Writing Prompt: "It's my belief we're all crazy."

Harlem Renaissance Poetry, continued.

• Listen to Langston Hughes poetry from the book: "The Weary Blues," "Harlem," & "The Negro Speaks of Rivers." (pp. 825-833)
• Harlem Renaissance poetry often includes issues or topics unique to African Americans in the 1920s. Sample topics to look for:

1. Racism
2. African American culture (jazz music, traditional African American religious hymns, Biblical stories, famous African Americans)
3. African American history, especially slavery
4. City life

• Read another poem from the Harlem Renaissance (by Arna Bontemps, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, or Jean Toomer).

1. Write your poem on construction paper.
2. Find and label examples of these poetic techniques: alliteration, rhyme scheme, repetition, symbolism, onomatopoeia, slant rhyme, internal rhyme, imagery, assonance, consonance, or any others you see. You may not have examples of all of these in your poem.
3. Explain (on the back) where your poet includes typical Harlem Renaissance characteristics. (Hang up on back wall)

• Read Lucille Clifton's poem on p. 835. How do Hughes and Clifton both associate rvers with human life? (hand in on notecard)