The overall tone of the poem is extremely sad, but this line shows that the speaker has hope that one day the world could change and it will be okay to bring a black child into it.

This reminds me of the line from "Heritage" by Gwendolyn B. Bennett -- "I want to feel the surging / Of my sad people's soul / Hidden by a minstrel-smile." Same idea of hiding one's pain with a laugh or smile.

The sand was stolen from Africa, bottled, and displayed. The speaker compares this bottle of sand to the dancing black man whose culture/identity has been bottled up by white people.

Bennett uses a lot of repetition in this poem which helps get her point across. Repetition is also common in songs, so it helps give the poem a musical feel.

Bennett uses music in her poems as a way of expressing its importance to her people, like Hughes and Brown. I like how she suddenly switches to dialect. It reminds me of Brown's poem "Ma Rainey."

I see the "ginger jars" as metaphors for African Americans who are forced to stay still and quiet upon a shelf; to not freely express their heritage and identities. The speaker is saying to break the seal of the ginger jars and be free.

While men are out fighting in wars, women are expected to stay home. The speaker longs to get out and participate. She wants something more out of life than sewing.

Unlike Hughes and Brown, Dunbar-Nelson focuses on the emotions of love and passion in this poem. She is even writing about a woman. She is going against the conventions of women having to stifle their sexual desires and is instead freely expressing her passion towards this woman.

In this poem, Dunbar-Nelson addresses traditional female roles in society and the marginalization of women. The speaker "must" sit and sew because that is what is expected of her, but she has larger dreams and feels stifled by these societal expectations of women. She wants to get out and do something impactful rather than sit at home sewing.

Listeners cry to Ma Rainey's music because the lyrics speak to the suffering of African Americans. They can relate to her experience.

To the speaker of the poem, music (particularly Ma Rainey's blues music) is what keeps them strong. Music is powerful and has a way of getting inside a person and touching their soul. Music has a profound influence on emotions.

Ma Rainey is a blues singer, often called "the Mother of Blues." Her great influence on the black community is evident in the poem.

"Sing" connections with the theme of blues/jazz. The speaker wants equality and sings that he is as American as white Americans.

I see the rivers as representing African heritage and that it has always existed and will always persevere. Saying his soul "has grown deep like the rivers" perhaps means he has has found his roots.

Hughes highlights the importance of blues. It comes from the soul. It is not just a simple music genre. The music is a representation of all the pain they go through. Hughes uses words like "melancholy" and "sad" and even describes the "poor piano" as "moaning" as though in pain.

I love this line. The Harlem Renaissance had such a huge impact on the United States so representing it as a pulse -- the heart, or center of the movement -- is brilliant and accurate.

This a poem called "Youth" by Langston Hughes. Hughes is encouraging self-expression and leadership and representing a brighter future.

Very similar to Du Bois' "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" where he talks about "being a problem" as well as double-consciousness (being both a subject and an object; having double awareness). It seems like here Locke is calling the same idea of double-consciousness a "shadow."

Hughes is saying there is a new generation where black artists are now embracing themselves and expressing themselves freely, without regard to if they are white enough or not. They have conquered the mountain.

This is why representation is so important even today. If people of color grow up reading books about white people, seeing white people on television or in movies, hearing white music -- they are going to think that "white is best." They are going to wonder why they don't see themselves in media which will cause issues with self-esteem and identity. There needs to be more representation.

Hughes uses a mountain as a symbol to represent the obstacle standing in the way of black artists which is preventing them from expressing their individuality and the beauty of their race and culture. Hughes says they must conquer this mountain of wanting to be white and make white art and instead embrace who they truly are.

Eugene Higgins' "Hunger Under a Bridge" also depicts hunger in such a haunting, brutal way. It really opens your eyes to the realities of the poor and working-class.

This made me think of Honoré Daumier's "Third-Class Carriage." This painting depicts the everyday lives of working-class people, who must cram into a railway carriage. They are most likely on their way to work and, like Williams says, "bathed / in filth / from Monday to Saturday."

My favorite line. The armor, I assume, is the rose's thorns. Armor is used for protection in battle ... Perhaps this "rose" is shielding herself from any potential pain caused by love?

The speaker omits the man's name after "here lies" which is a brilliant way to convey the man's insignificance after his death. Furthermore, there is nobody to mourn his death "but the sea." Why does the sea mourn him?

Love can't provide basic necessities like food, sleep, or shelter. We can't live without these things. I love the title and line "love is not all." Millay tells us what love is not rather than explaining what love is in order to show how we often put love on a pedestal and think love is everything.

"boughten" means store-bought rather than homemade. This stanza seems sarcastic since it's saying it's better to die "dignified" with bought friendship (as opposed to genuine connections) than not having any friends at all.

This is an interesting ending in that it's ambiguous; it doesn't say whether it was a positive or negative difference. Was it a good choice to take the road less traveled by? We don't know, but it had a significant impact on the speaker.

This wall divides the speaker and his neighbor-- another theme of division/us vs. them that we've been seeing a lot. The neighbor considers the wall to be a good thing as it establishes boundaries as well as good relationships (working together to mend the wall). The speaker, though, doesn't understand why the walls are needed. Wall might be a symbol of national borders or maybe just any separation of people by class, race, etc.

Very poignant. Mr. Flood has lost all of his friends and is now looking out over his town remembering what used to be. The houses now contain strangers that shut their doors to him. You really get a sense of just how lonely and casted out Mr. Flood is.

"Two moons" makes it seem like he's on another planet but probably his vision is just blurred?

This is a beautiful line. I interpret it as you must experience many things, good and bad, in order to truly look back and say you lived a fulfilling life. I noticed she also capitalizes the second "life." Maybe this is saying you need life (energy, liveliness, spirit) to properly love Life (your existence).

The narrator is not allowed to express herself freely. She cannot be her true self. This reminds me of Du Bois' 'Of Our Spiritual Strivings' in which he talks of double consciousness-- two identities. He also describes an invisible "veil" that separates races which could be applied here too. The narrator is trapped behind a veil, separated from the rest of society; women separated from men and considered lesser than.

The wallpaper being prison bars and the narrator seeing women behind these bars seems to represent the feelings of woman being trapped in marriage/domestic life and having no freedom. The narrator is forbidden from doing anything to stimulate her mind.

Just like how Adams in "The Dynamo and the Virgin" is a historian who struggles to figure out history and is baffled by the "occult" forces but still seeks to understand, the narrator tries to understand the wallpaper. She stares at the patterns and tries to find a conclusion; tries to find meaning.

I think Du Bois here is saying that things such as education, work, culture, and liberty are needed in order to unify African-Americans and make them aware of how valuable their culture is to America and how much better America would be if they are accepted.

In Adams' piece, Adams talks about fast-growing technology and science. Du Bois, meanwhile, speaks of a growing movement of education, or "book-learning," within the black community.

In Adams' piece, he uses the third person as a kind of "double-consciousness" or "twoness" (as Du Bois puts it) in which there is Adams the character and Adams in reality. There is a separation of self with Du Bois as well.

What does he mean by infinity here? Perhaps if we think about the dynamo as a symbol of science/technology, he means infinite possibilities for the future?

Adams here is perhaps realizing the immense power and influence ''the Virgin' (art, religion, etc) holds, but St. Gaudens and many others are focused more on technology now.

I think what Adams is saying here is that America is focused more on the dynamo (science, technology) rather than religion and art (which he calls 'the Virgin' -- Mother Mary). Contrast between religion and science.

Levine seems to be describing a working-class, industrial city. I love his imagery and diction. You can picture the city clearly: tar, gasoline, wooden dollies, coal and soot, simple foods like bread and beans, and so on.

Describing mothers as "stumps" -- Maybe these mothers have been "cut down" like a tree; put through so much in their lives that they are reduced to stumps.

Levine saying "They Lion grow" instead of "the Lion" or "their Lion" is interesting. It's used as both noun and verb. Perhaps "They Lion" (verb) could indicate a fierceness or unrest that is growing within people.