Langston Hughes' Use of Literary Devices

In his exegesis on the dramatic monologue, Robert Langbaum explains that the dramatic monologue style is substantially different from other forms of poetry. Langbaum's insight is that the dramatic monologue is "poetry of sympathy." It seeks to attract sympathy for the complexity underlying the identity of the poem's voice. The lyric, on the other hand, is what dramatic monologue writers like Browning and Tennyson fought against in order to found their school (Langbaum, 79). For Hughes, though, there is no conflict. He is able to capture the sympathy of his readers for his own struggle with identity in a melodic style.

For example, in the poem 'Dinner Guest, Me,' Hughes begins the poem with an identity statement, writing, "I know I am." Yet he seems to have mixed feelings about his being "wined and dined" as "The Negro Problem," not as his true self. His white friends are just as une

. . .
y (Comprone, 144). It makes sense, therefore, that his poetic style integrates the lyric and the dramatic monologue. The African-American struggle with identity played an important role in Hughes' poetry. In 'Slum Dreams,' Hughes uses end rhymes and a simple lyric style to convey his message about the lack of identity blacks feel because of their treatment by white society. The short poem begins, "Little Dreams/Of springtime/Bud in sunny air," as if it were a lyrical nursery rhyme or short jazz theme, but by the end of the poem, when the reader discovers that the dreams are literally hung in the air because they lack a home ground of identity, sympathy for the lack of real identity overtakes the lyrical quality of the poem. The contrast is powerful. The lyric works to set up the dramatic monologue facets of Hughes' poetry especially in 'Daybreak in Alabama.' As R. Baxter Miller writes, "For (Hughes), the lyric illuminates the graphic and timeless, (as in) "When I get to be a composer/I'm gonna write me some music about/Daybreak in Alabama," (Miller, 49). Furthermore, Hughes' repetition of the word "and" lends the poem a chant-like continuity. Yet it is the repetition of In that dawn of music when I Get to
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Michael Borshuk, Boy Blues, O' Brien, Furthermore Hughes', Jonathan Scott, Harlem Renaissance, Me' Hughes, Little Dreams/Of, I'm O'Brien, Son' Hughes, dramatic monologue, hughes' poetry, racial identity, poem lyrical, struggle identity, langston hughes, poetic style, dramatic monologue lyric, one's identity, hughes' poems, poem's voice,
Approximate Word count = 1552
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)