This reminds me of the childhood folklore of John Henry. The idea that a black man with a hammer whom cannot be compared by anyone living. It was only industrialization that took him down.

I think Hughes describes how a Black artist struggles with identity and so to hear Ma Rainey being "back whah you belong," I'm torn on if that's a good thing as it describes segregation but also community. I don't know if I'd want to perform in front of people who either looked down on me or with contempt.

It's crazy to me how people flock together and travel for miles to do so. There's an interesting vibe when it comes to live performances as it can be so galvanizing. It's easy to be in the crowd, laughing. It's much harder to be on stage looking back.

The promises keep him from going into the "dark and deep" woods that could also be a "lovely" death. The speaker also repeats the many miles before his death as if he's reluctant to return, therefore the last stanza describes a man whom is torn between the living and the dead. He's a zombie!

I think his horse is symbolic for all of life's responsibilities as the horse also represents travel and work. A person on a horse is either going somewhere or returning home. The horse knows that this is not a normal stop and therefore can sense there's something afoot because if the rider is staring off into the abyss, the horse might be going with them.

The speaker is staring into the abyss or peering over a metaphorical cliff. I think the wonder of death is a very normal thing for a person to either fear, wonder or a little bit of both.

Another way of describing the loss of innocence, as I feel my life became more complicated the more I knew what was behind the curtain. I wish I could take it all back.

I love the use of sound but without explanation within poetry. Mites go "tick." Why not?

"They feed they lion." This kind of has a similar undertone to Philip Levine's poem as he describes a sort of descent by a city that leads to something or someone being fed.

A strangling pattern is a form of "force" as it can seems to be impenetrable and relentless.

I find that throughout the piece, she has a sort of "double consciousness" with her and her husband, trying to explain on how he sees her. Even as she's losing her sanity, she tries to see how John sees her.

The term "force" is often used in Henry Adam's "The Dynamo and the Virgin," as it can be what Adam's describes as the advancement of the times. I don't think DuBois feels that taking the ballot away from African Americans can be seen as advancement but it is forceful.

I think double consciousness has become vital for young black men in our society today, as it can be a matter of life and death. White people and police seem to feel they can shoot young black men for no reason and get away with it.

It's interesting to include Descartes in the discussion, as he wrote Meditations of First Philosophy which challenges much of our existence or rather the existence of our reality. I wonder how that sat with Henry Adams and his "force."

Force can be seen as straight to the point. The line between two points that is undeniable by any reason.

That's quite the perspective of he and his fellow man. Especially in relation to art, which some feel to show vulnerability in humans, not strength.

Telling Langston Hughes that he isn't black is quite a statement. Does this have to do with Hughes being light-skinned? I deal with the same thing being a light skinned Chicano. For Lanston Hughes, this must have been a difficult situation to navigate.

Even today, we as a society have a tendency to label writers of color as either "Post-Colonial" or by their race e.g. "Black writer" or "Latino writer." I read an interview where Toni Morrison was discussing how her books with Black protagonists shouldn't be looked at as African American Literature but just Literature. An award winning author such as Morrison shouldn't have to be labeled just because white America has trouble empathizing with her characters.

I was reminded of Phlebas the Phoenician in the "Death by Water" portion of "The Wasteland" as it reminisces about a person whom was alive like us but is now dead. The line echoes "Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you." Maybe it's the feeling of elegy or remembering one who has passed, or it could be the same zombie effect as Phlebas is both alive and dead, and the subject of Fearing's poem can be seen as the same. There's also the same sort of elegy in Dos Passos' "Body of an American" where they speak of the dead in some sort of recycled or rehearsed elegy.

These three lines have elements of "The Wasteland" as it alludes to a Philomel type violation of the speaker's wife by "the barbarous king." The quote also has the melancholic feeling of looking upon the "Sweet Thames" to that of looking upon a beaten and failing Jack Dempsey.

This reminds me of "The Wasteland" when it comes to the idea of the zombie, living between life and death. Gregory is speaking of the horrors of World War I and the PTSD that the soldiers ("million men and a million boys") whom suffered from the experience of war. "Come out of hell and crawling back" is straight out of a George Romero movie, and the conditions in the trenches and DMZ were its own wasteland. I find it interesting that Jack Dempsey is being used as the the representation of these returning soldiers especially since Dempsey did not partake in WWI and got a lot of criticism for it.

I like this line as it gives the notion that even if things are going well, we're all going to die someday. Phlebas "was once handsome and tall as you" is now at the bottom of the ocean, as it "Picked his bones in whispers." When the speaker talks of Phlebas, I see him in underwater, decaying, which gives me zombie imagery.

Here we have an imagery of water and despair, as the speaker uses Leman Lake and the Thames to use as accompaniment of his depression due to a number of things, such as the changing times and the alienation because of it. With the "Sweet Thames," the speaker seems to use it as a beating drum to the end of his life or "till the end of my song." A life that he seems to hold less regard to "for I speak not loud or long" has a feeling that the speaker could care less.

This comes from a voice asking the narrator states "Nothing again nothing." This idea of "nothing" echoes the idea of a "wasteland." The middle, between life and death can be seen as nothing and I feel that the person asking isn't referring to the narrator's lack of knowledge but their actual experience of nothingness.

A hyacinth is some sort of bulbous plant, so I wonder if this plant is something that is desirable or undesirable in regards to a gift. Is being called the "hyacinth girl" a good thing or a bad thing? Again, this is a moment in the poem where the speaker is remembering the past.

Another couple of lines that describe an image of memory, this time of something virtuous such as mountains where "there you feel free." This again is followed by a contrast as "Marie" tends to "...read, much of the night, and go south in the winter." This is to describe that Marie no longer goes to those mountains that she says gives her freedom. Giving the reader a forlorn feeling of memory.

What a way to begin a poem! Describing the season of spring to be the "cruellest month"is very much the opposite of how people describe the spring season that usually speaks of a clean slate. Descriptions of a "dead land" and "Dull roots with spring rain" sets the tone of not only "The Wasteland" title but also speaks of both the mixing of both life and death. "Lilacs" and a "dead land," "Dull roots" and "spring rain" seem to be polar opposites of each other as we to tend remember them. Maybe having the reader question what they remember and if Spring is really a rebirth or just another season of death and desperation.

The "mothers hardening" or a hardened mother makes me think that the children of said mothers are often harmed or are in harms way. Being a parent is a tough job and not only is difficult but it brings a vulnerability when it comes to their child. A hardened mother gives me the image of a mother who has experienced such a loss and vulnerability, that it has made them desensitized or in anguish.

The first stanza, especially in the last three lines, have a feeling of a harsh industrial environment. Words such as "creosote", "gasoline" and "drive shafts," give the image of an industrial corrosiveness. I mainly am referring to the word "creosote" as it is "a brown distilled oil from coal tar." This is fed to a lion, which leads me to think that "acids of rage" and "creosote" as a corrosiveness that's brewing into some sort of fuel for something primal.