对比两首美国诗歌的英语论文

School of Humanities and Media Studies.

English Department

Course Essay in BA Literature 7.5 hp

Course code: EN 1015

Supervisor: Katherina Dodou

A comparative analysis of

Harlem and Altar: topic, theme

and figurative language

This essay will look at two poems, ?Harlem? by Langston Hughes and ?Altar? by

Marilyn Chin and analyzes the topics, the themes and figurative languages, especially

in the use of figurative language. The aim of this paper is to compare the two poems

and find the similarity of them which is topic and the differences of them which are

theme and the use of figurative language.

Both poems ?Harlem? and ?Altar? have a similar topic that is about

the American

dream. The readers can find that from the following examples.

I

n the ?Harlem?, the

first stanza

?

what happens to a dream deferred?

? the reader can know that

Hughes is

interested

in

a

dream

in

his

poem.

Also,

from

the

word

?deferred?,

we

can

find

something

negative,

which

is

able

to

be

explained

that

Hughes?

dream

can?t

be

finished so it has to be deferred. The same example could be find in last stanza

?Or

does it explode?

?

after

?

explode

?

, we get nothing. So, the dream or goal is maybe just

an

ideal

but

couldn

?

t

be

done.

Then, link the title of the poem

?

Harlem

?

which is

a

small town in New York, we can get the answer that is the topic of this poem is about

a negative American dream.

Similarly,

the topic of ?Altar? is also about

the American dream, this can be seen in

the fifth line

?the

Golde

n Mountain Edition?

that is a kind of newspaper in California,

the place is located in northwest of America. Then, the second line of third stanza of

the poem

?who

danced around that immigrant dream

?

, the readers can understand that

the

poem

is

about

an

immigrant

dream

of

America.

Again,

by

the

last

line

of

the

second stanza

?

last cry

?

, it sounds like something negative, we could imagine that if a

person just has a ?last cry? but without anything, it will be very sadly.

In this way of

thinking, the topic of

?Altar? is also about a negative American dream.

Therefore, we

should

admit

that

the

two

poems

?Harlem?

and

?Altar?

have

a

similar

topic

that

is

about the negative American dream.

A

comparison

of

the

poems

shows

a

different

use

of

figurative

language

in

relation

to

the

American

dream.

Firstly,

Hughes

uses

?

similes

?

to

describe

the

American

dream.

The

examples

of

word

use

are

?like?,

?as?

and

?than?

,

these

are

?similes? in

the use of figurative language. Again,

Hughes?s

similes have something

negative of American dream. By the second and third stanza,

?Does

it dry up like a