Pain Explored by Langston Hughes

¶ … Pain Explored by Langston Hughes and Dudley Randall

Artists use their art to convey messages about society and their messages often enhance the human experience because they make people think. The African-American experience is colored with many shades and many of them are not pretty colors. Throughout a rather turbulent history in the United States, African-American artists express themselves freely, exposing a broad cross-section of perspectives and problems. Langston Hughes and Dudley Randall are two poets that captured this essence. They witnessed the pain of oppression while living in a society that claimed to want to end racism. Their art reveals the mind and the law are two very different mechanisms and never the twain shall meet.

Langston Hughes' poem, "Dream Boogie" contains a message for the rest of the country but that message is clothed behind an otherwise be-bop beat. On the surface, "Dream Boogie" is light-hearted but beneath the surface offers more food for thought. Hidden beneath the child-like singsong quality of the child, the poet reminds the reader of everything dangerous. One of the most significant passages in the poem is "Ain't you heard/The boogie-woogie rumble / Of a dream deferred?" (Hughes 2-4), indicating the importance of the African-American plight. The poem if filled with an urgency to press on despite how things may appear. The poem makes its points clear without being obvious. The poem is art in that it is a form of escapism but it is also demonstrating the danger of escape. The child and his energy contrast the specific needs of the African-American society that adults can only know.

Hughes' poem brings to light the importance of art at a time of oppression. Poetry and music are forms of escape not only for the audience but for the artist as well. Hughes lived during a time when racism was thriving even though all men were supposedly created equal. The violence his generation witnessed undercut playful child's games. The poem represents the constant struggle going on beneath the surface of law. The law might have changed but the bitter truth that oppression still existed lived around every corner in every African-American child's face. Hughes knew the suffering and he knew the joy of being young would leave as soon as childhood innocence ended. His perception is hopeful; hence the child-like quality to his poem, but he is not blind to the realistic threat to his heritage.

Randall also explores the complexity of African-American at a turbulent time. In "Ballad of Birmingham," the poet revisits a church bombing that occurred in 1963. This poem is seen through the eyes of the victim's mother. The mother child relationship allows the poet to hone in on the horrible nature of the incident. The poet writes with an intent, but very still, voice illustrating how meaningless the event was. Readers are presented with the image of a mother only wanting to protect her child but falling short thanks to the ruthlessness of her fellow men. The child, as in Hughes' poem, represents a type of innocence that will not last long in this world.

"Ballad of Birmingham," is also like "Dream Boogie" in that it has a singsong like quality. It is similar to a lullaby, which only makes the aspect of the bombing that more painful. The danger is realized as the mother says:

"No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren't good for a little child" (5-8).

With this mother's quote, Randall eludes to the danger that is racism. The mother strives to protect her child and tells her, "For I fear those guns will fire. / But you may go to church instead / And sing in the children's choir" (14-6). Her intentions are good but Randall points out that is not enough in a world where evil men wait around every corner. The most horrible fact about this poem is that it is based on a true event. The mother and child are significant because they represent an entire generation. The image of a frantic mother looking for her child is one seared into readers' memories. Here we see how we are always affected by others and even when we try to do the right thing, it does not matter.