I decided to analyze the poem "A Black Man Talks of Reaping". This poem portrays many significant images. "I planted deep, within my heart the fear that wind or fowl would take the grain away." One could imagine a person working out in the fields planting deep holes which would in-hold seeds. Another way of looking at this line is by imagining a person praying and hoping that all of the hard work they put into their field would pay off without a big storm engulfing and destroying all of the full grown plants. Another significant image in this poem is when Arna Bontemps writes, "I scattered see enough to plant the land in rows from Canada to Mexico...". This part of the second stanza helps to portray the image of a person working year after year replanting the same land for miles and miles. I am sure everyone at some point in their life have walked through the rows of a cotton, corn or bean farm and realized that the rows of crops stretch so far that the end cannot be seen. When thinking of a person working in the hot sun that long it probably brings the picture of calloused hands or hot sweaty faces. These two images were the most apparent to me in this poem.
In this poem I also found a few figures of speech including a metaphor. This metaphor occurred in the first stanza, "I planted, deep within my heart...". This is a metaphor because it is physically impossible to plant something in your heart. In order to plant something you need to dig a hole. If a human were to dig a hole in their own heart they would die. This metaphor was used to help stress the importance of the relationship between humans and their work. In this case the relationship is one between the field and the man. In the second stanza Bontemps wrote, "I scattered seed enough to plant the land in rows from Canada to Mexico...". This is an example of an hyperbole because it is an extreme exaggeration. The land from Canada to Mexico is not all fertile enough to plant crops. This exaggeration helps to emphasis the fact that blacks (during the Harlem Renaissance) were working extremely long and hard hours day after day in the fields.
When analyzing this poem a few sound devices were found. In the first line of the second stanza there is an alliteration, "scattered seed". This is a significant part of the poem because it helps the flow of the poem. Internal rhyme was found very subtly in the second line of the second stanza. "in rows from Canada to Mexico...". This rhyme is important because it helps to make the poem more memorable. Internal rhyme also helps the flow and overall importance of the poem.
Another important part of they poem is "but for my reaping only what the hand can hold at once is all that I can show." This shows how blacks didn't always get the benefits from their own hard work. Also, it shows how they are wishful of a life were they can reap what they sow.
ReplyDeleteI really liked your take on the poem, Becca. I too visualized a lot of the same things while reading. You also did a great job finding all of those hidden sound devices. An important part of the poem was forgotten though, the end. I thought this was an important part of the poem because it really pulled whole thing together and have a hint towards how Bontemps visualized the future. He mentioned his "brother's sons" and "[Bontemps] children" and how they too worked on the fields. The way he explained how he felt watching the children work showed he was passionate and hopeful for a new, better generation.
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