18 pages • 36 minutes read
Langston HughesI look at the world
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2008A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
Like a lot of lyric poems, “I look at the world” has a small, compact shape. Although the poem has no standard meter, it has an organized form due to the even stanzas. The first two stanzas have five lines or quintains. In the last stanza, Hughes adds an extra line and turns the quintain into a sestet or a stanza with six lines. Since Hughes is not following meter, the lines can be as long or short as he wants. They are visibly uneven, with Line 2, 5, 9, and 13 jutting out more noticeably than the others. As with the length of the lines, the rhymes zigzag: Lines 2 and 4 rhyme in Stanza 1; Lines 3 and 5 rhyme in Stanza 1; Lines 8 and 10 rhyme in Stanza 2, and Lines 12, 14, and 16 rhyme in Stanza 3.
The lines’ varied length might tie into the theme of freedom. Some people in America have greater freedom than others, while some of the lines in Hughes’s poem receive more latitude than others. Moreover, the inconstant rhyme scheme could reflect the “walls oppression builds” (Line 9). Racism puts up obstacles so Black people can’t be as mobile as others, and Hughes’s poem echoes this by hindering the rhymes.
The extra line in the last stanza might bolster the idea that there's an extra step everyone needs to take if they want to rid America of racism. Allies or “comrades” (Line 15) can't just think about eradicating racism; they have to take physical action.
Repetition
A poet can use repetition as a literary device to reiterate the importance of particular themes or ideas. In “I look at the world,” Hughes uses repetition to emphasize the themes of race and racism. In Stanza 1, Hughes’s speaker identifies as a Black person. One stanza later, Hughes’s speaker identifies as Black again. The speaker uses slightly different wording. In Line 2, the speaker sees the world from “awakening eyes in a black face.” In Line 7, the speaker views the foolish walls through “dark eyes in a dark face.” The repetition makes it clear that the poem's speaker is a Black person. It bolsters the idea that they are proud of their race and unafraid even though they’re speaking in America—a country that lethally discriminates against Black people.
Repetition emphasizes the theme of racism. Once again, the speaker uses slightly different language to address the same idea, that racism hinders movement and freedom. In Line 4, the “fenced-off narrow space” restrains the speaker. In Lines 6 and 9, the constructs restricting the speaker turn into walls. A fence is not all that different from a wall: It serves to separate people and curb access. Repeating obstructions underlines how racism undercuts Black people’s liberty.
Allusion
Allusion is a literary device: A poet suggests a concept without stating it explicitly. Hughes strongly alludes to racism by calling attention to the speaker’s skin color, the “fenced-off narrow space” (Line 4), and “walls” (Lines 6 and 9) that are in the speaker’s way. Allusion allows Hughes to maintain the lyric form and tackle racism in a way that doesn’t require many words or a great deal of space. The word “racism” never appears in the poem.
Additionally, Hughes’s poem suggests that communism might be better for achieving a nonracist society. Communist messaging regularly stressed its anti-racist components. As Hughes’s life demonstrates, he was sympathetic to leftist, socialist, and communist ideas. In Western culture, the word “comrades” (Line 15) suggests communism. Of course, communism is a fraught idea within America. In the early 1900s (the First Red Scare) and the mid-1900s (the Second Red Scare), Americans treated communists—actual or otherwise—as dangerous traitors. People lost their careers and much more if someone accused them of identifying as or sympathizing with communists. Thus, “comrade” is an indirect and slightly less precarious way to approach communism and its potential to create a nonracist world.
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By Langston Hughes
