I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The statue of liberty holds a lamp, i think the "golden door" is refering to the U.S. welcoming immigrants
169 Matching Annotations
- May 2021
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www.poetryfoundation.org www.poetryfoundation.org
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Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me
Everyone is welcome who needs a place of refuge
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The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
The ones who have been abandoned by their own country
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Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
Welcoming immigrants and all people
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“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips.
I think she is pretending the statue is talking. The clue for me is the line "silent lips"
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The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
I think this is refering to NYC and Brooklyn
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Glows world-wide welcome
welcoming immigrants
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Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
The statue of liberty representing welcome to all immigrants, thats why the poet is saying mother of exiles
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Is the imprisoned lightning
Statue of liberty welcomes people who were imprisoned in their former home?
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Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
reffering to the statue of liberty
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With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
A giant with huge legs taking big steps
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Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
reffering to the Colossus of Rhodes
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Invented by mill-owners inspired by the hoax of Ossian, To control their savage Scottish workers, tamed By a fabricated heraldry: MacGregor,
the outfits are used to control the workers?
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Or a major chord. Prints, plaids, checks, Houndstooth, Tattersall, Madras. The clan tartans
still describing his outfit
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Corners of both pockets, like a strict rhyme
shirt compared to music
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Wonderful how the pattern matches perfectly Across the placket and over the twin bar-tacked
in the middle of this crisis, the aithor notices how nice his outfit is, this is a shift in the poem.
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And fluttered up from his shirt as he came down, Air filling up the legs of his gray trousers—
when you jump out a window like that the air brings up all your clothes
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He stepped to the sill himself, his jacket flared
he is about to jump out the window himself
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Then he held Her into space, and dropped her
dropping them out the window
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A third before he dropped her put her arms Around his neck and kissed him.
they are alive, hoping to survie i would assume
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To enter a streetcar, and not eternity
are these people still alive?
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And then another. As if he were helping them up
there is many young people working in the factory
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Away from the masonry wall and let her drop
the witness watched the man help drop these girls from the window. I dont think there was any other way out.
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Who watched how a young man helped a girl to step Up to the windowsill, then held her out
Young girls working in this factory. Like i said terrible times. Young people working these heavy dangerous machines making shirts
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The witness in a building across the street
Someone in a building across the street sees the fire and probably went to get help
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On the ninth floor, no hydrants, no fire escapes—
if their is a fire up their they are just stuck
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One hundred and forty-six died in the flames
At this time, working in a factory like this was probably very dangerous becuase there was not as many regulations to keep the workers safe.
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At the Triangle Factory in nineteen-eleven
the factory where the shirts are made in 1911.
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Of cuff I button at my wrist. The presser, the cutter, The wringer, the mangle. The needle, the union, The treadle, the bobbin. The code. The infamous blaze
this all describes things that goes into the making of the shirt, Seems like a lot to keep up with
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This armpiece with its overseam to the band
They talk about food and politics while they make these shirts
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Or talking money or politics while one fitted
this is just their every day environment the poet is describing
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Gossiping over tea and noodles on their break
Normal everyday things for them that they are talking about
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Turned in a sweatshop by Koreans or Malaysians
These sweatshops had horrible conditions and oftten children working the machines, they are making shirts
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The nearly invisible stitches along the collar
a workplace where they are making shirts?
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The back, the yoke, the yardage. Lapped seams,
sounds like somewhere he works
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Shirt
A shirt covers the top half of your body so i wonder if he is trying to cover something
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vickyloras.files.wordpress.com vickyloras.files.wordpress.com
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And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die
after sleep, death "shall be no more"
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One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally
After a short rest, we are ready to get back at the day
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And better then thy stroake; why swell'st thou then
people can die from having strokes, i think he is saying sleeping off poppies and charms is better then permanently sleeping after having a stroke.
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And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as well,
There is things in this world that can make us want to sleep more and better
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And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse dwell
those who are sick sleep and rest the most
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Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,
art was used earlier in the poem, i think it has a different meaning im just not sure what
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Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.
i think Donne is saying when you rest your soul goes somewhere else
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And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,
the best men who sleep are soon going to die?
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Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,
there is a lot of pleasure from rest and sleep
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From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures bee
when you are sleeping, its like death, im not sure what pictures hes talking about though
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Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill me.
I think he is saying dont die a poor death
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For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow
Is this how they spoke in the early 1600s? i can barely understand what he is saying
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Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
death is mighty and dreadful, a hard time
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DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee
Donne says that some people have said they are proud of death, but it is not something to be proud of.
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Death Be Not Proud
death is not something to be proud about, it is always a sad time.
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poets.org poets.org
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She burns like a burning bushdriven by a godawful wind
all of these examples could be things he saw in the war too, and he is associating it with a woman
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She rises like dragonsmoke to my nostrils.
He is reminiscing of her
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She burns like a field of poppiesat the edge of a rain forest.
He now might be describing her as flowers, he definitly cares for her
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She burns like a shot glass of vodka
he could be drinking to forget about her too, and alcohol burns when you drink it
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silent as quicksilver.A tiger under a rainbow at nightfall.
I think this is where the shifting point in the poem is
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She glows like the fat tipof a banker's cigar,
bankers might have really nice cigars that burn really well, so the fat tip would be burning a lot.
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She burns like a cattail torchdipped in gasoline.
gasoline makes things catch on fire easier and more intense.
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She burns like oil on water.
oil and water dont mix at all so maybe they are not meant for each other
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like a sack of dry ice.
dry ice is so cold that it actually burns
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We stand with our handshanging at our sides,while she burns
i dont know why they are standing together while she burns. Maybe she doesnt have interest in him?
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A skirt of flamesdances around herat dusk.
girls wear skirts often, a lot of these words are refering back to this girl that was burning inside his head
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in a thigh-shaped valley.
He could still be thinking about the girl when he describes the valley as "thigh shaped"
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She burns like foxfire
foxfire is the phosphorescent light emitted by certain fungi on decaying timber.I am not really sure how this relates to the poem, i wonder if their is a different meaning
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At daybreak she burns like a piece of paper.
paper burns very easily, so she is fragile
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belongs to a girl still burninginside my head.
Memorys of a girl hes known in the past
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The cry I bring down from the hills
Is a "cry" like a cry for help?
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Or does it explode?
Completely fall apart and go away
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like a heavy load.
Ours dreams can put a burden on us and sometimes apply pressure that we cant handle. this "heavy load" can be difficult to carry
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Maybe it just sags
just hangs onto you with no intentions
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Or crust and sugar over— like a syrupy sweet?
sweet is usually good, so maybe there is hope, not sure
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Does it stink like rotten meat?
this puts a image in the readers head of something nasty, hoping we wont forget about our dreams?
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And then run?
im assuming he means run as in run away. A forgotten dream running away from the person, or leaving them maybe turning into a new dream
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Or fester like a sore
dream getting worse?
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like a raisin in the sun?
if you left a raisin in the sun it would dry up similar to a lost dream
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Does it dry up
do you loose interest and forget about it?
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What happens to a dream deferred?
defer means to put off, so Hughes is asking what happens to dreams that you put aside for later?
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and swiveling back to see an orange blur floating perfectly through the net.
hes seems to be fine and he got to look back and see the ball go in. The best feeling
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with a wild, headlong motion for the game he loved like a country
the love for the game can cause you to get to in the zone and end up getting hurt
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inexplicably falling, hitting the floor
could lead to an injury
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but losing his balance in the process
hes off balance probably from running without control
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by himself now and laying it gently against the glass for a lay-up,
easy points because they ran the fast break perfect
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while the power-forward explodes past them in a fury, taking the ball into the air
hes wide open becuase it was a two on 1
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until the guard finally lunges out and commits to the wrong man
he played the wrong offensive man so this will probably lead to a layup or dunk
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without a single bounce hitting the hardwood
this is not easy to do. Getting the ball up the court without taking a dribble
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moving together as brothers passing the ball between them without a dribble
good team ball movement
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fanning out and filling the lanes in tandem,
they are getting wide so they can get a good angle to cut in and get the ball
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both forwards racing down the court the way that forwards should,
the forwards are getting down the court to get easy points
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in slow motion, almost exactly like a coach’s drawing on the blackboard,
in basketball we work on fast breaks a lot in practice so that why hes saying "like coach's drawing on the blackboard"
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who looks stunned and nailed to the floor in the wrong direction, trying to catch sight of a high
the defender is "nailed to the floor' because he was not ready for the fast break, and cant keep up.
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scissoring past a flat-footed defender
the defender is not ready and does not recover quick enough and is caught lackin
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an underhand pass toward the other guard
the ball is then thrown farther down the court to a gaurd, they are now on a fast break
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and spinning around to throw a strike to the outlet who is already shoveling
the center is throwing the ball to his teammate down the court like a pitcher in baseball
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from the air like a cherished possession
they were on defense, he boxed out his man and now hes got the rebound
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perfectly, gathering the orange leather
orange leather would be the basketball
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boxes out his man and times his jump
hes either timing his jump for a put back dunk or a rebound
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and for once our gangly starting center
the center is usually the biggest man on the court mostly playing in the paint
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helplessly, but doesn’t drop,
this is definitely about basketball
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A hook shot kisses the rim and hangs there,
hook shots are usually soft, which kinda of goes with the phrase "kisses the rim"
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Fast Break
i think of a fast break in basketball when the team gets up the court faster and has easy opportunity at points
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poets.org poets.orgTo Prisoners13
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in the chalk and choke.
hard times?
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in the many many mornings-after;
she will always need help day after day
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in the non-cheering dark,
against the odds
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cultivation of strength to heal and enhancein the non-cheering dark,
she might be asking us to help each other "heal" each other
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I call for you
She calls to her audience once more
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Overwhat wants to crumble you down
is "what wants to crumble you down" "Over"?
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cultivation of victory Overlong blows that you want to give and blows you are going to get.
It sounds like shes planning something and she is calling for everyone's help and strength
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I call for you
she "calls" for everyone to be strong
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Where it is dry.Where it is dry.
another weather reference, not sure why
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Under the wolves and coyotes of particular silences.
wolves and coyotes would symbolizes the bad people in the world watching them but they have to be strong
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in the hot paralysis.
no matter the circumstances
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Dark gardeningin the vertigo cold.
being strong no matter the cirumstances
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I call for you cultivation of strength in the dark.
i see this as she wants people to be strong even when they dont think its possible
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studio.edx.org studio.edx.org
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Nor any know I know the ArtI mention ‑ easy ‑ Here ‑Nor any Placard boast me ‑Itʹs full as Opera ‑
No one knows she "know the art" and no one boasts her
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Till I was out of sight, in sound,
her getaway
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Gown of Gauze ‑
a dress
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That had I Ballet Knowledge ‑Would put itself abroadIn Pirouette to blanch a Troupe ‑Or lay a Prima, mad,
she wishes she knew ballet, like a dream of hers
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Glee
-great delight
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I cannot dance opon my Toes ‑No Man instructed me ‑
It seems she cannot do ballet because no one has taught her
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- Apr 2021
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www.baltimoresun.com www.baltimoresun.com
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pragmatic vision
Booker T Washington had similar ways
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that made people uncomfortable
Sometimes you have to make people uncomfortable too talk and work things out
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That response really unnerved him, and I think he came to regret the title late in life.
He somehow didnt believe it was offensive?
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For me, this crystallizes so many anxieties in our society about race and language, and who gets to tell what story
Whites in this time believed they were superior and they were able to manipulate the public and make people believe what they wanted
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She's less interested in Van Vechten's 50-year marriage and his three long-term gay affairs than with his fraught and friendly relations with such African-American luminaries as W.E.B. Du Bois, Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson and Zora Neale Hurston
she wanted to focus on his relationships with Harlem renaissance leaders rather than things that went on during his daily life
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provocations
a action that makes someone annoyed or angry on purpose
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faculty.wiu.edu faculty.wiu.edu
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We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain, free within ourselves.
Ending the passage on a strong positive note really ties this together perfectly
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If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful.
This is the mindset Hughes wants black artists to have and its a strong positive mindset
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I am ashamed, too, for the colored artist who runs from the painting of Negro faces to the painting of sunsets after the manner of the academicians because he fears the strange unwhiteness of his own features.
Society puts these burdens on these black artists and makes them feel wrong for "acting black" and a lot of people give in to it,
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But jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America
Like i said Jazz has a deeper meaning for black folks in America especially in this time.
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In many of them I try to grasp and hold some of the meanings and rhythms of jazz.
Jazz music for black people in this time was more than just music, it was deeper. They really connected to it and loved it.
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Our folk music, having achieved world-wide fame, offers itself to the genius of the great individual American composer who is to come. And within the next decade I expect to see the work of a growing school of colored artists who paint and model the beauty of dark faces and create with new technique the expressions of their own soul-world.
Black artists are on the rise and he expects one too really shine soon.
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"Oh, be respectable, write about nice people, show how good we are," say the Negroes. "Be stereotyped, don't go too far, don't shatter our illusions about you, don't amuse us too seriously. We will pay you," say the whites.
This is the problem with the art, everyone wants to make it their way, instead of letting the creator express their own feelings.
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A colored man writing poetry! How odd!)
it shouldnt be odd because everyone expresses their feelings differently.
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The road for the serious black artist, then, who would produce a racial art is most certainly rocky and the mountain is high.
It is tough for black artists to truly express their feelings because they have to know that society will not accept them it is a tall mountain to climb.
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"We want to worship the Lord correctly and quietly. We don't believe in 'shouting.' Let's be dull like the Nordics," they say, in effect.
In black churches they sing with much more passion and church is more up beat. This person is saying they want to keep it quiet.
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But let us look again at the mountain.
The racial discrimination that divides African Americans trying to live out their own lives and what society wants them to be is still there.
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perhaps these common people will give to the world its truly great Negro artist, the one who is not afraid to be himself.
He believes most black artists are too afraid of their identity to really express themselves and let their feelings come out on their art.
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majority
The "low-down" folks are the majority.
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Father is often dark but he has usually married the lightest woman he could find.
Black men married "the lightest woman" they can find im assuming to make their children as light as possible becuase they felt this would help them fit in better with society.
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He is never taught to see that beauty. He is taught rather not to see it, or if he does, to be ashamed of it when it is not according to Caucasian patterns.
society built into these kids brains that being like a black person is wrong and that they need to act white. I cant even imagine being a young African American in this time
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But this is the mountain standing in the way of any true Negro art in America
It is sad that their art is being classified intp divisions of race, these artists just want to be known for their art, and how they express their feelings.
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"I want to be a poet--not a Negro poet,"
He does not want to be defined as a black or white poet, just simply a poet, an artist
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www.amerlit.com www.amerlit.com
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Yet do I marvel at this curious thing:To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
Ending with a significant question, why cant poets just be poets, not black or white, just art.
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What awful brain compels His awful hand
Our brains control our actions, so the "awful brain" controls the "awful hand"
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With petty cares
Things that are not important
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catechism
used for instruction for Christians
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Inscrutable His ways are,
It is impossible to know why god does the things he does for us
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To struggle up a never-ending stair
The never ending stair is the mountain that Sisyphus could not roll the boulder to the top of.
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Sisyphus
A Greek mythology character who was punished for cheating death by being forced to roll a boulder in a continuous loop for eternity.
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Is baited by the fickle fruit
Cullen wants god to explain the reason Tantalus is driven to these actions.
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Tantalus
A rich figure from greek mythology who tried to serve his son at a feast with the gods.
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Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die
people who trust in god will some day die
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The little buried mole continues blind
This goes with the line before, Cullen asks if God "stoop" to question the people who dont believe in him.
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quibble
a objection to a questionable matter
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I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind,
Cullen does not doubt god is good and believes in him
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dbdprints.wixsite.com dbdprints.wixsite.com
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mistake the means of living for the object of life.
We mistake the the meaning of "making money" and tie it to "men" when in reality, making money does not define you.
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we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men;
Women can be money makers in society too, but we make the stereotype that men have to make money
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drive.google.com drive.google.comDuBois6
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But the application blank of this school says: "I am a white American and I apply for admission to the school."
He is saying that the school doesnt really let African Americans in, but if you are white, you can get in with no problem.
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Walter Darnrosch
German born, American conductor, remembered for directing of the New York Symphony Orchestra
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with new determination for all mankind.
the new up and coming black generation is determined to make the world a better place for all African Americans
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music
A lot of mentions of "music" or "songs". I think African Americans in this time relied on music as their getaway and a way to express their feelings.
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What do we want? What is the thing we are after?
The way he starts off the paragraph with two questions is very powerful as he goes into powerful answers too. "We want to be Americans"
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After all, what have we who are slaves and black to do with art?"
He is being sarcastic saying what do black people have to do with art because many people believed slaves did not have the time to be talking about things like art and that they have other things to worry about.
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nationalhumanitiescenter.org nationalhumanitiescenter.org
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lamentations
passionate expression of grief or sorrow
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Not all of our younger writers are deep enough in the sub-soil of their native materials ⎯ too many are pot-plants seeking a forced growth according to the exotic tastes of a pampered and decadent public.
There are too many artists not going deep enough, and they are trying to "force growth" instead of going deep and expressing their true feelings and growing in their own way.
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espousal
supporting/adopting a belief or way of life
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Art in the best sense is rooted in self-expression and whether naive or sophisticated is self-contained. I
Art is made from expressing your own feelings
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a convinced minority must confront a condescending majority. Art cannot completely accomplish this, but I believe it can lead the way.
Art can help reveal problems in this time and help lead the way to convincing a "condenscending majority" what is going on.
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in a word must choose art and put aside propaganda.
Locke is saying that we need to stop trying to persuade people with ideas and let them express their own feelings through art.
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