The poem is about
the speaker's inability to achieve a childhood dream because of his society's racism and prejudices
. He describes his experiences as a young man and his dream of being something great.
What is the theme of As I Grew Older?
The fundamental theme of this poem is
power in the reclamation of dreams
. A familiar image in his poems, Hughes uses the idea of the dream as representation of how individuals can take action.
What is the meaning of As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes?
In the poem “As I Grew Older ” by Langston Hughes,
a young man is thinking about his goals and that he cannot achieve them because of racial prejudice
. The theme of the poem is that prejudice is used to keep people from accomplishing their dreams. Hughes expresses this idea by using imagery, anaphora, and a symbol.
Is the poem As I Grew Older optimistic pessimistic or both explain?
The poem “As I Grew Older” is
optimistic
. Explanation: The question is asked from the poem As I Grew Older which is written by the poet Langston Hughes. The theme of the poem is all about not giving up and needs to speak up and be heard in the world.
What do the speaker's hands represent As I Grew Older?
However, the speaker is not going to give up his dream. His hands are the “tool” that will break through the metaphoric wall and destroy the hatred and prejudice. It is ironic that these same hands represent
the power that can bring him to his dream
.
What do you think will be the effect of breaking through the wall in the poem as I grew older?
What do you think will be the effect of breaking through the wall? The darkness represents the despair, discrimination, persecution and inequality.
The light represents hope for the future and the ability to achieve dreams
.
What has happened to the dream in as I grew older?
Answer:
The poet's dream was lost, when a wall rose up high between him and his dream, blocking it by a dark shadow
. The wall symbolizes difficulties and the discrimination that people who are black face in their lives.
What is the theme of the poem as I grew older How can you connect it to the world around you?
“As I Grew Older” is a poem about
the dreams that the poet was unable to achieve because of racial subjugation and discrimination
. The poet, in his childhood, had dreams but as time passed and he grew up, he was subjected to racial prejudice and oppression.
What images are used in poem as I grew older?
The primary imagery in the poem is
light and dark
. The speaker of the poem compares his dream to the sun. Standing between the speaker and the sun are a wall and a shadow, blocking the light of the dream.
What poetic devices are used in as I grew older?
The poem “As I grew older”, written by Langston Hughes teems with stylistic devices, such as
alliterations, chiasm, comparisons, caesura, opposites, enumerations, metaphors, anaphoras, epiphoras, personal
pronouns, historical references, a paratactical sentence structure and parallelism.
Is the poet optimistic or pessimistic?
Answer: The poet's
tone is optimistic
. The message in the poem is presented to us straight forward in third stanza, which offers a sort of summary or conclusion to what has come before.
Which wall do you think separates the poet from his dream?
Answer: The poem is pessimistic because the speaker talks about a wall which separates him from his dream. This wall is the attitude / prejudices / racism of society towards black people. The “
wall
” separates him from his dream (because he is black) and has fewer chances to succeed (than whites).
What does shadow signify?
A shadow itself represents
the blocking out of light
and, therefore, implies the existence of some lurking darkness or source of evil.
What does the poet compare his dream to?
“Dreams” is a poem written by Langston Hughes. The poem speaks is about the importance of a dream. The poem is composed of two stanzas with four lines each. The poet has metaphorically compared
a life without a dream with a bird with broken wings that cannot fly in the first stanza
.
What do the speaker's hands represent?
These gestures mostly represent the viewpoint of an observer on the action. That is, the speaker's hand as a whole represents
a characters feet, or body
(such as in Figure 6).
How many time frames are used in the poem As I Grew Older?
The simple vocabulary makes each word important, the themes are clear, and repetitions in the poem create movement. The speaker is the poet himself, telling us about his own personal experience in his life. The setting of the poem is divided into
three clear time frames
.
