American Literature

The Harlem Renaissance was everything which the name implies, it was a surge of artistic expression concentrated in the black communities of Harlem. Music, art, and literature all intersected and found a new voice in the unique experiences of black America. In poetry especially, language itself was affected and manipulated to appeal to and express the African Americans unique social and cultural experience. Poets Jean Toomer, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes all contributed to this new interpretation of old genres. While Toomers poetry was more traditional in form and metaphorical in expressing his experiences as a black man from the South, Cullens poetry though equally following a traditional form speaks pointedly of the hypocrisy of the black experience in the  land of the free.  Hughes, perhaps more than the others, shows the major changes of the period. Through experimentation with more colloquial language, incorporation of blues and jazz themes, as well as clear  Afro-centric images Hughes tries the most to separate himself from the past and tries to develop a unique voice that is representative of black culture.

In his poem  November Cotton Flowers  Toomer illustrates his talent with using subtle imagery to imply the struggle of blacks in America. As with the majority of his pieces, the full breadth of the human emotion is not represented in the people themselves. Instead, Toomer uses the image of cotton, a quintessential image of the South and its relationship to blacks. The cotton is falling off the stalks, dying from lack of sustenance. In the midst of the cotton blooms a single flower. The people in the fields who see this flower  soon assumed Significance  (ll.10-11). In this flower the  old folks  see hope. In the never changing see of cotton, in the endless horrors of inequality that have accompanied its growth as a source of money and power. The cotton itself is the decaying system of racism and institutionalized discrimination that was the norm of the South until the 1960s. As it dies a new hope, represented by the flower, appears amidst the slow death of the fields. Nowhere in Toomers poem does he directly address the burden of being black in the American South. However, it is clear from the subtle word choice that indicates the South in the line  And cotton, scarce as any southern snow  (ll. 3) as well as the  Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear  (ll.15). In using implication he is able to draw on older, traditional poetry and apply it to his unique perspective.

Cullen is equally adept at drawing on traditional culture images to better contemplate his own experiences as a black man. In his poet  Yet Do I Marvel,  Cullen uses classical images of Greek mythology to build a context around the final line of the poem. In particular Cullen uses the images of the two examples of humans bearing the punishments of the gods,  Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus   If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus To struggle up a never-ending stair  (ll.57-8). In doing this, he is drawing a connection to himself and the history of mankind, without regard to race. Unlike Toomer, Cullen does not shy from the reasoning behind his use of this imagery and in the final lines uses the great irony of his own, perhaps divine punishment,  Yet do I marvel at this curious thing To make a poet black, and bid him sing  (ll. 13-14). Far more straightforward than Toomer in the context from which he approaches the subjects in his poetry, Cullen nonetheless, like Toomer, shows how deeply these Renaissance poets were connected to the poetry they were attempting to rebel against.

Langston Hughes succeeds to the best in that respect. Known for using the unique sounds of jazz and blues music as influences in his poetry, Hughes also spoke plainly and clearly on the black experience. While in some poems, such as  The Negro Speaks of Rivers,  Hughes uses a metaphor in the rivers, his expression of the sentiment is deeply connected to his identity as a black man. Like Cullen, Hughes addresses the issue of race head on. In this poem, the use of the rivers shows a continuity of history which is culminating in Hughes experiences. Though he professes to recall the rivers intimately, it is more a collective memory, linking him to  his fellow black Americans. In the history of the rivers and civilization itself, Hughes can find himself,  Ive known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in my veins  (ll.2-3). In finding himself in the past, he can more deeply connect with himself in the present,  My soul has grown deep like the rivers  (ll.13). More than the others, Hughes is moving away from traditional rhyme and form, using images that are easily accessible.

Though each of the poets were different in form and content, the context of Harlem Renaissance poetry was the ability to remake and recreate poetry for black culture. Each represents a step farther away from tradition, moving from the metaphorical and almost spiritual to the political, they show the various interpretations of the black community in the first decades of the 20th century. Using their own unique experiences, they like the musicians and artists of the era, brought perspective and voice to the black experience in America.