Week 12, entry one and two

Entry one, “The Creation” by James Weldon Johnson and “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes

The two poems take differing approaches to attacking the narrative poor people are encouraged to cling to: theirs is the kingdom of Heaven and all the luxury promised in it. As we discussed in class, the Earth in “The Creation” offers comfort and splendor to be enjoyed by all. Yet the opening lines in Hughes’ poem challenge this rendering: “Well, son, I’ll tell you: / Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (261). The mother in Hughes’ poem navigates a life full of peril filled with tacks, splinters, and boards torn up (261). The beauty in Hughes’ poem is identified in the determination earthly actors demonstrate. The mother does not seem resigned to wait for the afterlife. Rather she has chosen an arduous path that promises struggle and hardship and a perpetual climb.

What strengthens the actors in these poems to move beyond the traditional narrative of the poor also differs. The mother seems motivated by improving the next generation’s stock. The ultimatum the mother delivers to her son is clear: “So boy, don’t you turn back… / Don’t you fall now-- / For I’se still goin’, honey, / I’se still climbin, / And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” (Hughes 262). The implication from the line resounds: the mother is willing to move beyond her own familial ties in pursuit of improvement for perhaps her entire race. In Johnson’s poem, God is cast as lonely. This loneliness makes God approachable, for He enjoys his creations. Throughout the empty world God creates, His oft-repeated line echoes: “That’s good!” (Johnson, 286). God’s creations seemingly have much meaning to Him, for they have inspired and cultivated His genius and creativity but perhaps most importantly, abated His loneliness. If His creations should falter, God could tumble back into loneliness and despair. The poem makes God approachable, a God that appreciates his creations and appears there for them throughout all their hardships because as God warded off loneliness and despair from his divine powers, so now he appears willing to ward off despair for his creations.

Entry two,

“Nothing Endures” by Countee Cullen and “I Want To Die While You Love Me” by Georgia Douglas Johnson

The two poems by the talented poets seem to capture Richard Wright’s creed that black art ought to be intended for black audiences, not necessarily appeals to white audiences. “I Want To Die While You Love Me” is a remarkably beautiful work that measures vitality through the experience of love and that experience over time. The times without love crawl at a snail’s pace, agonizing the speaker: “Oh, who would care to live / Till love has nothing more to ask / And nothing more to give!” (Johnson 275). Life after love has lost its energy and vitality seems worthless to the speaker because the times would just feel so slow and arguably make the speaker feel cold. While the time without love is agonizingly slow, the time with love seems all too quickly passing. The speaker has a nagging conscience reminding him or her love will dim, and this high will cease to be (Johnson 275).

Likewise “Nothing Endures” by Countee Cullen recognizes love as a fleeting quality that has the heart purring for its duration but ultimately all blood goes from riotous to “quiet” and “still” (Cullen 250-251). The poem concludes with the powerful observation: “Nirvana gapes / For all things given; / Nothing escapes, / Love not even” (Cullen 251).

Buried perhaps within the two poems is a social commentary on the factors that contribute to love. The speaker in Johnson’s poem identifies fairness, laughter upon his or her lips, and lights in his or her hair as factors holding his or her partner’s attention (275). Time slowly erodes are youthful attractiveness and mental sharpness in Johnson’s poem, making love’s timeline a situational rather than universal code. In “Nothing Endures” there is a “tax” levied “on the subtlest brain” that perhaps control the perception of beauty waxing or waning (Cullen 251). The two poems demonstrate that some Renaissance figures were not neglecting domestic and personal issues in search of the general racial uplift. This sentiment reverts back to Wright and other’s aesthetic value that black art should be for black audiences. At the same time these poems seem short of DuBois’ “criteria” for Negro art, for they do not seem to hold the political propaganda the race leader demanded out of works.