UNIVERSIDADE de SO PAULO FACULDADE de FILOSOFIA, LETRAS e CINCIAS HUMANAS Tpicos da Poesia Maria Silvia Betti Noturno Roberto Candido

Francisco Take-Home Test Q1. Carl Sandburgs innovative poetry dared conciliate the poetical and the political, going against a traditional view in which poetry should not deal with worldly, ephemeral issues, but with pure, sublime, universal and timeless matters that wo uld be the purpose of art. However, Sandburgs early poems oppose this view by bei ng at times lyrical and poetical, at times political and, according to some crit ics, often blending both characters, contrary to the established literary practi ce. The socialist criticism found in his early work, along with his highly poetical imagist features, granted him critical acclaim. After his success, Sandburg embr aced his celebrity status, became populist to some degree and his political work was disregarded as mere propaganda, leading to a decrease of his popularity ove r the years. Some critics, as Louis Untermeyer, considered Sandburg a socialist and an artist, suggesting a most beneficial interlock when he stated that Such th ings as Halsted Street Car, Mill-Doors, Masses, Onion Days, Dynamiter, . . . could ve been written by one who had the mingled passions of both. (WIENEN, p. 123) Amy Lowell, on the other hand, points both aspects of Sandburg as irreconcilable , when she argues that: Judged from the standard of pure art, it is a pity that so much of Mr. Sandburgs work concerns itself with entirely ephemeral phenomena. The problems of posterit y will be other than those which claim our attention. Art, nature, humanity, are eternal. But the minimum wage will probably matter as little to the twenty seco nd century as it did to the thirteenth, although for different reasons. (WIENEN, p. 121-2) Thus, mostly in accordance with this view, his imagist poetry was valued by crit ics in detriment of his political poetry, making him devoid of his character of political criticism, which is distinctly apprehensible from the following poems: Dynamiter I SAT with a dynamiter at supper in a German saloon eating steak and o nions. And he laughed and told stories of his wife and children and the cause of labor and the working class. It was laughter of an unshakable man knowing life to be a rich and red-blooded thing. Yes, his laugh rang like the call of gray bi rds filled with a glory of joy ramming their winged flight through a rain storm. His name was in many newspapers as an enemy of the nation and few keepers of ch urches or schools would open their doors to him. Over the steak and onions not a word was said of his deep days and nights as a dynamiter. Only I always remembe r him as a lover of life, a lover of children, a lover of all free, reckless lau ghter everywherelover of red hearts and red blood the world over. And THEY WILL SAY Of my city the worst that men will ever say is this: You took little children away from the sun and the dew, And the glimmers that played in the grass under the great sky, And the reckless rain; you put them between walls To work, broken and smothered, for bread and wages, To eat dust in their throats and die empty-hearted For a little handful of pay on a few Saturday nights. This political criticism was later denied by Sandburg himself, who claimed to be only a sympathizer of the ideas of the I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World) and because of that their political ideas had crept in his poetry, alleging they aimed at the human, the lyrical, rather than the political. Therefore, by admitting an unintended red tone in his poetry, Sandburg failed to f ailed to stand for what it expressed and represented politically. By denying thi s facet, he got to be mostly acknowledged by his non-political work and his repu

tation delved almost to the point of oblivion. Reference: Wienen, Mark Van. Taming the Socialist: Carl Sandburgs Chicago Poems and Its Crit ics. In American Modernist Poets. Harold Bloom editor. Publisher: Infobase Learn ing, New York, 2011, p. 117-130. ______________________________________________________________________ Q3. After his notable participation during the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes c areer took a turn even more to the left in the beginning of the 1930s towards a re volutionary tone a red tone. He had published poems in leftist journals since the m iddle of the 1920s and his concern with cultural, social and, especially, racial issues, led him to become a sympathizer of the Communist ideology, as the Commun ist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) was devoted to the causes of a nti-colonialism and Negro Liberation and represented an alternative to the current segregation he experienced. He began publishing his more fiercely leftist writi ngs in radical communist journals as New Masses, Daily Worker and the Harlem Lib erator and also in the CPUSA newspaper, becoming involved and supporting communi st organizations and initiatives, such as the endeavour to save the nine Scottsb oro defendants from execution a case which led Hughes to write Scottsboro Limite d: Four Poems and a Play, where the following poems are found: Justice That Justice is a blind goddess Is a thing to which we black are wise. H er bandage hides two festering sores That once perhaps were eyes. The Town of Scottsboro Scottsboro s just a little place: No shame is write acros s its face -- Its courts too weak to stand against a mob, Its people s heart, to o small to hold a sob. Christ in Alabama Christ is a Nigger, Beaten and black -- O, bare your back... Most holy bastard Of the bleeding mouth: Nigger Christ On the cross of the South . Scottsboro 8 BLACK BOYS IN A SOUTHERN JAIL WORLD, TURN PALE! 8 black boys and one white lie. Is it much to die? Is it much to die when immortal feet March with you down Time s street, When bey ond steel bars sound the deathless drums Like a mighty heart-beat as they come? Who comes? Christ, Who fought alone John Broan. That mad mob That tore the Bastile down Stone by stone. Moses. Jeanne d Arc. Dessalines. Nat Turner. Fighters for the free. Lenin with the flag blood red. (Not dead! Not dead! None of those is dead.) Gandhi. Sandino. Evangelista, too. To walk with you -8 BLACK BOYS IN A SOUTHERN JAIL WORLD, TURN PALE! Another example of this turning point in Hughes career is the poem New Song: That day is past- For now, In many mouths- Dark mouths where red tongues burn An d white teeth gleam- New words are formed, Bitter With the past But sweet With t he dream. Tense, Unyielding, Strong and sure, They sweep the earth- Revolt! Aris e! The Black And White World Shall be one! The Workers World! The past is done! A new dream flames Against the Sun! Nonetheless, one of the most emblematic works from this revolutionary period is th e poem Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria. Written in the context of the Grea t Depression, it is considered a response to the economic situation and to the c ultural, racial and class issues, which widened the gap between rich and poor, w orsening, in tandem with the Jim Crow laws, the economic hardship condition of A frican Americans. In his 1947 essay My Adventures as a Social Poet, Hughes comme

nts on his inspiration to write the poem: The kind and generous woman who sponsored my writing for a few years after my co llege days did not come to the point quite so directly as did the minister who d isliked blues. Perhaps, had it not been in the midst of the great depression of the late 20s and early 30s, the kind of poems that I am afraid helped to end her pat ronage might not have been written. But it was impossible for me to travel from hungry Harlem to the lovely homes on Park Avenue without feeling in my soul the great gulf between the very poor and the very rich in our society. In those days , on the way to visit this kind lady I would see the homeless sleeping in subway s and the hungry begging in doorways on sleet-stung winter days. It was then tha t I wrote a poem called An Ad for the Waldorf-Astoria, satirizing the slick-paper magazine advertisements of the opening of that de luxe hotel. (available at: htt p://negroartist.com/writings/My%20Adventures%20as%20a%20Social%20Poet.pdf ) The poem features an appropriation of the energetic low form of the language of th e media, advertising in the case, into a deviation from its commercial use to a leftist criticism: Fine living . . . la carte?? Come to the Waldorf-Astoria! LISTEN HUNGRY ONES! Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the new Waldorf-Astoria: "All the luxuries of private home. . . ." Now, won t that be charming when the last flop-house has turned you down this winter? Furthermore: "It is far beyond anything hitherto attempted in the hotel world. . . ." It cost twenty-eight million dollars. The famous Oscar Tschirky is in charge of banqueting. Alexandre Gastaud is chef. It will be a distinguished background for society. So when you ve no place else to go, homeless and hungry ones, choose the Waldorf as a background for your rags-(Or do you still consider the subway after midnight good enough?) However, the most revolutionary statement is made in the last part, with a crystal -clear reference to Communism just as in Scottsboro Limited and in New Song: CHRISTMAS CARD Hail Mary, Mother of God! the new Christ child of the Revolution s about to be born. (Kick hard, red baby, in the bitter womb of the mob.) Somebody, put an ad in Vanity Fair quick! Call Oscar of the Waldorffor Christ s sake!! It s almost Christmas, and that little girlturned whore because her belly was too hungry to stand it anymore wants a nice clean bed for the Immaculate Conception. Listen, Mary, Mother of God, wrap your new born babe in the red flag of Revolution: the Waldorf-Astoria s the best manger we ve got. For reservations: Telephone EL. 5-3000. References: The Adventures of a Social Poet Langston Hughes from the Popular Front to Black Power by James Smethurst. In A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes. Steven C. Tr acy - editor. Publisher: Oxford University Press.: New York. 2004. ______________________________________________________________________ Q4. Langston hughess poem Po Boy Blues features many elements from the traditional blu es form, as is peculiar of his work from the 1920s. Hughes, then in an early stag e in his career, viewed infusing poetry with blues, a kind of music he loved, as

a chance to make poetry accessible to everybody and widen its audience, as blue s was extremely popular those days and he could profit on that. Regarding Hughess decision to incorporate blues into his poetry, Tracy points out that: During the 1920s, writers of the New Negro Renaissance, such as Hughes, Sterling Brown, and Zora Neale Hurston, were attempting to forge a new and revitalized l iterature that reflected the spirit and genius of Afro-American culture. They dr ew on the poetic inspiration of Afro-American folklore, especially, for Hughes, the blues, both in its folk forms and in the vaudeville blues get-up that had em erged on recordings in 1920 and that dominated the blues recording industry duri ng its first decade. (TRACY, 2004, p. 96-7) So, as in Po boy Blues, he mixed thematic, structural and lexical characteristics of blues into his poetry. Po Boy Blues When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold. When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold. Since I come up North de Whole damn world s turned cold. I was a good boy, Never done no wrong. Yes, I was a good boy, Never done no wrong, But this world is weary An de road is hard an long. I fell in love with A gal I thought was kind. Fell in love with A gal I thought was kind. She made me lose ma money An almost lose ma mind. Weary, weary, Weary early in de morn. Weary, weary, Early, early in de morn. I s so weary I wish I d never been born. Melancholy is a key aspect of blues, which is estimated to have appeared after t he abolition of slavery in the U.S. as an expression of individualism and of sel f by the African Americans, who were free but unprepared to live in an oppressiv e society. Blues voiced their innermost issues and woes in that hard reality the oppression of white people, misery, lost or unrequited loves hard luck and hard work. Hughes defined love as being sad funny songs too sad to be funny and too f unny to be sad containing all the laughter and pain hunger and heartache search a nd reality of the contemporary scene1. This melancholy pervades Po boy Blues as so me recurrent themes of blues are presented, such as the contrast between the Nor th and the South, economic and romantic problems, the harshness of living. Blues structural patterns are also found in Hughess poem: they usually are in the form of a loose narrative, having a pattern close to a rhythmic talk, having a 4/4 time with 4 beats to the measure and a repetition of the lines 4 times tradi tionally and in an AAB scheme in the 20th century. All these features are found in Po Boy Blues, in which, as became a common practice, Hughes divided each line in two forming six-line stanzas, because he learned that he would be paid per li ne. Some lexical choices were also made to reflect the vernacular of black folk: the use of de instead of the; the use of the non-inflected come the use of the curse word damn; 1 Kathryn Gray, SECTION FOUR: The Blues Poetry of Langston Hughes . In The Influ ence of Musical Folk Traditions in the Poetry of Langston Hughes and Nicols Guilln

. Available at: http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1997/1/97.01.05.x.htm l the omission of the auxiliary had and the use of a double negative in Never done no wrong; the contraction of and in an; representing speech by writing girl as gal; and writing my as ma; conjugation of am as is in Is so weary. With respect to Hughess choice for the vernacular, Tracy comments: Poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, essayist, autobiographer, childr ens writer, translator, librettist, Hughes envisioned Afro-American vernacular mu sic on the printed page, on the Broadway stage, and in the opera house. Then he helped put them there, and without ever losing sight or sound of the fact that t hey didnt need to be there to be important. (TRACY, 2004, p. 86) In conclusion, all these thematic, structural and lexical choices in poems like Po boy blues show Hughes original blending of blues into poetry, which helped cre ate the feeling of an oral performance on the written paper. Reference: Langston Hughes and Afro-American Vernacular Music by Steven C. Tracy. In A Hist orical Guide to Langston Hughes. Steven C. Tracy - editor. Publisher: Oxford Uni versity Press.: New York. 2004.