This line even further pushes my earlier annotation about the conspiracy theory as the War on drugs that started in 1971 by Nixon was aimed at targeting/criminalizing hipsters and Black Americans.

This might seem early or a stretch but considering that the war on drugs, targeting communities of color, started in 1971 I don't find it implausible. This line does so many things at once. I mean not only does it characterize an area specifically for black people as bad, poverty and depravity stricken, through just the simple word "dragging" but it also implies that the negro streets were the only streets that would have the "angry fix". Angry fix being substances to abuse; drugs, alcohol, etc. Knowing that Allen Ginsberg wrote this while in California also makes my thoughts feel like less of a stretch.

I believe that this "angry fix" and the idea that it can only be found within the "negro streets" is one that follows what was a conspiracy theory behind the war on drugs and substance abuse within communities of color. A lot of Black Americans at this time had the belief that the government or CIA was flooding black streets with drugs as a way to further push criminalization and surveillance of Black Communities. They mainly believed it was to destroy the Black Community and the Black Family Unit. This idea was even further theorized by National Security Archives senior analyst Peter Kornbluh’s bold interview where he claimed that the U.S. government is chiefly to blame for crack’s ubiquity. Even though the conspiracy is still widely denied by all agencies. This line to me feels like Ginsberg along with other black Americans were first starting to come to this conspiracy. Being that I am a criminal justice major I can't help but see the connections to this theory within the subtext of the words.

I wonder why this stands alone with no period to follow. It reads to me almost as if Ginsberg had a thought, started and then stoped. At first I thought maybe an error but when read with the following line it becomes intentional. As if now what he thought, what follows, was in need of dramatics. In need of a start to something unsettlingly witnessed. I wonder now if it came first? It does add to make this feel more like a conversation, but this is not a stuttered "I".

Carl Solomon was an American writer. One of his best-known pieces of writing is Report from the Asylum: Afterthoughts of a Shock Patient. According to his biography on literary kicks he and Allen Ginsberg met in a waiting room at a psychiatric hospital. They became friends and Carl became known for this poem, Howl, that Ginsberg wrote in dedication to him.

Something about this line triggers in me the remembrance of Black individuals who were stolen from their lands and taken by force by boat, who in solidarity took their own lives at sea. Believing death was better than bondage. Many songs detail this experience. Being that this poem speaks on the stories of those known and unknown I feel this is what Bennett meant to touch on with this.

In relation of the other words that bring the color of red to light as well as the words love and passion it's interesting to think about the meaning behind a crimson soul/red soul. It often means its an individual born with the purpose of bringing love, passion and action to the world. "They tend to be active, adept at sports or physically coordinated. They also love being a part of the collective community and being close to their family and friends…", according to the Arden Reece color intelligence. Attributes that are associated in some way with the black community.

It feels like the speaker is both speaking to herself, her mother, and her future children. Its multi dimensional in the sense that the voice could be in conversation with multiple individuals past, present, and future. It's a plea that rings true for black women in generations of all.

There's this feeling of returning to nature. Of going back to what's natural after being away from it for so long. This man just as he is bottled is held in this moment where inside he is who he was meant to be despite his outward appearance. Just as outside the bottle of sand wouldn't look like much but inside holds the story of the desert.

It's important here to note what the blues actually meant for a black individual. It was a musical style that was created to step away from "spirituals" and was almost coined and stolen from the black community. It was one of the first aesthetics that was considered African American created and it was the way that black individuals or musicians coped with their every day lives. The blues created an Identity and an outlet but also created a space for black individuals to voice their struggles, their needs, and opinions in a way that was more socially heard (so when Hughes says the blues echoed through his head, I don't think he means the music). It fueled social movements as it entered media and caused huge changes within music genres and the industry. In fact it opened the door for women in music/mainstream media.

This stanza is definitely a representation of Jim Crow Laws/ segregation. However what stands out to me is that it speaks to the times. Regardless of what was taking place or what was being done to them black individuals still went out to eat, still created good times, still made a way to survive and I think this line speaks to the resilience of that. The following stanza speaks to hope that it won't stay that way, that segregation and this feeling of lesser, of needing to be moldable to "white americas needs", of needing to be resilient will end.

This repetition of I reminds me of an earlier text of Edgar Lee Masters. In his work I found that the I was emphasized in such a way to to put emphasis on the fact that it was "I" and no one else. It gave the feeling of isolation. However here in Hughes work the I feels collective. Like it's a we but in first person.

What Locke speaks of here is insightful. It's a lingering mentality that racism only exists in the south. Those couple southern states that in black communities are still looked at in the same ways as they were back then. However Locke addresses the reality that it's not just a problem in the south. It's not the souths problem it's the American problem and it exists everywhere. So to read that from a writer at this time years away from the end of Jim Crow is striking.

The thinking negro is the educated black individual. Locke here is saying that no matter how much you try to change the visual, step out of the sun, the shadow still remains. He even says it in the next line. The perception of what the black individual is, who the black individual is, far out weighs them as a person. They are forever reduced to their skin color. Especially meaningful in a time where education was power and having it was supposed to make you better than the next individual.

The New Negro is such a well lit term. I mean that it's referred to in a lot of African American/ Black Lit. It was often seen as a threat and even used as insult in the past. It's an ideology really that lives on today.

I think this line here speaks to the mask that people of color often have to wear. I say this to say that this mask is often one that is created to "get you through the door". You're unproblematic, soft spoken, obedient, "negro enough to be different". So in that way once you're through those doors it becomes inevitable that you speak on these "themes at hand" because regardless of any factor you are effected by them. Hughes here doesn't say if he chooses he says when and I think thats incredibly powerful to note.

This is of a mindset that sets colorist views and mentalities. It's this lingering idea that Hughes presents here, which I'm not entirely against but not in favor of (as I can acknowledge these truths and past truths) that sets up the slippery slope of the phrase "not black enough". It's continued in the next paragraph, setting up an us versus the other within a shared community. However, Im not naive enough to say it isn't this way but I will say it shouldn't be.

This is an instance of that double consciousness we had talked about earlier in the class. There is that lingering association that is known and that as a black writer you might be conscious to step away from. I say this as a black writer. When thinking about these words, "I want to be a poet–not a Negro poet", I think it has taken on the viewpoint of not the white counterpart but what's associated with "black lives" (i.e. black trauma). I find it grasping how that line can be shifted from 1926 to present day and still not lose its meaning but be redefined.

This emphasis on the nature of the mountains is used to bring out the drastic difference that Eliot is trying to portray. It's interesting to think about to me especially when thinking about that saying people say: "going to the mountains to clear my mind." Often because they need that peace and quiet but there is not even silence in the mountains and you're never really alone.

Vegetation here supplies the meaning or feeling of growth. The feeling of "goodness" that comes with the word suggests that this covered ground is being defiled by the rat that is automatically given this nature by name association. It's intriguing to me how nature defiles nature and it's becoming in my opinion of what follows.

This might be a stretch, but since I love flowers and flower arrangements, the candelabra is also a flower (and tree) with "like branches". It's a bulbous plant that is often said to look like the branching out of flames. It brought me back to the line about fruited veins when thinking of the way objects mimic nature for Eliot.

There seems to be so much life happening in the crowd flowing over London Bridge, I would assume due to the wording, but yet Elliot says that death had undone so many. What to Elliot is being lost here or what has already been lost? What are the people of London mourning in their short and infrequent exhaled sighs?

I can't discern if Williams means quicken as in fast or as in stimulation. The speaker of the poem is addressing a change so I wonder in which context this change came about. Through stimulation or pace/time?

I think what makes this poem interesting is that it is two sentences. Both sentences holding a different feeling or emotion. Almost a past and present feeling.

When I think about the modern definition or slang definition of "tricked" it basically means to sell out. So I wonder what was being sold out that night, or who? If Williams meant it in this way or not.

I had to search this but I think it's important to note that Delphiniums are flowers that symbolize cheerfulness and goodwill but also a protective plant that symbolizes truth. Thinking about the last line in the poem of "an iron cortex" it ties into the idea of Delphiniums being a protective plant as iron is a protective metal. In regards to truth it reminds me of the last few lines and the idea of knowing rather than remaining ignorant to the worlds truths. I do question what truths exactly Millay is saying need protection? or in what way the truth protects us?

With the first line "Is food for thought, but not despair" the first thought that came to mind is the idea of ignorance as bliss. Knowing can bring pain and sadness but not knowing leaves a vulnerability one wouldn't otherwise have had they known. I believe thats why Millay says it will be easier on the mind to strengthening it with knowledge to protect our own selves in a way that lessens the despair of knowing.

In these last few lines Millay sort of contradicts herself as even though she compares love in a way that is less valuable, and could be said unnecessary, she still acknowledges that it does have a value that she wouldn't trade. However I think it remains in saying that love is not all, as it is not a necessity but something she thinks shed rather have. Love is not all that we need but we think it is.

There is this sense of self alienation in these lines as physically the individual seems to be isolating themselves from society. The narrator is going about this journey somewhat alone while mindfully sticking to places without possibility of interaction. Especially on the darkest day of the year where if anything they should probably be looking for assistance or a place to rest but eventually just go deeper into the woods. Deeper into isolation. I wonder why?

There's a sense of irony throughout this poem but to me it especially evident within these line. It's as if to say that we as humans holding on to things, memories, although it makes life feel more worth while, does not make the fact that it all eventually comes to an end any less hard.

Each line of this poem holds a certain cadence to it. As the last word in each sentence rhymes. Its a forum of rhyming poem I believe.

It seems like the first line in combination with the second is a reference to romanticism and love. I can see the visualization and symbolism of a dying rose. However I am unsure why he would also put the image of snow, unless to say the snow is what caused them to vanish. However they seem to vanish in the sense of togetherness.

I find it interesting that this is capitalized in a way to put emphasis on the fact that it was "I" and no one else. In fact it is a reoccurring theme, this sense of isolation, as the I is repeated in line 10 - 14. Even if capitalized within these lines for punctuation the emphasis still feels just as strong. Leading me to question why the word "went" is in all caps as well.

The bird is on the wing usually refers to something being put in motion, something on the move. So here I wonder what exactly the poet says is in motion, what is being set up? Because I also believe" the bird is on the wing" can refer to mortality or one being close to death.

I believe in the end here she is alluding to the fact that the woman commits suicide. A similar word brought up in Du Bois, "the suicide of a race!". I wonder why they chose to compare or to use suicide in this way? Why did the woman take her own life and why hide it within the piece?

This imagery reminds me of the lines/phrases "his historical neck broken...broken many professorial necks" that Adams uses in “The Dynamo and the Virgin”. I wonder why they both choose to use the imagery of broken necks? What is the symbolism in it?

This line brought to memory the line "Historians undertake to arrange sequences,–called stories, or histories–assuming in silence a relation of cause and effect" from Henry Adams “The Dynamo and the Virgin”. Adams goes on to explain how he followed sequences in vain as they led him to the conclusion that the "sequence of men led to nothing and that the sequence of their society could lead no further." Just like this line from Gilman in which she follows the wallpaper only for it to lead to nothing but she couldn't stop herself from studying it.

I find it attention grabbing how he puts knowledge into a physical form and how even with its material being he still couldn't grasp it. What made him unable to?

I believe that here is another instance of both Freedom and smallness that Du Bois and other black men were meant to feel. This time through the imagery of a shadow and figure that looms over their being. Trying to bring them down to the feeling of being insignificant or weak by reminding them they could never be what they once were.

Using the description/ imagery of setting Du Bois pushes this idea of smallness. Letting his readers know in subtle ways, as well throughout this piece that at a time his life and throughout his circumstances he felt small, insignificant, or inferior.

This line carries repetition with the first two words "the freedom". It emphasis the point that Freedom is still not obtained and in what ways it is not.

I think back to a class I took which explained that in a lot of ways sex was hidden and only available for a select elite few. As far as I know of, this was done in Europe within their libraries, art, and museums as materials containing sex were heavily censored and often locked away. Agreeing with JRemy this does come across as high brow or elitist so I wonder if this was true for the time period of Henry Adam within America?

Thats so contrasting, "meditating chaos". Meditation implies peace and calming which is the complete opposite of chaos. What is he trying to get across to his reader here?

Could this be referring to the reclamation of earth? And if the earth is reclaiming doesn't that mean something failed it (maybe humanity/society)?

Who is them, the lions? Is Levine welcoming them to feed? Are they doing him a service or a harm by praying on what's already been forgiven?

Why would he attribute five arms to himself? Are the arms a set? Is that why he says all my hands instead of 5 hands?

Lions are large animals that are carnivorous. They live in prides and are found in Africa.