their era . This was before the time of the American Civil Rights Movement , where racial discrimination is very rampant , and blacks are the receiving end of all the pain and humiliation , with less opportunities and sometimes at all . The weariness that this poem is trying to express is brought out by the social situation that is encountered generally by the blacks

"Got the Weary Blues

And can 't be satisfied -

I ain 't happy no mo

And I wish that I had died (25-30

The rhyme and the repetition help created the sense of rhythm in this poem . The pattern made by the alliteration and assonance makes the poem so easy to remember and also easy imagine . In this way , it is possible to get the feeling of hearing the blues also which was described by the speaker in the poem . There is also an overall effect of becoming familiar and understanding how the blues echoed through the head of the speaker

Gwendolyn Brooks is the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize She has also received a lot of awards and fellowships throughout her life . Born in 1917 , she started her writing career in poetry at an early age , publishing her first poem in 1930 . 1967 was a turning point in her career as it was in this year that she attended the Fisk University Second Black ' Conference . In this conference , she has decided to involve herself in the Black Arts Movement . While awareness of social issues and elements of protest is found generally in all her works , some of her critics found in her work an angrier tone after joining the movement

She has also written essays , reviews , and books . She is also a prolific poet , becoming extensive in writing poetry which moves from the traditional ones to even the unrestricted free verse . Her characters are mostly from the underclass of the black neighborhoods which shows the impact of city life to the people within . As one of the most visible poets in the United States , she is active not only in public readings and poetry workshops but she also participates in contests and classes that helps young people in the inner-city to be able to see poetry in their lives

"We Real Cool " by Gwendolyn Brooks is a poem about young men who is in a pool room when they should be in a school , or possibly they are dropouts from school who see no future in themselves thus living by the moment and enjoying the pool . The speakers here are African Americans , based on the language that they used in the poem

A lot of implications can be found in this very short poem of eight lines . The name of the of pool hall there these young men as the speakers in this poem congregate is specified as an epigraph of the poem . Seven not only specifies the number of these young men but it also signifies the number of luck , which is significant for them as pool players . The symbolism of the pool hall 's name- "The Golden Shovel " is suggestive "Golden " can imply the peak of their youth yet the word "Shovel " implies also of burial and death

With three beats on each line with the use of only short words , a rhythm has been established . There is no need for inflection and a reader can choose to read the lines continuously , like a mantra which according to Hortense Spillers gives a character of "breathlessness " implying the young man as "hastening toward their death " The alliterative pattern in some words like "Lurk late "Strike straight " and "Sing sin " can also say something of their mental growth

The word length and the line length also express the nature of the speakers . Short words imply their lack of vocabulary and thus an education . We see the simple words on a simple poem implying that there is no need for complicated explanations on this poem . Colloquial language can create problems in comprehending this poem but it can also lend reality to the situation of the poem . The lines exude a certain pride on what they have done and on how cool they are being outside the very structured institutions that imprisons them . Yet , the tone changes in the end , in the last line wherein it is said in a matter of fact tone that their group who have turned into the streets "die soon

The free form that was used in this poem also signifies the freedom of the speakers ' from the convention and strict compliance that is dominant . All in all , this poem shows nonconformity to what is the standard , giving the readers a sense of the speaker 's reality as opposed to their reality . The form and structure of the poem stresses the freedom that the speakers believe they have , in the light of tragedy that Brooks dramatizes of their lives

The African Americans are the subject in both the poems of Brooks and Hughes . We see in both poems the reality of their situations as part of their identities as part of the race . Yet , we also see the difference in how the characters of these poems deal with their circumstance . Though both are in urban setting , there is a difference in the context . One is set in an area where arts and culture are dominant while the other one is set in an underclass urban neighborhood . Yet , both has a common end to the life they lived-hopelessness and death

Both these also used colloquial language to match with the identity of the speakers making them closer to the real life . The language used also provided the rhythm for these poems , lending aesthetics even with such a tragic setting . They both use prosody as an integral part in their poetry for the reader 's mind to associate the subject of their poems easily to the reader 's reality and which enables the readers ' imagination to grasp the images immediately

I find Langston Hughes ' poems to be more superior to Gwendolyn Brooks when it comes to prosody . Since Hughes ' has a jazz and musical background as it is dominant in his time , it helps in helping him express more on his subjects which in one way or another has close relation to music . His use of prosody in his poems is actually familiar since more or less , readers are familiar with jazz and blues and are able to relate easily

Hughes ' use of prosody in his poem "The Weary Blues " helps also in distinguishing the speaker 's thoughts and what the musician sings . This helps in avoiding conflict on comprehending the poem . Prosody in this text represents the rhythm of the speaker 's reality . The blues as music is an integral part in defining their identity as African Americans as much as the blues as an emotional state is part of their reality

REFERENCES

Cape , Steve . A Conversation with Gwendolyn Brooks . February 1979 . The Artful Dodge . 11

August 2007

Dr . Prinsky , Norman . College Composition II . Course Home Page . Summer Session . English

and Humanities . Augusta State University . 11 August 2007 .Mootry , Maria and Smith , Gary . Ed "Gwendolyn the Terrible : Propositions on Eleven Poems

A Life Distilled : Gwendolyn Brooks , Her Poetry and Fiction . Urbana University of Illinois Press

Poetry Criticism : Poetry and Politics . 26 October 2000

11 August 2007 . HYPERLINK "http /www .poetrysociety .org /journal /offpage /poetry_politics .html http /www .poetrysociety .org /journal /offpage /poetry_politics .html

Smith , Gary "Brooks 's 'We Real Cool " Explicator 43 .2 (Winter 1985 49-50

Tracy , Steven C . Langston Hughes and the Blues . Urbana : University of Illinois Press , 1988 ...