Ma Rainy is able to relate and touch the souls of every person who hears her song. She is able to keep them "strong" in their times of hardships, through her lyrics.

This reminds me of the Hughes' comment on how it's usually the black artists who are the ones able to retain some of their black identity when progressing in the world. She seems to be a cultrally important icon to african americans everywhere, as it's not just New Orleans that's affected by her songs, but it's also all sorts of places.

Thanks to the magic of the internet, Dixie is apparently one of the 11 states of the south in 1860s. The area was heavy on slavery and religion, which is probably why the speaker refers to it as hell. It relates to Hughes in the sense that the area was the most "white-washed" place at the time. Especially in regards for religion, Africans were Christianized to wipe away their "savageness."

A changeling is commonly defined as the substitution of something. It could never be an exact replica of the original, there's always something off about it. For the actual 'Negros' to consider their American counterparts as substitution, they are labeling them as a different species, because they fail to fit the formula.

It seems like a division still exists among the two cultures, even in terms of writing. There seems to be a belief that people still claim division and dominance over who's allowed to write what, based on assumptions.

I feel like the speaker is asking, that even when a dream is damaged poorly by society, like a festered sore, would the dream still continue on. Is there still life within the dream, after it becomes torn down continuously to the point where it changes.

The piano being personified in this line, makes it seem like the player and the object has a special connection. As the negro is able to play the melody so well, that even the piano has no choice but to come alive, and appreciate his skill.

I like how the speaker points out that it's not just anyone playing this "drowsy" tune, but a negro. Meaning that, there's a particular cultural aspect to the tune, that only a Negro can provide. That it's not just a noise anyone can play. It's very distinct to their culture. Which i guess contributes to the title.

Negros with talent in art are usually the once who can escape the restrictions society places on their race. As they are able to maintain their identity in the process of integrating with white culture, more than those of the "upper-class" who strive to adopt white culture.

Their version of the "american dream" is to basically live like "white folk." Being that they aspire to marry a lighter race, and gradually have their descendants bleach out their skin through genetics, and try to own the things that white people usually buy.

A typical middle class colored family consists of those who aspires to be white. Does this mean those of an upper-class family take matters more drastically in trying to bleach away their culture and skin tone?

I like to think of this portion as a contribution to the "polyvocal" motif. That its not just the mixed language of humans being added to the poem, it's also the language of animals. A lone cock.

This word-choice is interesting, mainly because Mercy is a term that usually applies to humans. As the meaning ranges from social purposes like kindness, to lawful purposes like forgiveness, all the way to religious reasons-- so for Mercy to be associated with a dog, is really strange. Although if we follow the "kindness" definition, we usually do show mercy for our own pet animals--although the dog in question might not even be a dog--but rather a person. Either way to choose the term mercy is a big stretch due to it's multiple meanings.

I had to look up what a gaiter was, it sounded so fancy that I was compelled to look it up. it's some kind of shoe/legging ? Why would the author choose to pair such an uncommon word/item in between the line "loveliness." And the need for an "extra." I noticed how it didn't say an extra pair, so there's no specific number of gaiters. I just chose this word because it sounded fancy, but it's use perplexes me greatly.

The repetition of this phrase confuses me. It's just so random. It's catchy if you read it out loud, so it does sticks out a lot, but it still doesn't help me give a sense of whats going on in this line. What's most confusing about this line is that, pussy usually has a various amount of meanings, and I can't tell which one this speaker is referring to.

According to the magical internet, a viburnum is a plant that can produce both flowers and berries. The red of the berries symbolizes beauty, the white of its flowers symbolizes purity, and if there is any tarnish or broken areas to the plant--betrayal. they kind of look similar to chokecherries.

Whose the "Poor" that this poem focuses on, or rather, why is this poem called such? is the title directed to the kids who're unfortunate to suffer from the affects of lice, and chooses to cling to a physician that constantly torments them? Or is the title directed at the School's Physician who has to deal with the lice-infested children? Better yet, the poor could be the lice themselves, as they're the only ones that both parties seek to eliminate.

There's something about the plums that drove the speaker to steal them from "you," and then confess to eating them in a remorseful or bragging tone. The idea of taking things that are forbidden to them, things that someone else was planning on saving for breakfast, and finding it delicious--makes it seem like it was the thrill of the theft that seasoned the fruit for the speaker. Or perhaps the speaker has some sort of plum addiction, and they were plums that the other person filled with drugs of some sort. The world may never know.

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Men who stubbornly hold onto their lever and spades (objects used for labor), all seemingly die for nothing. As they only become one with the dust in the wind, upon death. Since they are seen as nothing more than ash among the dust, as no one but the sea cares to mourn for them, or their efforts.

The speaker seems to be questioning the man on what motivates him to continue to do these low things to himself. Since nearly all man like the ones the speaker sees, are often cut down before his prime, due to his riveting pride. For it seems that the Man, that the speaker addresses accomplish nothing out of their actions, since nothing mourns for him once he dies.

By stating that love is not "meat nor drink," the speaker is stating that we do not need love in the way we need food or water. It's not that essential for us to live, and therefore love isn't quite as important in our lives as we make it. This concept is further suggested in the following lines, when the speaker states that it doesn't provide us slumber or shelter.

This statement reminds me of Du Bois' depiction of how the average black man often as to deal with two different "souls." Two identities that's been constructed from the expectations of two different societies. Freddie Drummond, too, has to deal with a divided life. He has two types of "views" and "identities" in the world that's been constructed for him based on class expectations from society. Only difference is, Freddie's able to successfully come into terms with his separate identities.

the Slot serves in similar to the veil from Du Bois' article, as it's seen as a barrier that is used to separate two different groups of people, based on the conventions of society. In this article, "the Slot" is used to divide others based on their social class.

This passage falls under the concept of forms--as noted from "Petit the Poet." How a person's preference to a specific form determines a persons view of the world, and how they can also serve as a constraint that limits them from acting outside it. The speaker sees himself as an apple orchard, and molds his neighbor in the position of being a pine tree. His description of how his apple trees (his people) will never come across his neighbors territory to eat their cones, can be see as his attempt to step outside of social boundaries. That they are not as dangerous to pine trees as they're lead to believe. However, his neighbors response--the decision to reinforce the fences, can be as his determination to sticking to one form.

The dismissing comment of how the speaker's efforts of handling the wall is reduced to being seen as a simply kind of "outdoor game" by another group, reminds me of our class discussions on the dead village. The idea of how two groups of people, those close-minded and open-minded view the same things differently based on how they see their situation. One side sees their activities as a game, another sees it as some kind of hardship.

The gaps seem to serve the same purpose as the "veil" that Du Bois brings up in the previous readings. As the gap is something that people are somewhat aware of, despite the fact it no one really knows of how it came to be. No one questions its existence, and yet everyone knows of it. Since people of different groups still unconsciously try to use it to set a barrier between them.

The fact that the speaker points out that they are still as "human" as they once were, indicates the belief that the clerks now appear to be anything but human to the speaker. They hold inhuman airs that feels aged to the speaker, and seem like "shop-worn" brotherhood. They merely resemble a small aspect that's as close as their kind can get to being human.

The notion of "there" remains to be completely vague/unknown to the reader throughout the poem. The only information the reader is given about where "there" is, is that the speaker has been there once before, and both times they have encountered "the Clerks" in the area. Standing as they did in the days they "dreamed" of their youth(?). The only information we really get of the place the speaker re-visits, is that they did not expect to find the clerks to be remaining in the area.

The poem starts with the term "WHEN" inserted with full caps at the start of the poem. By doing this, the writer is placing importance over the fact that the speaker "died" before the start of the poem, and is recalling what happened. Implying that the speaker is perhaps: a ghost, a zombie, or just a person with crushed dreams that's retelling their biggest regrets in life.

The fact that the writer starts of with "WHEN," indicates that the poem takes place during the moment in which the speaker considers themselves "dead" to the world.

These couple of lines give off a rather sad tone, or maybe even resentful depending on how the reader chooses to read it. The poem provides the type of emotional feeling that a person is likely to get when they realize that their life may have been a waste, as there's nothing around to show the world of their accomplishments.

The lines of the poem provides the belief that the speaker considers the sold library to have been their only remaining legacy in the world--the remaining proof that they once existed. And since the library is now sold, no one is likely to ever remember the speaker post-death, and he has become "nothing" to the world--since no one will ever find proof of his existence.

This comment relates to the concept of the unasked question as discussed in class. On one hand, she seems to partially blame her husband for the state of her own illness, but chooses not to tell any other person of it. Almost as if she doesn't want anyone knowing of how much she blames her husband. In which the issue does not exist among the living in any ways outside of the reader. Making it seem like she has a sense of "doubleness" in how she actually is, and how she wants appears to others.

The main character does not wish to speak the truth of her marriage and sickness to another living being, but rather instead chooses to silently convey her issues to those dead. Where her problem is virtually left unsaid.

According to the internet, a draught is another fancy way of saying a draft. The fact that the author has this words in caps gives off the feeling that she (the main character) may be fairly irritated at the fact that her husband refuses to acknowledge the "ghostliness" she feels in the house. He refuses to believe in her object of fear, and looks to logic to rationalize her fear of the unknown by lessening it to the work of a draft coming in from the window, rather than then believing the words of his wife. He's reducing the importance of the subject, rather than trying believe it.

Or in a vice-versa of the situation, maybe the husbands right, it really is just a draft--and the wife refuses to acknowledge it as anything less of a ghostly presence.

In order to solve being the "problem" in the world, the black man must meld together the separate ideals of their races' past and present identities. They must conform the ideals of both their Negro, and American selves and see it as a singular goal. DuBois believes that his people will do better in life, if they simply just unify the ideals of their race's past and present, instead of trying to choose a side to adhere to. Many men of his race assume that they must follow the ideals of the past, and the present both separately and in successively of the other, when in reality, it would be better for them to follow both ideals equally. It has become apparent that one identity cannot exist without the other, so the only way for his kind to truly succeed is to learn to use both ideals/identities to learn from the other.

Adams instinctively feels the need to worship the dynamo for it's superior capabilities in comparison to other energy sources. For it not only looks and works impressively, but it also provides less noise that other machinery. Which is apparently important to him--as the passage includes that it wouldn't even wake that of a baby sleeping. Which seems like personal insight? The question is, why should the task of keeping silence in a home, even with a baby sleeping in the room matter to him?

This passage seems to be implying that a person who only tries to learn the same amount of information that other's already know, rather than furthering those ideas or trying to think for themselves, would only remain ignorant of the things before them. Since they wouldn't be trying to think for themselves if they continue to restrict their sense of knowing to being only an equivalent amount to those before him. They would only be learning enough to be as "futile" as the others. He would be remaining ignorant in trying to learn the ideas of others with out trying to further them.

Which is virtually what happens to the historian, as he embracing the dynamos creation (as it is), rather than trying to further figure out how it "arithmetic" behind it.

So are historians basically like sponges? They absorb the knowledge they're given, but they never comprehend what they're absorbing. Instead, they would just squeeze out a lesser amount of the information they absorbed previously.

Adams appears to value the object solely based on its incredibly phenomenal features--as nothing else in the gallery seems to compare to it. By using the term "occult" to describe the mechanism, he seems to believe that the machine holds supernatural features. The item doesn't hold any of the average features that are found in comparison to the rest of those in the gallery. In other words, he's only taken with the machine simply because it appears "unique" and different from the rest of the latter, that it appears to be a better choice in comparison to the rest of the machines.

The term "hardening" in this line refers to the process of becoming "harder" (OED) both physically or mentally. When applying this term to a pounded stump, the poem is referring to how trees generally grow physically tougher after it gets chopped down into a stump. When using the term to reference to a person, however, it usually means the process of toughening themselves up mentally, so they become less sympathetic (OED).

By connecting the hardening of a mother to the pounded stump, the speaker is stating that the mothers of his poem are becoming harder mentally, that is similar to the process of how a stump would physically toughen themselves after being chopped down. Which is interesting, as mothers are often depicted as the exact opposite of "hardened" people.

The term "acid" could have multiple meanings in this passage. The definition could be used in reference to how acid could be used to describe the "spite" and "bitterness"(OED) of a person's demeanor. In which, the speaker of the poem could be referring to the concept of how the bitterness of people comes from their general rage. The "Lion" from the poem can be fed from the the angered bitterness of others (amongst several other things).

The term could also be referring to the scientific definition, where acid in general can be used to cause damage to certain objects and things. In which, the Lion would then feed from the damage that comes from the rage of others.