Imitation #2 (1967) R.E.P.E.C.T by Arytha Franklin

Ooh, your kisses (Ooh)    A
Sweeter than honey (Ooh)    B
And guess what (Ooh)       C
So is my money (Ooh)      B
All I want you to do (Ooh) for me     D
Is give it to me when you get home (Re, re, re ,re)  E
Yeah baby (Re, re, re ,re)    F
Whip it to me (Respect, just a little bit) G
When you get home, now (Just a little bit)   H

   This song is basically about how the man isn't showing the lady some love and she is just tired of it because all she does is take care of him. I think that this part of the song is more like a confession because she says that she likes his kisses but then again she also loves her money. Also, during this time period was when women wanted to be more than house wives and caretakers, they wanted to be taken serious and these line reflects on that.It is also a confession because it just seems like a feeling that the singer has been keeping inside her for a while and the song allows her to just lay here feelings out. The rhyme scheme for this stanza be will A B C B D E F G H. The writer uses some literary devices in this stanza, for example "honey" and "money" will be an example is of an end rhyme because it is at the end of lines 2 and 4. Another literary device will be the tone of this stanza which is like aggravation and a little bit of anger, because she is trying to make a point that the man doesn't seem to understand.

Critique #1:Langston Hughes article

Adjoa Ghansah

Rap and Spoken Word (Langston Hughes article)

September 4, 2012

            In the article, The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain by Langston Hughes, the main idea was that as an artist, you should not be ashamed of what you write about because you should be writing about what you know, your background and what you have experienced. But some Negro artist back then didn’t want to be called a “Negro poet” just a poet. This was because of the fact that they were middle class Negros and their parents installed in them that being a Negro had nothing good to offer. So of course the artist will not be interested in his own people, nevertheless write about them. Langston also makes it clear that as an artist, you are not supposed be afraid to be who you are and what you stand for.

       To be a true artist, you must write what is in your heart and you must not be afraid to show some kind of emotion. Also a true artist must know his background and acknowledge it. So when that young poet said that he just wants to be a poet and not a Negro poet, that takes away from the purpose of being an articles because he will not be writing about Negros and even when he does, it will probably be about how Negros can’t do nothing right. So he’s basically not acknowledging his people and he is being blinded by what society wants him to write and what society wants him to be and that’s not a true artist. And he could have been a great Negro poet, but instead he is missing out on what his people have to offer him.
         In other words, your race is supposed to be something that you can include in your writing as an artist, but if this young poet is at the bottom of the mountain, meaning he has a long way to go when it comes to finding himself and his race, then he can’t talk about his race and even shed some light on it, instead he is being something that he’s not. Now everything this poet writes will not be unique, but rather commonplace. There is so much that he could have included in his creations that could have made him one of the best, but he is so far down the mountain. And if he had that uniqueness, he would have touched much more people with his writing

Entry #1: Imitation

CRITIQUE:

This poem by Claude McKay is basically about slavery and how many blacks will die in a very embarrasing and degrading manner. The setting of this poem will be during the slavery era and the event taking place will be when the slave owners will send dogs after every slave that ran away and when the dog finds the slave, it may just kill the slave by hurting them badly. This poem will be a critique because it is an analysis of what is going on ans it stated in details. The rhyme scheme for this poem will be ABABCDCDEFEFGG. The one literay device used in this poem will end ryhme where the end words have the same sound. Another one will be narrative poetry because the author is telling a story throught this poem.Also the tone of this peom will be defensive because the poem is bout how they will never let the way the die be an embarrasment and that they will keep fighting back.

                                                                             - ADJOA GHANSAH

If We Must Die

If we must die, let it not be like hogs

Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

If we must die, O let us nobly die,

So that our precious blood may not be shed

In vain; then even the monsters we defy

Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!

O kinsmen! we must meet the common foe!

Though far outnumbered let us show us brave,

And for their thousand blows deal one death-blow!

What though before us lies the open grave?

Like men we’ll face the murderous, cowardly pack,

Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!

 CLAUDE MCKAY