Comparing Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson

This assignment explores the works of African American poets Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson through a comparative analysis of their poems, 'Dreams Deferred' and 'Wishes'. The essay delves into the similarities and differences in their writing styles, themes, and use of language. It highlights how both poets address the complexities of dreams, aspirations, and societal realities during the Harlem Renaissance era.

Running head: LITERARY COMPARISON AND CONTRADISTINCTION
LITERARY COMPARISON AND CONTRADISTINCTION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1LITERARY COMPARISON AND CONTRADISTINCTION
Poetry is an exceptional literary form that incites the imaginative power of a reader to
undergo a particular sensation of emotion through its artfully crafted language, connotation
and flow. Some researchers consider poetry is to be the oldest form of language interpretation
in the human civilization (Oliveira). Indeed, poetry has given us many gifted poet laureates
such as Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare and many other eminent literary
figures. This essay outlines the fact to provide a subject-to-subject, comparison and
contradistinction, between the two famous poems of Dreams deferred, by Langton Hughes
and, Wishes, by Georgia Douglas Johnson.
Langston Hughes is a well-known poet of African-American origin. Langston Hughes
was known to be the propagator of the famous Harlem Renaissance in the city of New York
in America. “Dreams deferred” is one of the poems, written beautifully, by Langston Hughes.
Georgia Douglas Johnson is also a renowned poetess of African-American origin. She was
also a principal contributor in the Harlem Renaissance movement.
In the artistic poem, Dreams deferred, Mr. Hughes has written about the theme of
failed dreams, which in turn symbolizes with the feeling of hopelessness and despair among
the millions of African-Americans in the neighborhood of Harlem in the city of New York.
Harlem was previously a resident place for the affluent white population. However, later,
when racial segregation in the neighborhood of Manhattan, compelled the blacks to settle in
Harlem, then the whites began to move out from Harlem in huge numbers in order to avoid
racial violence. As a result, Harlem rapidly changed from a place of aspiration and opulence
to a place of impoverishment and indigence (Fogerty). This is the main poignant theme and
central focus of Dreams deferred, where the emergence of the black people did not resemble
a dream, but a dream, which was deferred.

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On the other hand, in the poem, Wishes, Ms. Johnson has reflected on the theme of
expressed wishes. The poem symbolizes the dullness and tediousness of life. Human life is
marred by disappointment and failure as well as it is enhanced by rejoice and joie de vivre.
To overcome the humdrumness, she desires to visualize the extraordinary beauty of the
nature (Misztal & Indurkhya). The minor exquisite beauty in the mundane daily activities of
the life astounds her. The allure of a swallow’s tail and the soft lunar curve mesmerizes her.
The theme and central focus of the poem is the common desire of the middle class section of
the people to dream and achieve the unachievable.
Therefore, Dreams deferred has a theme, the failed dream of the unity of all the races
in America, which is quite pessimistic to absorb. Contrastingly, Wishes dwells upon
optimism and adventure. Wishes teaches the readers that monotony is not lasting and that it
can be broken through wishful hopes and desires.
Style in poetry is known to be a technique through which the poet wants to pass the
message, intonation and sentiment of the poem to the readers. In Dreams deferred, Langston
Hughes has modeled his poem to offer the message of the despair and languishness of the
condition of the African-American population to the readers in a simple lucid way (Mittal et
al.). It is very easy to comprehend the unity of the sentiments of all the African-Americans in
their witnessing of the failure of the great American dream.
In the other poem, Wishes, Georgia Douglas Johnson has structured her poem in a
similar effortless manner. The readers would experience hopefulness and assurance that
monotony can be replaced by joyousness. Satisfaction can also be found in trivial dreaming.
The mystery and appeal of the unknown or obscure is splendidly drafted in just a few lines in
the poem.

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Therefore, both the poets have followed simple and short style in writing their poems.
The readers would find it less cumbersome to perceive the message that the poets wants to
deliver and at the same time empathize with the theme and the central focus of the poems
(Kao & Jurafsky).
The paragraph and the sentence construction used by Langston Hughes in the Dreams
deferred is clear-cut and specific. Dreams deferred is a short poem with just a composition of
eleven lines. The lines are interrogative by nature. The poet wants to ask to the readers
through the eleven touching lines about the consequences of the condition of the failed
dreams of the black population in America.
On the other hand, in the poem, Wishes, written by Georgia Douglas Johnson, there
are six lines. In each of the six lines, the poetess expresses her desire to overcome the
tiredness of the daily ho-hum of life by dreaming about the sweet nuances of Mother Nature.
Finally, in the last sentence, the poet reveals her wish to sail off to some anonymous location.
Georgia Douglas Johnson has marvelously constructed the theme of the whole poem in just a
few short lines.
Therefore, it can be said that both the poems are structured into short comprehensible
lines. This makes both the poems all the more interesting and quicker to grasp by the readers.
Short poems with simple themes and with an equal short central focus message are a rarity in
the field of literature (Seely, Amy, and Tasha).
In the conclusion, after the comparison and contradistinction of both the poems, it can
be said that Langston Hughes and Georgia Douglas Johnson are quite similar in their
expression style and ornamentation of sentences. This could be because both the poets were
important members of the famous Harlem Renaissance movement. In addition to this, both of

4LITERARY COMPARISON AND CONTRADISTINCTION
them had certain similarities in background, race, and class and upbringing style. Due to this,
it can be said that Dreams deferred and Wishes are two gems of African-American literature.

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References
J. Fogarty, Timothy. "A dream deferred: interdisciplinary accounting in the US." Accounting,
Auditing & Accountability Journal 27.8 (2014): 1265-1270.
Kao, Justine, and Dan Jurafsky. "A Computational Analysis of Style, Affect, and Imagery in
Contemporary Poetry." CLfL@ NAACL-HLT. 2012.
Misztal, Joanna, and Bipin Indurkhya. "Poetry generation system with an emotional
personality." ICCC. 2014.
Mittal, Dinesh, et al. "Empirical studies of self-stigma reduction strategies: a critical review
of the literature." Psychiatric Services63.10 (2012): 974-981.
Oliveira, Hugo Gonçalo. "PoeTryMe: a versatile platform for poetry
generation." Computational Creativity, Concept Invention, and General Intelligence 1
(2012): 21.
Seely Flint, Amy, and Tasha Tropp Laman. "Where poems hide: Finding reflective, critical
spaces inside writing workshop." Theory Into Practice 51.1 (2012): 12-19.