A Poetry Analysis "My People" by Langston Hughes

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Harri Istihari                                                                           Course: Exploring Poetry

1304554

6B- English Education

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A Poetry Analysis

Close-reading paper

The Power of the Chosen Word “My” toward the Tone and Mood in “My People” by Langston Hughes

My People

By Langston Hughes

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people -

The first time I read this poem, there was nothing conjuring up in my mind until I attended one of the meetings of poetry class. It sticks on my mind when the lecturer said that to understand the poetry, one should read it several times. She added that everything in the poem makes sense once the reader understands it in its context. It afterward elicited me to make a connection between the author and the context of his poem to establish my in-depth understanding toward the core messages which are carried out through the poem. After doing some literature review to the author and his poem, I could draw a central point that in the poetry of "My People" by Langston Hughes has a very deep meaning, the dominant theme of hope and compassion can be felt in his poem lyric through the hints of the involvement of word choices, imagery, symbol, and metaphor language. In his very short poem, those four components are written elegantly and coherently in every line of lyrics that work together to generate a meaningful voice and represent his defense through the social injustice and racial issue undergone by him and his people at that time yet still it was expressed in the characteristic of love elements written with no sarcastic way. 

Departing from synopsis of the poem, the poem begins with telling the image of natural situation such as night, star, and sun as the description of people of the author. Hughes seems as if he intended to give the equivalence between the images he mentioned and the characteristics of his people. In stanza one, the image of night is addressed to the “face of my people”. It also comes to the rest of the stanzas which also comes with the idea of analogy. Hughes employs a variety of symbols to illustrate the power of hope and compassion. In this essay, in relation to the symbol, I will focus on the explanation of three symbols which are night, stars, and sun. Those symbols in the poem have been described in one adjective word that depicts the three of which is the word beautiful. He makes comparisons in his lyric as what so called metaphors in poetic language of one line which is connected to the next line in each stanza.

At the first stanza, he compares the night which depicts darkness and some quiet circumstances and describes it with the adjective “beautiful” to the lyric at the second line that states “so that faces of my people”. It remains some interpretation here. First, considering the words ‘my people’ to whom it refers, by looking at his background and racial issue happened to him, it clearly points out to him and his people of African descendants.  Second, the word night that is juxtaposed with the next line “faces of my people” have the connection of both in terms of stereotype color of the night with the skin of African by the presence of conjunction word so which indicates “the consequence of something”. It seems that Hughes intends to voice both, American and African, as beautiful creatures and both deserve the equal respect. Again, he makes an analogical point at the last stanza. Sun is not simply denoted a start in a solar system that lights the earth, but it symbolizes the seat of emotion, especially warmth and illumination, so does the writer use it to reflect his people. The sun which reflects the pride and splendor has been chosen to represent the souls of his people

In the construction of a poem and meaning in the poem, language plays an important role. In “My People” language is taken into account to identify the tone and the mood of the poem.  Regarding the tone in a poem, it can be identified through the components such as diction, the author view, syntax, and the level of formality of the author (see poetry’s handout). Through the verse of Hughes’ poem, the tone can be described from the author view and little hint of diction. The way Hughes chose the word ‘my” in his verse “my people” sets a powerful tone of the narrator. Instead of using “the people of Africa” or “the African-American people”, he more prefers to use the word “my” on “my people” which depicts a sense of belonging. He creates the atmosphere in which he desires to embrace all people which come from the same background. This imperative powerful tone impacts the mood of the reader. He as if wanted to convey deep meaning that there is no difference between whether you are African or American, whether you are white or colored. This goes with the lyric at the second stanza. He deliberates that the Americans are portrayed beautifully as it is symbolized with the star. He demonstrated the symbols to the equal positive appearance: night which symbolizes darkness or black while star mirroring brightness or white by the equivalent description; beautiful.

In relation to meaning of the poem, there has no exact understanding to describe them except for the writer itself. It is said that as the poem was published, however; there are some space provided for the reader to interpret the notions which are carried on by the poet through his poem. “My people” tells us about the vindication and self-voice view as a result of injustice view around the society and racial issue at that time. It brings a sense of hope, hoping optimistically for the equal treatment against human race. In addition, as stated earlier, everything in this poem makes sense once the reader understands it in its context. If we look at the author, according to a website of poemhunter:

Hughes stressed a racial consciousness and cultural nationalism devoid of self-hate that united people of African descent and Africa across the globe and encouraged pride in their diverse black folk culture and black aesthetic in 1920. Hughes was one of the few black writers of any consequence to champion racial consciousness as a source of inspiration for black artists. (poemhunter, nd)

Therefore some works of his contextually contain outpouring his feeling which is devoted to his poem and other literary works so in order to understand the poem and the context carrying on the lyrics, the readers should notice the author of the poem as well.

Works Cited

            Polonsky, M. 1998. The Poetry Reader’s Toolkit: A Guide to Reading and Understanding Poetry. USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies

                Poetry’s Handout. Emotion: Tone and Mood. Given at the fifth meeting

                Poemhunter. nd. Langston Hughes Biography. [Online]. Available on

http://www.poemhunter.com/langston-hughes/biography/ Accessed on March 25^th. 2016

Appendix

Poem Lyric:

My People

By Langston Hughes

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people -

Langston Hughes’s poem “My People” was initially published under the title “Poem” in the August 1923 issue of  The Crisis magazine.