The road not taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, diverge - расходиться

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth; bend - склоняться; undergrowth - подлесок

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black. trod - шагать

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence: hence - следовательно

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

COMPREHENSION AND DISCUSSION:

1. What’s the subject of the poem?

2. What experience is the poet describing?

3. What might the two roads symbolize?

4. Describe the poem’s setting.

5. Why could the speaker not travel both roads?

6. Was the decision easy to make? How do you know?

7. What was the difference between two roads?

8. What do you know about the surface of the roads?

9. What does the speaker mean when he says he knows “how way leads on to way”?

10. What does the speaker feel about his choice?

11. What does the speaker mean by the last line of the poem?

12. Describe the poem’s speaker as a person.

13. What’s the idea of the poem?

Jazz Poetry

Jazz poetry is a literary genre defined as poetry necessarily informed by jazz music –that is, poetry in which the poet responds to and writes about jazz. Jazz poetry, like the music itself, encompasses a variety of forms, rhythms, and sounds. Beginning with the birth of blues and jazz at the beginning of the twentieth century, jazz poetry is to be seen as a thread that runs through the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat movement, and the Black Arts Movement – and it is still vibrant today. From early blues to free jazz to experimental music, jazz poets use their appreciation for the music as poetic inspiration.

Poets in the Jazz tradition include: Marvin Bell, Sterling Brown, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac and others.

LANGSTON HUGHES

1902-1967

Langston Hughes is the most outstanding representative of Negro writers in the US. Hughes was the first African American author to support himself through his writing; he produced more than sixty books. He earned critical attention for his portrayal of realistic black characters and he became one of the dominant voices speaking out on issues concerning black culture. He wrote in many genres; starting and continuing with poetry, he turned to fiction, autobiographies, and children's books.

James Langston Hughes was born in 1902 in a small town in the State of Missouri. His father soon left his family and went to live in Mexico. His mother worked as a cook. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland, Ohio. It was in Lincoln, Illinois, that Hughes began writing poetry. When still a boy, Hughes had to begin working in order to be able to finish high school. After finishing school Hughes entered Columbia University in New York, but soon he had to leave it because he had no money to pay for his studies there. So he went in search of a job. He tried different kinds of work. He worked on a farm as a driver, then he sold flowers. In the end he became a sailor on a ship that was going to Africa.

For several years Hughes stayed abroad: in Africa, France, Italy. His life there was very hard. He had no special trade or profession and could not find a good job. Very often he had no place to sleep and nothing to eat.

In 1924 Hughes returned to the USA. He lived in the Negro slums and saw the hard life of the Negroes in the American capital. At this period he began to write poems. His poems first were published in 1926 and from that time Hughes became famous. His first collection of poems was called “The Weary Blues”. He was working at a restaurant then as a dishwasher and the reporters photographed him there with dirty plates in his hands. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. From the 1920s to the 1960s, Hughes wrote works that showed an insightful view into the lives of blacks in America.

Hughes is particularly known for his insightful, colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He wrote novels, short stories and plays, as well as poetry, and is also known for his engagement with the world of jazz and the influence it had on his writing. Hughes’ poems are very lyrical with elements of Negro folklore in them.

For Hughes, who wrote honestly about the world into which he was born, it was impossible to turn away from the subject of race, which permeated every aspect of his life, writing, public reception and reputation. His subject matter was extraordinarily varied and rich: his poems are about music, politics, America, love, the blues, and dreams. Hughes wrote poems about ordinary people leading ordinary lives, and about a world that few could rightly call beautiful, but that was worth loving and changing.

His most famous poem, “Dreams,” is to be found in thousands of English textbooks across America. Memorized by countless children and adults, “Dreams” is among the least racially and politically charged poems that he wrote. Though this is a poem of hope, it seems significant that he writes, in the second stanza, “when” instead of “if,” a testimony to the difficulty of his own life, and the lives he so closely observed in his work.

DREAMS

Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

COMPREHENSION AND DISCUSSION:

1. According to the poem, what should we do with our dreams?

2. Give two traits of the bird mentioned in the first stanza.

3. Describe the field that is mentioned in the second stanza.

4. Under what conditions will the reader’s life be like the bird of the field?

5. Define the word dreams as it is used in the poem.

6. What is the poet’s attitude about a life without dreams?

7. Explain why the does author use if in the first stanza and when in the second.

8. Point out the metaphors. What comparisons is Hughes making? What similarities can you find in the things being compared?

9. Explain how these metaphors make Hughes’ warning more powerful.

10. Do you think the poet has experienced life without dreams?

11. Explain how dreams, as the author defines them, can make harsh situations more bearable.

Much of Hughes’ writing was inspired by the blues and jazz of that era; an example is "Harlem" (sometimes called "Dream Deferred[14]") from “Montage of a Dream Deferred” (1951), from which a line was taken for the title of the play “Raisin in the Sun”.

HARLEM

What happens to a dream

deferred?

Does it dry up dry up - высохнуть
Like a raisin in the sun? raisin - изюминка
Or fester like a sore – fester – гнить; sore - воспаленный
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat? stink – зловоние; rotten - гнилой
Or crust and sugar over-- crust - корка
like a syrup sweet?
Maybe it just sags sag - прогибаться
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

COMPREHENSION AND DISCUSSION:

1. Why is the poem called “Harlem”?

2. What is the meaning of ‘deferred’?

3. What kind of dream is the speaker talking about?

4. How would you describe the tone of the poem?

5. What stylistic devices does the poet use in the poem?

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16