Poetry is the art of written word that uses less word to express many feelings. It is fictional, uses specialized language, lacks of pragmatic function but also ambiguous (Stefanie and Jarmila, cited from Basics of English Studies: An Introductory course for students of literary studies in English). Poetry is kind of language that express feelings intensely the usual ordinary language (Perrine 1982 : 3). The words that are selected to be in a poem are selected very carefully and it will always consider the meaning of each word that is used. There are some characteristics of a poem such as written in the collection of lines (stanza), has similar sounds (rhyme), rhythm, contains of implied meaning and figurative language. Perrine (1982) also stated that there are some elements of poetry such as denotation, connotation, imagery, figurative language, allusion, meaning and idea, tone, musical devices, rhythm and meter.
Poetry is really famous back then and there were a lot great poets born created amazing works. Poetry exists to bring us the sense of life perceptions as well as sharpen our contacts with the exsistence (Perrine 1982 : 4). Poets uses their experiences, combined what they felt, what they saw, what they observed in life and fill it into beautiful arrangement of words for the feelings to reach the readers. Langston Hughes was one of the famous poets of the twentieth century. According to Leach (2004), he was the most prominent African American poet that outspoken critic of racism and segregationist policies. Leach (2004) also stated that Langston Hughes expresses his poetry about black masses but still making his writing to attrack white audiences. He uses his own experiences in his life to be expressed in most of his works.
A poem titled “Cross” is one of Langston Hughes literary work that was published in January 1926 in a collection of poem titled The Weary Blues (Cummings, 2008 and The World’s Poetry Archive, 2012 : 4). In his life Langston Hughes concerned about racial consciousness and delivered his message and his experience feelings through his works (Prastya SN, 2009). “Cross” is one of his works that express about racial situation that experienced by the speaker of the poem. Most of Langston Hughes’ works was inspired by the situation of Racism Crisis in 1921 (Prastya SN, 2009). Thus, the way Hughes was able to put race in his poem and how it is written unique to express his feelings towards racism during that time. This article has found it interesting to discuss more about the elements of poetry in Langston Hughes “Cross” in order to dig more into the deeper meaning behind this poem. The highlighted aspect will be the speaker of the poem, the audience, subject matter, connotative, denotative, imagery, figurative language, tone, musical devices, rhythm and meter.
II. Discussion
CROSS by Langston Hughes (1902 – 1967)
My old man’s a white old man
And my old mother’s black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I’m sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well.
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I’m gonna die,
Being neither white nor black?
Analysis of the speaker, audience, subject matter and tone
In order to be able to understand the meaning of a poem better, the reader should be able to analyze the points of the poem. They are the speaker of the poem, the audience of the poem, the subject matter and the tone of the poem. Poem “Cross” expresses a situation of the speaker that has parents with different race. It can be seen through the first two lines which say, ‘My old man’s a white old man, and my old mother’s black’, mentioned two different races for being black and white. The speaker of the poem is happened to be a mixed-race person. This statement is found reasonable, according to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2015), listed that a person with one black parent and one white parent is what called as mulatto. Therefore, the speaker of the poem “Cross” can be identified as a mulatto or someone who is born from parents with different races.
The audience of poem “Cross” can be divided into two. There are the audience of the poem itself and the secondary audience is for specific target in the poem. The audience of a poem is exactly the reader themselves. However, this poem also has specific audience that can be identified for white people and black people. Pointing on the writer of this poem Langston Hughes was born to be a mixed-race as African—American from his great-grandmothers (The World’s Poetry Archives, 2012 : 1). His goal is also happened to be bringing the two worlds together between two different races black and white (Prastya SN, 2009 : 2). The other audience in this poem is actually the speaker themselves. It can be seen through the last line which say, ‘Being neither white nor black’, means that the speaker has been talking to themselves so the audience was themselves.
Aside from the speaker of the poem and the audience, there are also the subject matter and the tone of this poem. The subject matter of this poem is found to be a situation where a mixed-race people appear to get prejudices based on skin color. It can be seen through the lines that contain the word of ‘white’ and ‘black’ shows that the speaker is under pressure to be born as a mixed-race person. This poem situation probably appeared in real condition which happened to black people in that era (Prastya SN, 2009). Meanwhile, tone is the attitude that the reader feel or the writer’s attitude toward the subject or audience (cited from Timpane, The Poetry Center). The tone of this poem is anger, confusion, frustration and regret. The expressions of these were delivered through the lines which say, ‘If ever I cursed my white old man’ and ‘And wished she were in hell,’ expresses anger. However it turns out to be a regretted action of the speaker ‘I’m sorry for that evil wish and ‘And now I wish her well.’. The speaker is found to be frustrased and confused because he does not belong to any one community nor black or white. The speaker wishes on bad things for their parents and he regretted everything once his parents died.
Analysis of Denotation and Connotation
Denotation and connotation are the elements that cannot be separated to be part of a poem. These elements happen to enrich the meaning of the poem to make it more beautiful. Denotation is literary the dictionary meaning of a word, there will no other hidden or deeper meaning that its own meaning itself. However according to Perrine (1982), beyond its denotation a word may also have connotation in it. Connotation is the use of words that has overtones of meaning. Connotations contains of implicit meaning which makes the reader of the poem have different idea to interpret the meaning of the poem.
The poem “Cross” by Langston Hughes also contains of these denotation and connotation. In the first stanza (1st) and (2nd) lines which says, ‘My old man’s a white old man, and my old mother’s black’ contains both denotation and connotation. The word ‘old man’ and ‘old mother’ is not just a dictionary meaning of old people but can be the way how the speaker of the poem called their parent. The word ‘old man’ connotation meaning can be the ‘father’ and the ‘old mother’ refers to the mother of the speaker. The word ‘white’ and ‘old’ is not only refer to the color of the skin, but also the race of the parents of the speaker. The skin color that represent race probably connected to the racial culture between African and American people.
The analysis on lines (3rd) and (4th) which says, ‘If ever I cursed my white old man, I take my curses back.’ shows the denotation meaning and connotation stand side by side. The ‘father’ of the speaker is happened to be white or American. Even though the first line shows that the speaker felt anger to ‘curse’ on his ‘white old man’, he took back the curses because his father is white. According to Prastya SN (2009), black and white races create two social classes in society which took the whites as the higher class, in the other hand the black is regarded as the lower class (cited from research paper, Racial Discrimination in Langston Hughes’ Poem: A Marxist Approach). The lines (5) and (6) were talking about his mother ‘black old mother’. The connotation is that the speaker wanted to curse his mother and even wished that she were in hell, ‘If ever I cursed my black old mother, And wished she were in hell,”. The connotation means that the speaker happen to be angry on his fate for being born as a mixed-race, the speaker shows more anger on his ‘old black mother’ because the prejudice on half African-American during that time.
In the other hand the (7th) and (8th) line shows that the speaker regretted his wish, ‘I’m sorry for that evil wish, and now I wish her well’. These two lines only show denotation meaning and no connotation implied. The (9th) and (10th) line, ‘My old man died in a big fine house, my ma died in a shack,’, contains both denotation and connotation meaning. These lines explained the place where the speaker’s parents died for the denotation meaning. The word ‘big fine house’ refers to the connotation meaning that the ‘father’ of the speaker is a rich person or the other meaning probably the ‘father’ respected in society because he is white. A contrast lines for the ‘mother’ of the speaker whom happened to be black people. The line said that the speaker ‘ma’ or ‘mother’ died in a shack. According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2015), shack means to be a small building made of wood that have not built well. The connotation is probably the mother of the speaker is poor or less respected in the society.
The last two lines (11th) and (12th) describe about the speaker’s condition of being confused, ‘I wonder where I’m gonna die, Being neither white nor black’. The connotation meaning is that the speaker is confused with his own identity because the speaker is a mixed-race or a mullato. This is related with the title of the poem ‘Cross’ which based on the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2015), cross means something about two things, and the poem is about mixed-race that involve the speaker which mostlikely a problem during that time between both two different race.
Analysis of Figurative Language
People have been using figurative language even in their daily life, unconsciously saying or express what they feel through figurative language. In poetry figurative language is considered as the important element to build a beautiful arrangement of words. The selections of word in poetry were selected selectively considering the meaning and the message that want to be delivered. The part of figurative language is such as metaphor, personification, metonymy, symbol, allegory, paradox, overstatement, understatement, irony.
Personification, symbol and overstatement are the figurative language used in the poem “Cross” by Langston Hughes. Personification is giving the attributes of human being to an animal, an object or a concept (Perrine 1982 : 60). The personification in this poem is located on the lines which says, ‘I’m sorry for that evil wish,’. The phrase ‘evil wish’ is personification because a wish cannot be evil because it does not have its own will to do so (being evil). This poem also have symbol in the line which say, ‘white old man’ and ‘black old mother’ which refers to be a symbol of certain race (American-African). The other symbol located in the first two lines from last stanza, ‘My old man died in a fine big house. My ma died in a shack.’. The phrase ‘a fine big house’ represent something probably respect from the society. In the other hand the word ‘shack’ probably represents the symbol of being treated badly by the society. There is also an overstatement on the line which say, ‘a fine big house’ overstatement on giving detail of the house.
Analysis of Imagery
Imagery is defined as the representation through language of sense experience (Perrine 1982 : 46). Perrine (1982) stated that there are some imageries used in poetry to give the reader imagination to sense the experience. There are five senses such as sight, hear, smell, taste and touch. They are divided again into some imagery such as sight imagery, hearing imagery, smell imagery, touch imagery, internal sensation, taste imagery, internal feeling, physical movement and muscle movement. This part will analyze the imagery used in poem “Cross” by Langston Hughes.
My old man’s a white old man
And my old mother’s black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
The first and second line uses the sight imagery because the reader is able to imagine seeing ‘old man’ with white skin color and ‘old mother’ with black skin color that represent different race. The third line contain of sight imagery and hearing imagery. The reader were able to see a ‘white old man’ and hear the word ‘curse’ as cursing or shouting at the subject ‘white old man’. The fourth line also uses hearing imagery because the reader can hear the ‘curses’.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I’m sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well.
The first and second line of this stanza uses sight imagery and hearing imagery too. The reader can hear the ‘curse’ as well as seeing the ‘black old mother’. The third line contain of internal feeling imagery because we can feel the speaker regretted his own evil wish. However the fourth line has no imagery.
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I’m gonna die,
Being neither white nor black?
The first and second line of this stanza uses sight imagery because the reader can see a fine big house and a shack. The third line uses internal feeling imagery because the reader can feel that the speaker is wondering on his own self. The fourth line also uses sight imagery because we can see the representative of the color as two different races.
Analysis of Musical Devices
The last element of poetry is musical devices. According to Perrine (1982), the poet uses words for sounds as well as for meaning and uses the sound to reinforce meaning. There are six common musical devices in poetry such as rhyme, alliteration, consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia and refrain (Miller, 2017). This part will analyze on the musical devices on the poem ‘Cross’ by Langston Hughes.
According to Miller (2017), Rhyme is one of the musical devices that use vowel sounds which later will make a similar construction. The rhyme scheme of ‘Cross’ (abab cded fbgb) will be shown below. This poem also has alliteration. Alliteration is a repetition of initial consonant sound (Perrine, 1982 : 154). The alliteration in this poem is highlighted bold as it shown below. In the other hand there is also refrain happened in this poem. Refrain is a repetition according to some fixed pattern (Perrine, 1982 :156). Some refrain in this poem such as the word; man, mother, old, cursed, black, white, wish and my.
My old man’s a white old man A
And my old mother’s black. B
If ever I cursed my white old man A
I take my curses back. B
If ever I cursed my black old mother C
And wished she were in hell, D
I’m sorry for that evil wish E
And now I wish her well. D
My old man died in a fine big house. F
My ma died in a shack. B
I wonder where I’m gonna die, G
Being neither white nor black? B
Analysis of Rhythm and Meter
Rhythm and Meter are also the part of elements in poetry. According to Perrine (1982), stated that rhythm refers to any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound meanwhile meter is a kind of rhythm that we can tap our foot to. Rhythm is more like the pattern of stress and unstressed syllables and meter is the number of feet in line. There are six type of meter such as Iamb, Trochee, Anapest, Dactyl, Spondee and Monosyllabic. The poem ‘Cross’ by Langston Hugnes has the meter of Iambic trimeter, even though in some part there are some Iambic tetrameter. This part below will identify the stress and unstress syllables and the number of feet for each line (the stress pattern will be shown in bold).
My old | man’s a white | old man Iambic trimeter
And my | old mo | ther’s black. Iambic trimeter
If ever | I cursed | my white | old man Iambic tetrameter
I take | my curses | back. Iambic trimeter
(‘back’ is monosyllabic foot)
If ever | I cursed | my black | old mother Iambic tetrameter
And wished | she were | in hell, Iambic trimeter
I’m sorry | for that | evil wish Iambic trimeter
And now | I wish | her well. Iambic trimeter
(‘evil wish’ is spondee)
My old | man died | in a fine | big house. Iambic tetrameter
My ma | died in | a shack. Iambic trimeter
I won | der where | I’m gon | na die, Iambic tetrameter
Being nei | ther white | nor black? Iambic trimeter
Conlusion
Poetry is the art of written words that uses less word to express more meaning. Poetry has become very famous back then and one of the greatest poets was Langston Hughes. His poem with the title ‘Cross’ contains of 12 lines and 3 stanzas. Most of Hughes literary work related to the experience and situation in his life. There are some elements of poetry such as speaker, audience, subject matter, and tone. That has the function for the reader to understand the poem easier. The other elements are denotation, connotation, imagery, figurative language, allusion, meaning and idea, tone, musical devices, rhythm and meter. The function of these elements are to make the even more beautiful to enjoy.
Denotation is the dictionary meaning of a word and connotation is a word that has another meaning from the actual dictionary meaning. Poem “Cross” by Langston Hughes has the connotation meaning to explain about certain race, the article has found the use of word ‘white’ and ‘black’ in this poem is related to the African and American race. The use of several words such as ‘old man’ and ‘old mother’ is also refer to the connotation meaning of ‘father’ and ‘mother’. The poet tried to express the feeling of the speaker for being angry and depress on his fate for being born as a mixed-race. The connotation meaning of this poem is most likely to express the speaker’s condition of being depress on the prejudice on being half African-American.
The figurative language used in this poem is found to be only personification, symbol and overstatement. The musical devices found in this poem are the use of rhyme, alliteration and refrain. The rhyme scheme of “Cross” is abab-cded-fbfb. The poem has the alliteration on the use of word with consonant ‘w’ and ‘m’ several times. The meter of this poem is Iambic trimeter, however in some part there are some Iambic tetrameter.