Comparison_Contrast

Comparison/Contrast The Death of the Human Spirit in “Harlem” and “Ode on a Grecian Urn” Although Langston Hughes’s “Harlem” and John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn” were written about 130 years apart and they differ in their structure, they seem to share a similar underlying theme. Both of these poets are trying to convey a feeling of death. They are not talking about a superficial death but rather, a dying on the inside. This is the type of death that robs them of their spirit. To the reader, it is fairly clear to see in Hughes’s “Harlem” whereas in Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, the reader has to look beyond the outer layer of the poets words. In Hughes’s extremely short poem, “Harlem”, the poet asks “What happens to a dream deferred'” (1). If not for this opening line, the reader might be left wondering what the objects in the poem symbolize. Hughes uses a raisin, a sore, meat, a syrupy sweet, and a load. The “raisin” represents the plight of the black man in a dominant white society. The black man (raisin) refuses to give in and thus turns into a “sore”. urn, reader, grecian, poem, ode, keats, harlem, death, tone, hughes’s, questions, words, spirit, keats’, hughes, both, while, two, time, raisin, poets, poet, never, meaning, man, load, imagery, dreams, black, asking, written, world, trying, truth, thou