Island Essay, Research Paper

I came to

the conclusion that Langston was writing about te struggle to

freedom for blacs. Lanston Hughes wrote about racism often

in his poems, and this particular poem seems to follow that

pattern. Hughes gives the feeling of loneliness and dismay at

the fact that he is not considered equal to white people. The

poem represents the struggle for freedom and to be

considered equal. The speaker conveys a feeling of sadness

and loneliness in the tone of their voice, as stated in the

opening sentence of the poem. "Wave of sorrow", expresses

the sadness, by the speaker who I interpret to be a black

person caught up in the struggle to have equal right. Hughes

uses language that is used in everday life. There are no

obsolete of slang words incorporated in the course of the

poem. The author uses static imagery, painting a picture of

an island standing alone by itself off in the distance. I see a

sunny, smoothe sandy island surrounded by cal waters and a

warm atmosphere. Langston Hughes uses four stanzas which

are all couplets written in closed form. The rhyme scheme is

an end rhyme with the pattern ab cb cd ad. This is a unique

poem structure with the first line reapeating itself again in line

seven, and the third line repeating itself again in line five. This

is a lyric poem, meditation, which in this case th physical

object is the island. The rhythm is set to be short quck

verses with pauses to lead into each couplet. The word

choice of the poem is use to keep the poem’s structure short

and compact. The word order is slightly different from

normal use. The unconventional syntax is used to create a

rhyme scheme. I decided to do this poem because of the

versatility of the meaning. The way Hughes writes "Island" it

leaves the reader to develop their own opinions of the

author’s meaning. This poem can be interpreted in many

different ways, for instance: I also thought that this poem

could mean a person is close to reaching their goal and by

saying "Wave of sorrow, Take me there", I interpreted that

as meaning they needed some sort of motivation to point

them in the direction of their island or goal. The vesatility of

the poem is what makes the poem a success. It allows the

readerto get involved in the poem and develop their own

opinion and interpretations. My interpretation was influenced

by otherpoems written by Langston Hughes. He has been

known to write about racism in other works and that

influenced my interpretation of this poem. This is a very short

but powerful poem that provides motivation to keep our

hopes alive to reach our dreams.