A+Black+Man+Talks+of+Reaping+(Block+34)

A Black Man Talks of Reaping – Arna (Wendell) Bontemps I have sown beside all waters in my day. I planted deep, within my heart the fear that wind or fowl would take the grain away. I planted safe against this stark, lean year.

I scattered seed enough to plant the land in rows from Canada to Mexico but for my reaping only what the hand can hold at once is all that I can show.

Yet what I sowed and what the orchard yields my brother's sons are gathering stalk and root; small wonder then my children glean in fields they have not sown, and feed on bitter fruit.

Author Background— ·  born in Alexandria, Louisiana ·  son of brick mason and teacher ·  Arna - given nickname by grandmother ·  confortable childhood, relocated to LA   ·   1923 – graduated Pacific Union College ·  1936 – married Alberta Johnson, had 6 kids ·  his works delt exclusively with AA life and culture ·  served as a principal and high school teacher ·  most of his writing attempts to reconcile his respect for AA folk culture His works for adults include //God Sends Sunday// (1931); //Popo and Fifina: Children of Haiti// (1932), written with //Langston Hughes; Black Thunder// (1935); //Drums at Dusk// (1939); //St. Louis Woman// (1946), a dramatization written with Countee Cullen; //Story of the Negro// (1948); and //One Hundred Years of Negro Freedom// (1961). His works for children include //Sam Patch// (1951), written with Jack Conroy; and //Famous Negro Athletes// (1964). Among the many awards and honors he received in recognition of his writing were //The Crisis// magazine's poetry prize (1926), the Alexander Pushkin Poetry Prize (1926 and 1927), the short story prize of the journal //Opportunity// (1932), Julius Rosenwald fellowships (1938–1939, 1942–1943), a Newbery Honor (for outstanding children's book, 1949), a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative writing (1949–1950), and a Jane Addams Children's Book Award (1956). http://www.emcp.com/product_catalog/school/litLink/Grade11/U08-07Bontemps/ Structure Form – fixed Rhyme Scheme – end rhyme, ABAB Meter - Capitalization – beginning of lines Punctuation – little, few commas and periods Lanuage – normal Context Author – Arna Bontemps Text – poem, 3 stanzas with 4 lines each Historical – serves his style of trying to make AA proud of heritage

Literary Devices Alliteration - none Repetition (Anaphora/Epistrophe) – sown Assonance/Consonance –none Parallelism – four short sentence with similar length, each stanza show progression Paradox - none

Imagery Sight – I have sown beside all waters, glean in the fields Sound - none Smell - none Taste – bitter fruit Touch – none

Figurative Language Personification – none Symbolism – fields represent society harvest represents the good things in life bitter fruit represents the reality that young AA will face stalk and root represents the prime/good things wind/fowl represents the racism/white man Simile - none Metaphor – metaphor of farming used to describe the bitterness AA felt in racist America.

Tone/Theme Topic – reaping the harvest in the fields Angle – very important, from black point of view – shows racism in society I think that the poem is about how AA’s are oppressed by racism. Bontemps is using a powerful metaphor that uses farming to represent the condition of society. The speaker talks about how he works so hard, but his “brother’s sons” are gathering the stalk and root. I think this shows how white Americans take the prime choosing and the best of everything because the stalk and root are most important. The speaker’s children, AA’s, are left to glean (pick through leftovers) with bitter fruit. The bitter fruit represents the shocking disrespect that AA have in society that the speaker’s children will come to realize.