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What is the structure, theme, symbols, and moral and historical context of Hughes' poem "The City"?
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Langston Hughes' "The City" is an eight-line poem divided into two quatrains with an ABCB rhyme scheme. The poem uses simple metaphors and personification to depict the city as a bird with wings and a song in stone, symbolizing inclusivity and vibrancy. Though it lacks explicit historical context, its themes align with Hughes' connection to New York and the Harlem Renaissance.
“The City” is a very short, simple poem of eight lines, divided into two equal stanzas. The rhyme scheme is abcb aded, and the grammatical parallelism of the two stanzas is further emphasized by the very close metrical repetition of seven, three, four and four syllables in the first quatrain, followed by seven, three, three and four in the second.
In the first stanza, the city is imagined as a bird, both spreading its wings and singing a song. Birdsong is clearly associated with morning, but the city’s song is a song in stone, a brilliantly evocative image, recalling Goethe’s description of architecture as “frozen music” and even Baudelaire’s sonnet on beauty, which begins with the image of a dream in stone. The alliteration and assonance in “song” and “stone” emphasize the connection between the two apparently contradictory words.
The paradoxes continue in the second stanza. The city is personified...
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as one retiring to bed, but while a person who goes to bed extinguishes lights, the city hangs them above its head, remaining brightly lit until it spreads its wings the next morning. Themetaphor, in each case, stresses the inclusiveness of the city. Hughes was a great traveler, but was particularly familiar with New York, where the multicultural atmosphere gave rise to the Harlem Renaissance, in which he played such a prominent part.
The symbols of the bird sheltering inhabitants beneath its wings, the song in stone, and the lights that shine throughout the night all contribute to the theme of the city as a welcoming and inclusive place, as well as a uniquely beautiful one.
Hughes' poem appears here:
In the morning the city
Spreads its wings
Making a song
In stone that sings.
In the evening the city
Goes to bed
Hanging lights
About its head.
The poem is structured in two stanzas with a regular rhyme scheme. Through imagery, Hughes develops the idea that the city is beautiful, both by day and by night. The beauty is expressed in the first four lines, ironically, through a nature image: The city is a bird, spreading its wings and singing. In the second stanza, the city is personified as a living being decorating itself with lights, another image of beauty.
The city becomes a symbol of beauty found in an unexpected place in unexpected ways. One would not expect to find music in stone, but Huges does. Hughes was long associated with Harlem in New York City, identified as a major artist in the Harlem Renaissance movement. This poem could reflect his love for New York; it could address another city or cities in general. Hughes travelled a great deal during his life.