A Comparison

A Comparison
Two Harlem Renaissance poems that have several similarities are Refugee in America by Langston Hughes and Children’s Rhymes also written by Langston Hughes.   In both of these poems the poet writes about how having freedoms and liberties are great rights to have, but horrible rights when you don’t have them.   Both poems also use language that is not regularly used in poetry.
Refugee in America by Langston Hughes starts out with a positive tone to it, the speaker talking about how words like freedom are wonderful words to say and how they make the speaker in the poem feel good.   As readers get to the second stanza though, the previously positive outlook turns negative as the speaker tells how those same words also make them terrible because they, and all of the other African Americans don’t have those freedoms and liberties, yet they have to live with watching others around them who do get to enjoy those rights.   This poem has some language in it that is not frequently used in the majority of popular poetry.   The author is stressing the point of how glorious freedoms are by saying “on my heart-strings freedom sings”.
Children’s Rhymes by Langston Hughes also begins with a positive outlook as the speaker in the poem talks about how white children grow up with big dreams like becoming president, thanks to the fact that they have the freedom to be president if they want to be.   But then its positivity transforms into negativity as the speaker states that even though whites have written about how liberty, freedom, and justice are for everyone, African Americans don’t have them.   This poem also uses language that is not often used in the majority of popular poetry.   The author wrote this poem with words such as “ain’t”, “bugs”, “folks”, and “at all” to give it more of an African American dialect.
Refugee in America and Children’s Rhymes both share many similarities.   Both of these poems start out with a positive atmosphere as they talk about how...