The poems “1, Too" by Langston Hughes and "From the Dark Tower” by Countee Cullen both use figurative language to express their opinions about
racial segregation. Read each poem, and then match each characteristic to the correct poem.
characteristics:
references a Walt Whitman work
paradox of social injustice
uses set meter and rhyme scheme
symbol of wasted efforts
uses free verse
Excerpt:
We shall not always plant while others reap
The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute
That lesser men should hold their brothers
cheap;
Not everlastingly while others sleep
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow
flute,
Not always bend to some more subtle
brute;
We were not made eternally to weep.
(From the Dark Tower by Countee Cullen)
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother,
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
and grow strong.
(I, Too by Langston Hughes)