Draw Connections: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “Starting from Paumanok”

Draw Connections: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” and “Starting from Paumanok”

Walt Whitman was among the poets Langston Hughes most admired and emulated. In fact, there is a legend, apparently started by the poet himself, that during the brief period when he worked on the crew of a ship, he threw all his books into the sea, saving only a copy of Leaves of Grass. The questions below ask you to compare Hughes’ “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” with the first section of Walt Whitman’s “Starting from Paumanok.” Download the annotated texts of both poems, and then respond to the questions.

  1. Hughes’s biographer, Arnold Rampersad, says this poem was inspired by a train crossing over the Mississippi River from Illinois to Missouri, where Hughes was born. How do these two poems reflect on the idea of a birthplace, either as a place to leave or a place to return?

    Question

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    Chapter 5: Hughes’s biographer, Arnold Rampersad, says this poem was inspired by a train crossing over the Mississippi River from Illinois to Missouri, where Hughes was born. How do these two poems reflect on the idea of a birthplace, either as a place to leave or a place to return?
  2. Compare Whitman’s treatment of rivers (note that he mentions the Missouri and the Niagara in line 9) with Hughes’. What qualities do rivers embody in “Starting from Paumanok”? Is this different from what Hughes sees in the powerful rivers of his poem?

    Question

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    Chapter 5: Compare Whitman’s treatment of rivers (note that he mentions the Missouri and the Niagara in line 9) with Hughes’. What qualities do rivers embody in “Starting from Paumanok”? Is this different from what Hughes sees in the powerful rivers of his poem?
  3. Whitman serves for Hughes as a model of free verse. Whitman almost always avoids meter, relying on alternative ways of structuring his lines. One of the techniques he uses most frequently is repetition, particularly repetition at the beginning of phrases (anaphora). How does Whitman use repetition in this section of “Starting from Paumanok” to create a rhythmic pattern? Where do you see Hughes using a similar method?

    Question

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    Chapter 5: Whitman serves for Hughes as a model of free verse. Whitman almost always avoids meter, relying on alternative ways of structuring his lines. One of the techniques he uses most frequently is repetition, particularly repetition at the beginning of phrases (anaphora). How does Whitman use repetition in this section of “Starting from Paumanok” to create a rhythmic pattern? Where do you see Hughes using a similar method?