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If We Must Die
"If We Must Die" is a poem by Jamaican-American writer Claude McKay (1890–1948) published in the July 1919 issue of '' The Liberator'' magazine. McKay wrote the poem in response to mob attacks by white Americans upon African-American communities during the Red Summer. The poem does not specifically reference any group of people, and has been used to represent many groups who are persecuted. It is considered one of McKay's most famous poems and was described by the poet Gwendolyn Brooks as one of the most famous poems of all time. Background During the Red Summer, from late summer to early autumn 1919, there was a wave of anti-black attacksat least twenty-five major "mob actions". In the attacks, hundreds of people were killed and thousands more were injured. James Weldon Johnson coined the term "Red Summer" to refer the period. Claude McKay was born in Jamaica in 1889. He moved to the United States in 1912, and after attending several schools, settled in New York City. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Claude McKay
Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay OJ (September 15, 1890See Wayne F. Cooper, ''Claude McKay, Rebel Sojourner In The Harlem Renaissance (New York, Schocken, 1987) p. 377 n. 19. As Cooper's authoritative biography explains, McKay's family predated his birth a year to make him eligible to be a student teaching assistant at his eldest brother's school, a fact McKay only learned from his sister Rachel in 1920 -- leading some sources to erroneously date his birth to 1889. – May 22, 1948) was a Jamaican-American writer and poet. He was a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Jamaica, McKay first travelled to the United States to attend college, and encountered W. E. B. Du Bois's '' The Souls of Black Folk'' which stimulated McKay's interest in political involvement. He moved to New York City in 1914 and in 1919 he wrote "If We Must Die", one of his best known works, a widely reprinted sonnet responding to the wave of white-on-black race riots and lynchings following the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pearson's Magazine
''Pearson's Magazine'' was a monthly periodical that first appeared in Britain in 1896. A US version began publication in 1899. It specialised in speculative literature, political discussion, often of a socialist bent, and the arts. Its contributors included Upton Sinclair, George Bernard Shaw, Maxim Gorky, George Griffith, H. G. Wells, Rudyard Kipling, Rafael Sabatini, Dornford Yates and E. Phillips Oppenheim, many of whose short stories and novelettes first saw publication in ''Pearson's''. It was the first British periodical to publish a crossword puzzle, in February 1922. History British publisher C. Arthur Pearson established and served as the editor of the monthly magazine from 1896 to 1899. He removed himself as editor as blindness set in but continued as its publisher. Succeeding editors included: * Percy W. Everett (1900–1911) * Philip O'Farrell (1912–1919) * John Reed Wade (January 1920–April 1939) * W.E. Johns (May 1939–November 1939). The magazine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caesuras
300px, An example of a caesura in modern western music notation A caesura (, . caesuras or caesurae; Latin for "cutting"), also written cæsura and cesura, is a metrical pause or break in a verse where one phrase ends and another phrase begins. It may be expressed by a comma (,), a tick (✓), or two lines, either slashed (//) or upright (, , ). In time value, this break may vary between the slightest perception of silence all the way up to a full pause. Poetry In classical Greek and Latin poetry a caesura is the juncture where one word ends and the following word begins within a foot. In contrast, a word juncture at the end of a foot is called a diaeresis. Some caesurae are expected and represent a point of articulation between two phrases or clauses. All other caesurae are only potentially places of articulation. The opposite of an obligatory caesura is a bridge where word juncture is not permitted. In modern European poetry, a caesura is defined as a natural phrase end, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sestet
A sestet is six lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem. A sestet is also the name given to the second division of an Italian sonnet (as opposed to an English or Spenserian Sonnet), which must consist of an octave, of eight lines, succeeded by a sestet, of six lines. The etymology of the word can be traced to the Italian word ''sestetto'', meaning “sixth”. The origin of the sonnet form has been traced to poems by Giacomo di Lentino in Sicily. The original sonnet form is the Sicilian Sonnet (also in octave and sestet) rhyming ABABABAB CDECDE or CDCDCD. It is generally believed that the first eight lines derive from the Sicilian form of the ''Stramboto''. The first recognized and documented user of this poetical form was the Italian poet Petrarch. In the usual course the rhymes are arranged ABCABC, but this is not necessary. Early Italian sonnets, and in particular those of Dante, often close with the rhyme arrangement ABCCBA, but in languages where the sonority of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conditional Sentence
Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is ''conditional'' on the dependent clause. A full conditional thus contains two clauses: a dependent clause called the ''antecedent'' (or ''protasis'' or ''if-clause''), which expresses the condition, and a main clause called the ''consequent'' (or ''apodosis'' or ''then-clause'') expressing the result. Languages use a variety of grammatical forms and constructions in conditional sentences. The forms of verbs used in the antecedent and consequent are often subject to particular rules as regards their tense, aspect, and mood. Many languages have a specialized type of verb form called the conditional mood – broadly equivalent in meaning to the English "would (do something)" – for use in some types of conditional sentences. Types of conditio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Couplet
A couplet is a pair of successive lines of metre in poetry. A couplet usually consists of two successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (or closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there is a grammatical pause at the end of a line of verse. In a run-on (or open) couplet, the meaning of the first line continues to the second. Background The word "couplet" comes from the French word meaning "two pieces of iron riveted or hinged together". The term "couplet" was first used to describe successive lines of verse in Sir P. Sidney's '' Arcadia '' in 1590: "In singing some short coplets, whereto the one halfe beginning, the other halfe should answere." While couplets traditionally rhyme, not all do. Poems may use white space to mark out couplets if they do not rhyme. Couplets in iambic pentameter are called '' heroic couplets''. John Dryden in the 17th century and Alexander Pope i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quatrain
A quatrain is a type of stanza, or a complete poem, consisting of four lines. Existing in a variety of forms, the quatrain appears in poems from the poetic traditions of various ancient civilizations including Persia, Ancient India, Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and China, and continues into the 21st century, where it is seen in works published in many languages. This form of poetry has been continually popular in Iran since the medieval period, as Ruba'is form; an important faction of the vast repertoire of Persian poetry, with famous poets such as Omar Khayyam and Mahsati Ganjavi of Seljuk Persia writing poetry only in this format. Michel de Nostredame ( Nostradamus) used the quatrain form to deliver his famous prophecies in the 16th century. There are fifteen possible rhyme schemes, but the most traditional and common are ABAA, AAAA, ABAB, and ABBA. Forms *The heroic stanza or elegiac stanza consists of the iambic pentameter, with the rhyme scheme of ABAB or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhyming Pattern
A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB rhyming scheme, from "To Anthea, who may Command him Anything", by Robert Herrick: Function in writing These rhyme patterns have various effects, and can be used to: * Control flow: If every line has the same rhyme (AAAA), the stanza will read as having a very quick flow, whereas a rhyme scheme like ABCABC can be felt to unfold more slowly. * Structure a poems message and thought patterns: For example, a simple couplet with a rhyme scheme of AABB lends itself to simpler direct ideas, because the resolution comes in the very next line. Essentially these couplets can be thought of as self-contained statements. This idea of rhyme schemes reflecting thought processes is often discussed particularly regarding sonnets. * Determine whether ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shakespearean Sonnet
A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, and the Sicilian School of poets who surrounded him then spread the form to the mainland. The earliest sonnets, however, no longer survive in the original Sicilian language, but only after being translated into Tuscan dialect. The term "sonnet" is derived from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (lit. "little song", derived from the Latin word ''sonus'', meaning a sound). By the 13th century it signified a poem of fourteen lines that followed a strict rhyme scheme and structure. According to Christopher Blum, during the Renaissance, the sonnet became the "choice mode of expressing romantic love". During that period, too, the form was taken up in many other European language areas and eventually any subject was considered acceptable for writer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tonya Foster
Tonya Monique Foster, usually credited as Tonya M. Foster, is an American poet, essayist, and educator from New Orleans. A 2020–2021 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow and recipient of a 2020 Creative Capital Award, she holds the George and Judy Marcus Endowed Chair in the Creative Writing Department at San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b .... Previously she taught at California College of the Arts. Bibliography * ''A Swarm of Bees in High Court'' * ''La Grammaire des Os'' * ''Third Mind: Creative Writing through Visual Art'' (co-editor) References External links Poetry FoundationPennSound audio Living people 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers American women poets American poets Afric ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Negro
"New Negro" is a term popularized during the Harlem Renaissance implying a more outspoken advocacy of dignity and a refusal to submit quietly to the practices and laws of Jim Crow racial segregation. The term "New Negro" was made popular by Alain LeRoy Locke in his anthology '' The New Negro''. Definition Historically, the term is present in African American discourses since 1895, but is most recognized as a central term of the Harlem Renaissance (1917-1928). The term has a broad relevance to the period in U.S. history known as the Post-Reconstruction, whose beginnings were marked symbolically by the notorious compromise of 1877 and whose impact upon black American lives culminated in the 1896 Supreme Court decision, '' Plessy v. Ferguson'', which practically obliterated the gains African Americans had made through the 14th and 15th Amendments. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who in 1988 provided a comprehensive treatment of this evolution from 1895 to 1925, notes that "blacks regaine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallace Thurman
Wallace Henry Thurman (August 16, 1902 – December 22, 1934) was an American novelist active during the Harlem Renaissance. He also wrote essays, worked as an editor, and was a publisher of short-lived newspapers and literary journals. He is best known for his novel '' The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life'' (1929), which explores discrimination within the black community based on skin color, with lighter skin being more highly valued. Early life Thurman was born in Salt Lake City to Beulah and Oscar Thurman. When Thurman was less than a month old, his father abandoned his wife and son. It was not until Wallace was 30 years old that he met his father. Between his mother's many marriages, Wallace and his mother lived in Salt Lake City with Emma Jackson, his maternal grandmother. Jackson ran a saloon from her home, selling alcohol without a license."Wallace Thurman", in ''Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance'', ed. by Aberjhani & Sandra West, pp. 328–330 Thurman's ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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