Messages of Strength and Pride in Three Poems

Poems from the Harlem Renaissance provide vibrance and energy for the reader as they enliven a culture and tradition never in advance seen in the United States. The poems Chicago, by Carl Sandburg, The Harlem Dancer, by Claude McKay, and Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes, all embody this strong culture through vivid parts an lingering metaphors. While they exhibit the gazump and substance of their subjects, the poems also hint at a bit of vulnerability as well. Therefore, these three poems metaphorically illicit outward shows of strength and pride which hide pain, toil and even resentment underneath.Strength is an attri providede of a somebody who has toiled and prevailed despite the overwhelming odds against him. In the first half of the poem, Chicago, the first person speaker is addressing the urban center through a series of metaphors. First, he addresses him as a serious of occupations which all require great physical strength but which do non soak up an association with u pper class wealth or powerHOG Butcher for the World,Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,Player with Railroads and the Nations Freight coach (Sandburg, lines. 1-3).These images create a masculine, hulking mood for the reader. It is evident that manners in this city requires brawn and even a cunning mind. The speaker notes the physical attributes of the city, which backside be compared to a man Stormy, husky, brawling,City of the Big Shoulders (Sandburg, lines. 4-5).The city is personified as a hard-working and proud blue collar worker who may have to go back to underhanded dealings in methodicalness to survive.However, as the poem progresses, the metaphors change. The speaker begins with a parallel series of descriptions wicked, crooked, and brutal, to characterize the city along with a acknowledgment for each. He notes the city is sneering but withlifted head singingso proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning (Sandburg, lines. 18-19).The tracing is that the city demands much than hard work it sometimes takes pain and trickery from its inhabitants. However, the messages notes that sometimes this behavior is necessary for survival, and that the city has no moral problem with crime, depravation and manipulation.Finally, the poem shifts to the metaphor not of a man at all, but a beast. This creature is Fierce as a dog with tongue lie for action, cunningas a savage pitted against the wilderness (Sandburg lines. 23-24).Now the city is not human, but savage and untamed, reflecting the problems it presents for the survival of its dwellers. They must endure, the smoke, the dust, the teeth and the burden of the city and somehow manage to laugh,even as an ignorant fighter laughs who hasnever lost a battle (Sandburg, lns. 34-35).The bottom line for this poem is pride. Sometimes the slew had to be dishonest and brutal, but they have an immense pride in getting to where they are. The personified images of the city portray all of these emotions for the reader. The Harlem Dancer, by Claude McKay, focuses on the single image and experience of a boy watching a daughter dance. While the image is softer, it can correlate with the message from Chicago. Of course, the undertone is that these dancing girls are prostitutes, enticing the boys to wrongdoing, but that is part of the magic of the experience for these Harlem youth. Despite her degrading occupation, the dancer of note is elevated to idealistic proportions in the eyes of the speaker.First, she is half-clothed, and swaying, which reminds the young man, oddly, of a laurel tree. He notes,To me she seemed a proudly-swaying palmGrown lovelier for passing through a storm (McKay, lines. 7-8).With this description, the reader understands that even the boy recognizes that this girl does not belong in Harlem. After all, no palm trees grow anywhere near Harlem they are products of more tropical, exotic climates, as is the dancer. He also insinuates that she has endured hardships herself, the sto rm he notes, and finds her more attractive for having survived those hardships.Next, the speaker notes the melodic, otherworldly quality of her voice. He says,Her voice was like the sound of blended flutesBlown by black players upon a picnic mean solar day (McKay, lines, 3-4).he airiness of her voice and their comparison to prayers places the girl in an almost cherubic realm, oddly juxtaposed to her actual position as a prostitute. This angelic nature is further emphasized by her gauzy dress, her graceful body, and her shiny curls. To the speaker, she is perfection, something he has never before experienced.However, underneath the beautiful figure of the dancing girl is something else, something that the boy eventually notices. She is not the strong and serene figure he initially perceives. She is, in his words, not there. He notesBut, looking at her falsely-smiling faceI knew her self was not in that strange place (McKay, lines 13-14).The speaker comes to realize that she is not truly the confident and strong person that he initially perceived her to be. In order to get through her day, she has to somehow transport herself elsewhere, and he has bought into it for a while. She is not ideal or perfect but has had her own shares of struggles and deceptions.The poem Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes, also illuminates the theme that life is a struggle, but one that should make a person proud. The speaker is an African-American mother who is attempting to relate a life lesson to her son. She uses a metaphor of a crystal staircase to try to emphasize the hardships she has endured in getting to the place she is now. The clever analogy notes that a crystal staircase would be smooth and easy to climb, unlike the experience the mother relaysWell, son, Ill tell yousprightliness for me aint been no crystal stair.Its had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor Bare. (Hugues, lines 1-7)Her life journey was painful and filled wi th obstacles, and she wants her son to realize this so that he will be ready for his own obstacles and hardships in life. She does not want him to grow up expecting to have things handed to him, but to expect to have to work hard for the things he wants.Another message that she wants to convey to her son is that he should never give up despite these hardships. She wants to encourage himSo boy, dont you turn back. Dont you set down on the steps Cause you finds its kinder hard (Hughes, lines 14-16).In addition to process of monition him about the condition of the stairs and the difficulty of traversing them, the mother is also warning her son of the dangers. She notes that sometimes the stairs are dark, and she warns him against falling. Of course, the grand metaphor for life is apparent. Life is sometimes dark, full of pitfalls, and daunting, but she has continued the journey and is endeavoring to make her son do the same.She is not making the journey sound easy clearly, they were n ot the inside individuals, but she is attempting to instill endurance through her message. After all, she is still climbing the stairs, and if she can do it, so can he.All three of these poems address issues of life and perseverance. no(prenominal) of the lives described seem easy. Life in Chicago is compared ultimately to a beast that laughs and sneers. Life as TheHarlem Dancer is empty for her, as she continually desires to be somewhere else. Life on the broken staircase is uncertain and treacherous. However, all three scenarios represent the continual toil of life, and the pride that these individuals have. They may not have riches, easy jobs, or crystals stairs, but they have their work ethic and their sense of self-worth, and that is all that matters.WORKS CITEDMcKay, Claude. The Harlem Dancer. Retrieved 9 April 2007 fromhttp//www.poetry-archive.com/m/the_harlem_dancer.htmlSandburg, Carl. Chicago. Retrieved 9 April 2007 from http//carl-sandburg.com/chicago.htm