These two stanzas directed towards the black readers of the time, to help them remind that chasing after acceptance from white people is a useless task, because it won't erase the crimes they've committed by owning slaves.

This line made me think back to Hughes' "I, Too, Sing America" when the speaker talks about being sent to the kitchen when white company comes over for dinner.

The slang that is used adds energy to the piece. But also, when I was reading this piece, I felt like the slang or broken English was very reminiscent of "They Feed They Lions".

I think that the poem is supposed to be negative, because it lists mostly the bad things that will happen to a dream that gets put off. But really, a dream deferred doesn't mean it's never going to happen. Deferred only means to "put on pause for a certain time", which means there's still hope.

I think that this piece is meant to be inspiring. Hughes is saying that times will eventually change, despite how cruel the present might be. And eventually, the people who seem no issue with treating others poorly because of their race will see error within their ways.

I think it's interesting that rivers in Africa and North America are mentioned throughout the poem, because I think it's meant to signify despite the fact black people were pulled from their native homeland and put into new land, they remain connected.

I do think that despite Hughes missteps, he does have a good message that he's trying to push through. It's important to not let people hold you back from doing the things that you want to do. If somebody doesn't like your work, it doesn't matter. The negative opinions of others don't necessarily matter.

Again, I don't really agree with Hughes here. It seems like in his attempt to encourage black talent, he's also discouraging them. Black artists don't ONLY have to make art about being black. If they want to make paintings about sunsets or anything else that Hughes considers to be in tune with what white artists do, it doesn't make them any less of an artists. I don't think that art is rooted within race. I think that art is free and there are no limits or barriers as to what somebody can do with their talent.

Hughes seems to misunderstand that the promising young poet meant. I don't think that he meant, "I don't want to be black, I'd rather be white". Instead, I think that he meant that he didn't want his race to be the only reason why people liked his talent and his poetry. He seems like he just wanted his work to be noticed and accepted due to talent, rather than out of pity because he's black.

I think with this line, it's supposed to be read as: "Pushy". And I think the continued uses of the words "push sea" are supposed to be representative of the impatience that "pushiness" is connected to.

This is also very confusing, but again, the repetition is interesting. It kind of reminds me of computer glitching out or a robot malfunctioning. This line says, "A firm" three times for no obvious reason.

I don't understand why "philip" is repeated twice. It might be for dramatic flare, but the rest of the sentence, "come go stay" doesn't seem very important. So they repetition is odd.

I kinda feel like this relates to Du Bois' & Levine pieces. With Du Bois, he argues that African Americans will always have it rough in this country regardless of what they do. The "veil" will always separate them from whites. And in Levine's piece, it brings attention to the struggle of having to work with what is available. There isn't a wide-array of jobs to choose from, leaving people to do hard labor.

However, in this mystery text, the main character has the ability to easily shift from job to job as he pleases. He also has the privileged to succeed and gain promotions. The character isn't really bound to doing one job, because he is blessed with more opportunities than the "working people" that he is analyzing.

The back and forth between classes reminds me of what Du Bois spoke about regarding the veil, which separates people. But this example of "class switching" reminds me of Gilman's "Yellow Wallpaper" with how John and his wife are middle class, but they secure an upper class mansion for a summer stay.

This reminds me of Levine's piece, "they feed they lion". In Levine's poem, slang was used to really set the stage. But also, it involved people working in a factory and struggling to make ends meet.

It appears as though the speaker is captivated by the mysterious wonder of the woodland, but can't afford to stop and get lost within them. The last two lines, which repeat, make it seem as though the speaker has been trekking through the woods for hours, it is already dark, and he knows that he can't stop in the snow or else he could end up dying. So he has to keep going.

This line of the poem is similar to the pieces from Masters. In this part of the piece, the speaker is reflecting on their choices. Also, they seem happy with the decisions that they made. This is similar to Masters' pieces, where they are all written from the point of view of those who have already passed away. More reflective pieces.

I feel as though the "fence" is symbolic of the veil that is talked about in Du Bois' work. The fence acts as a separation between neighbors and keeps both parties from getting themselves too involved within the lives of their neighbor. In a way, the fence is there to make sure that privacy is maintain and that the lives of the two individuals don't mix at random.

I think that these lines bring attention to the importance of youth. There are a lot of people who live through their lives and then have many regrets when they realize that their years of youth have passed them by. I find it interesting that it is still so applicable in today's world.

This part of the poem seems somewhat antagonistic towards the reader (or the subject of the poem). The speaker seems to call out people for thinking that they are much more important than they actually are. The speaker calls attention to the way that failure fuels people's desire to continue reaching for their unattainable goals. And the last line, "what comes of all your visions and your fears" seems to mock those who have failed & ended up living through their fear of failure.

I think this line because I feel like it plays heavily into the idea that villains think of themselves as the heroes. It's a common trope in modern forms of art, like comics or TV shows. But I find it so interesting to think about good versus bad, because the only understanding we have of these concepts comes from our own life experience. Different lives can skew one's idea of what is good.

I personally find these lines the most interesting. At first I thought that the poem was about somebody thinking about their life at an old age, but it seems like the poem is written from somebody who has already died. To me, this makes the message of treasuring life & experience even more powerful.

I think the use of the imagery of the "sea" plays into the emotion behind Du Bois' words. Not just in the poem, but in the essay. For starters, I think that the use of the word "sea" correlates to an idea of the floodgates of realization opening for him when he was a child in school. The idea that children are completely ignorant to difference until a moment of realization where they realize that they aren't looked at the same as everybody else or treated the same, is very powerful. I think it's something that any minority encounters within their life.

Also, Du Bois operated on the idea that you must use what you have to be better than the people around you that'll want to see you fail. You have to be smarter, stronger, wiser, and bolder if you want to stand alongside the people who naturally have it easier in life. And if you want to be better than them, then it's going to take all of your energy.

This particular line is great. The reality of the situation is that people aren't born with education. They have to find it for themselves. Humans learn through trial and error, and by wandering through the dark until they're able to find understanding. The idea that out of your ignorance you find knowledge is bold. Yet truthful.

The idea that whilst science can be used to measure many things in the life of man, science cannot do everything. There are limits to what it can measure and for what it can't measure, religion has the possibility of doing the work. I think this piece is important because it plays on the idea that you shouldn't put your trust into just one thing or have only one available option.

I thought that this line was particularly humorous, because I feel like it relates closely to modern life regarding academics. There's a devastating idea that after studying for years to attain a degree and putting yourself under a mountain of debt, your accomplishment still comes down to being a piece of paper which can only be used if somebody else gives you the chance to use it.

Potentially, this sentence seems to symbolize the way that mother nature (Earth) always reclaims what is left behind by the struggles of mankind. The poem relates hardened people to "stumps", and this piece mentions the Earth reclaiming trees. Possibly symbolic of humans dying and being buried in the ground, where Earth then reclaims them along with old fences and cars.

This line first caught my attention. "Mothers hardening" might refer to the face that people had to suffer through so much turmoil that eventually they become void of their softness. The experiences found in life raged on for so long that the person became hardened, making them seem emotionless, unsympathetic, and indifferent.