I was amazed while reading this unit’s works. I’ve only read a few poems from the Harlem Renaissance era in the past, so going deep into the works of these artists was new territory for me. While these poems are clearly deep in meaning and apply to those who lived through the time, while reading I tried my hardest to place myself in the shoes of the writers to get a full understanding of these poems. However, despite my best efforts, I could not. But- these poems were all still very touching and deep in meaning to me.
Out of all of the poets covered in this unit, I liked the works of Langston Hughes the best. When reading his poems out loud, they rolled off the tongue easily and were fun to read- yet were still packed with a deeper meaning and told the truth of what it was like to be a person of color during this era. In the poem “A Brown Girl Dead” by Countee Cullen, the lines “Her mother pawned her wedding ring / To lay her out in white” tell us that many people during this era were poor, yet were family oriented and did what they could for each other. It is moments like this that lead me to my initial response to the work.
sydney poynter 