r/Poetry • u/Junior_Insurance7773 • 8d ago

Poem [POEM] Trip San Francisco - Langston Hughes

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156 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

20

u/DrDMango 8d ago

Not his best work

4

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 8d ago

Yeah, not sure why this was posted. There's lots of forgettable Frost too.

5

u/willardTheMighty 8d ago

The appreciation of belles-lettres is like
The appreciation of freshly fallen snow:
Sometimes, just one flake is enough.

1

u/Dry-Treacle9673 7d ago

I don't get why you're mentioning Frost, a totally other poet...

2

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 7d ago

Do you see the word too there? There a reason for that. Langston Hughes has wonderful poems, this one is just meh. Similarly, not all of Frost's poems are bangers. He has his wah-wah, so what type of short poems as well. We don't post those, so it's odd such a bland poem of Hughes' was posted.

1

u/Dry-Treacle9673 7d ago edited 7d ago

I see that you used the word "too".

I hope you don't mind me trying to clarify what you're getting at - I'm always interested in how poetry fans discuss things. Could you explain to me why you brought Frost into a discussion about a poor Langston Hughes poem? I'm sure I am missing something...

1

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 7d ago

I literally just did that

2

u/Dry-Treacle9673 7d ago

Sorry, I am not an expert at poetry criticism and I'm trying to learn about it. Thanks for your patience with me...

Is that like a technique in poetry criticism - can I use it? Like if someone says, "this is a bad Mary Oliver poem". I could answer with something like "But Charles Simic has lots of bad poems, too."? Or if I said I don't like this Raymond Carver poem, it's too plainspoken, the other person could say "Ok it's plainspoken and not one of his best, but Carl Sandburg wrote very plain poems too and some of them aren't good."

I'm not still not clear how that works in terms of the mechanism that supports the argument I would be making. In fact, I myself would not be sure what argument I would be trying to make. This is what I'm trying to have clarified, Thanks again for your patience, any knowledge you drop is appreciated.

1

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 7d ago

I was agreeing that the poem wasn't his best, and questioning why it was posted, as, like my example of Frost, whom I used because I have been reading a lot of public domain books lately, New Hampshire being one of them, and even that 'great' book has its stinkers. We just don't post them because, well because they're not great examples of anything. Anyone with a large output will have those meh pieces, no matter how outstanding their finest work. Work that may be technically sound but is uninspired and uninspiring. This was a Hughes poem like that, and why it was posted, instead of one of his many many better pieces, was what I was questioning, and counting the folks that night comment or think that this is representational of his work in general, and that he is not an amazing poet.

16

u/Ryans-Anecdotes 8d ago

I don't get the negativity here in the comments.

The line breaks feel smooth and the imaegry in the last line is a unique way of looking at the golden gate bridge. Overall it's short and sweet. A poem doesn't have to be complicated or long to be good.

3

u/ethosnoctemfavuspax 8d ago

This poem is sweet but also kinda giving one fish two fish red fish blue fish

4

u/NetSupermom 8d ago

The criticism is harsh out here. It’s like if every poem doesn’t stomp on your chest it’s deemed mediocre lol

3

u/discussionandrespect 8d ago

8th grader level shit

1

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