Langston Hughes' poem "Mother to Son" contains no rhyme or alliteration. In fact, Hughes deliberately avoids such "prettifying" devices as pleasant rhyme schemes or alliterative devices to underscore how hard the narrator's life has been. The jagged, unrhymed cadences of the poem speak to the jagged lack of beauty in the mother's life. The language is hard, blunt and direct. The mother has lived a life that doesn't rhyme. It has been filled with "tacks" and "splinters" and "boards torn up." As she repeats twice, life for her "ain't been no crystal stair." Instead, she has struggled. At the same time, while life has been hard for her, she encourages her son to keep on going, as she does. "Don't you sit down on the steps" she says, just because life is rough. "Ise still goin'," she tells him. Her unvarnished description of the truth of how life really is becomes an inspiration to the poet that no pretty rhyme could match.
No comments:
Post a Comment