This comparison and contrast involves two poems; namely; “Negro” by Langston Hughes and “I’m Nobody! Who are You?” by Emily Dickson. As such, the analysis of both poems brings out various similarities and differences based on the poems’ structure, setting, genre, figurative language, theme, tone and finally rhyme scheme among others. Thus, this paper brings out a critical analysis of the comparing and contrasting elements of both “Negro” and “I’m Nobody! Who are You?” by mainly focusing on the tone, speaker, imagery, figures of speech, symbolism, and ultimately, foreshadowing.
First, both Hughes’ and Emily’s poems contain speakers. In other words, the two poems have specific personas. As for the “Negro”, the speaker could be either Hughes himself or a voice that represents all black people in America. Evidently, Hughes uses words such as I am and I’ve to represent himself. “I am a Negro / I’ve been a slave” (Hughes 1/4). In addition, in the year when Hughes wrote this poem, the black people in America faced a lot of harassment and rejection because of their race. Thus, the speaker could also be a voice for the blacks generally reflecting on the hardships that the African American went through in the past as well as those challenges that they still endure up to date (Kirszner, 685). Similarly, in Emily’s poem the speaker could be the poet herself who is probably talking to a person that she had priory known. “I’m Nobody! Who are you?” (Emily 1). However, the persona could also be an imaginary individual whom Emily really wanted find out about because she wasn’t sure whether the ‘You’ were nobody like her. “Are you- Nobody- too?” (Dickinson / 2).
Furthermore, both Emily and Hughes used the element of imagery in their poems although Hughes used a larger number of imagery as compared to Emily. As such, Hughes bountiful images mainly emphasized on the oppression of the blacks. “Black as the night is black / Black as the depths of my Africa” (Hughes 2/3). In this case, Hughes creates a mental picture to the readers that blacks have a dark complexion that is more like night. In addition, Hughes also creates an imaginary and fictional behavior related to the black by comparing their complexion to the depths of his Africa. In the same way, Emily uses imagery in her poem where she compares publicity to a frog. “How public-like a frog” (Dickinson 6). Here, Emily creates a mental picture to the audience of how hard it is to hide publicity just like a frog since naturally, a frog will always croak. Thus, she uses the imagery to show that since most people know how frogs croak, then publicity will also be hard to hide.
Moreover, due to the need to communicate to their audiences, both Emily and Hughes used direct and comprehensible tones in their respective poems. As such, Hughes specifically avoided using personal dialects and proses in order to reach out to the audience and avoid miscommunication as well. This was to ensure that all the recipients of the poem connected and related with his desire to identify who he was. In addition, Hughes also wanted to communicate the ordeals and problems that African Americans generally face. In contrast, even though Emily uses simple language and few words to lay out her poem, she uses various tones to express herself. Thus, in the first stanza of “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” the persona sounds both excited and anxious in some way. However, the speaker then shifts to a cynical and satirical tone while criticizing the intensity in which people love fame thereby bringing out sarcasm (Kirszner 678). As such, Emily uses the tones of excitement, anxiety, satire and finally cynicism in order to communicate to her readers.
In addition, Hughes and Emily use figures of speech such as when Emily uses an erratic rhyme scheme in her poem. Both of the stanzas in Emily’s poem rhyme ‘abcb’. “I’m Nobody! Who are You? / Are you- Nobody- too? / Then there’s a pair of us! / Don’t tell! they’d advertise- you know!” (Dickinson 1/2/3/4). Besides, Emily brings out a half rhyme since the “too” in the second line looks back to the “you” in the same line whereas the “know” rhymes with the “no” of nobody. Conversely, Hughes does not use rhyming words to bring out the figures of speech. Instead, he uses repetition which he achieves by repeating various phrases severally. “I am a Negro: / Black as the night is black, / Black like the depths of my Africa” (1/ 2/3/20/21/22).
Both poems by Hughes and Emily have various element which the poets use differently within their individual poems. Thus, the elements and the means in which the poets use them in their poems result to the similarities and differences. As such, one major difference between Emily’s and Hughes’ poem is their structure. Here, Emily uses fewer words in the structure of her poem whereas Hughes’ poem is wordy and lengthy. Finally, Emily uses the element of foreshadowing in her poem unlike Hughes. This is where the persona suggests that they should remain anonymous since the public would advertise them if they came to know about them. “Don’t tell! they’d advertise- you know” (Dickinson 4).
Works Cited
Dickinson, Emily, Edric Mesmer, and Virginia E. Wolff. I’m Nobody! Who Are You?: Poems by Emily Dickinson. New York: Scholastic Inc, 2002. Print.
Hughes, Langston. Negro. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002. Print.
Kirszner, Laurie G. Compact Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing with 2016 Mla Update Card. Cengage Learning, 2016. Print.
