Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance: Are they the same thing?

The literary composers involved with modernism and the Harlem Renaissance arguably began each movement with the same intentions : to make specific social or personal statements that only readers who needed to or who had the capacity to would understand. E. E. Cummings, a widely known modernist poet, constructs his poem “next to of course god america i” in the image of a man, rushing through his thoughts; in this poem Cummings manipulates the language using allusion, alliteration, and creates two striking images. On the other hand, Langston Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance poet, also utilizes some modernist characteristics in his poem “Mulatto.” While some pieces of literature may have been written during a different movement, incorporating techniques from other types of literature is not uncommon, however, using those techniques does not mean they are of the same specific movement.

In his poem “next to of course god america” E. E. Cummings races through multiple ideas concerning elapsed time in America while, in the last line of the poem, revealing the speaker was actually another man, “He spoke. And drank rapidly a glass of water” (955) The last line in which Cummings reveals the speaker is also the only line in the poem which uses any kind of punctuation — with the exception of the question mark at the end of the man’s speech — or capitalization. Writing the poem in this way, allowed him to create the effect of a person speaking very fast and urgent, creating a specific and relatable image for readers. Any one person knows what it feels like and what it looks like to have many thoughts jumbled together and them all coming out at the same time.

Cummings begins the poem by addressing America, “next to of course god america i love you land of the pilgrims’,” (954) as though America were a form of a higher power or another being such as God is believed to be. He refers to it as “land of the pilgrims,” even though America rightfully belonged to the Native Americans. In order for the pilgrims to obtain this land, they would have had to force the natives out of it, pushing them from their homes; this action could be thought of as an unnecessary battle. This original idea of violence coincides with the image Cummings brings into the poem towards the end, “what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter they did not stop to think they died instead,” (955). The latter idea connects with the first because America was essentially founded through war. Cummings illustrates the crude truth that war has and will be evident for all of time if we do not begin to change our ways and by understanding that, “in every language even deafanddumb,” (955) conflicts among people will continue to regress. War, in some shape, was the beginning of America’s time and will be always be present.

Cummings also alludes to the National Anthem and to “My Country ’Tis of Thee” within the third and fourth lines of the poem, “oh say can you see by the dawn’s early my country ’tis of,” (954, 955). Alluding to those two specific pieces of American history which represent a sense of pride that is associated with fighting for our country; the “Star Spangled Banner” was originally a poem written about a scene of war — and now it’s the National Anthem — which supports the original theme of war overtaking over America’s past, present, and future. However in the last line of this man’s rant, Cummings writes, “then shall the voice of liberty be mute?” (955). I see this as the man asking someone if America should be quiet rather than proud because of how much the country has relied on war.

Modernist techniques are present within Langston Hughes’ poem “Mulatto” even though his work belongs to the Harlem Renaissance. In “Mulatto” Hughes expresses an internal conflict which was also a large social conflict, racism. The poem consists of two different speakers; the first speaker is identified with italics and expresses great denial of the acceptance of a “little yellow bastard boy” (1041). Hughes uses repetition and interesting spacing to separate related details and ideas within the same stanza, “What’s a body but a toy?… What’s a body but a toy?” (1041). In this small section, Hughes suggests white men thought colored women were only play things for them to utilize at their own leisure, “Juicy bodies Of nigger wenches,” (1041) and that these women were not capable of having children with white men. Hughes then writes, “What’s the body of your mother?” (1041) suggesting that the boy’s mother was his property and there is no possibility that she could have born his child. Hughes also uses the line, “I am your son, white man!” (1041) to begin and end the poem, allowing readers to recall that the main theme of the poem is to say that a colored woman and a white man can have a child, “a little yellow bastard boy,” (1041).

There is also a relationship between the “yellow stars” and the “yellow boy” because they both belong to the night. Hughes builds this relationship by introducing it in the fourth stanza, “The Southern night Full of stars, Great big yellow stars,” (1041) and repeating it, with slight variation, in lines 31 and 32. The relationship between the stars and the boy becomes visible when Hughes writes, “Great big yellow stars O, sweet as earth, Dusk dark bodies Give sweet birth To little yellow bastard boys,” (1041) as if to say the yellow boy is a product of the stars — because that would be more probable than a white man having a child with a colored woman — and that the night is their home. This idea is also present in the lines, “Git on back there in the night, You ain’t white,” (1041). Here the other speaker, the white man, is suggesting that the night is the home of colored people the same way it is the home of the stars. However, the stars and the boy are neither white nor black because they are yellow. This could be saying that the mulatto colored people have no place in day time because the day would be home to the white people.

While Hughes used fragmentation, repetition, and some unusual spacing within his poem, this piece should not be clumped into the modernist movement because the conflicts present within his work are so different from the more internal conflicts which are present in modernist writing. Also, many modernist pieces have hidden conflicts within the major theme of the piece that are not as obvious as the multiple conflicts expressed within different Harlem Renaissance pieces. Although these movements may have been started for a similar reason, that does not require them to be of the same movement because each had a different mission. Writers of the Harlem Renaissance were more likely to be writing in order to feel closer to their own heritage or to help others who are like them, to bring hope and awareness to those who are in similar situations. On the other hand, modernists writers were more interested in making literary art which expressed extreme abstract ideas that a multitude of people would not understand the first, second, or even the third time reading through the piece. The Harlem Renaissance and the modernist movements should remain separate in order to ensure their goals and their motives to create such pieces are not confused with one another.

Bibliography

Cummings, E. E. “next to of course god america.” Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Eight edition, Volume 2. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: WW Norton, 2012: 954-55.

Hughes, Langston. “Mulatto.” Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter Eight edition, Volume 2. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: WW Norton, 2012: 1041.