Introduction

• Poems are used to express powerful emotional occurrences.
• This paper compares and contrasts the speakers’ experiences of America in the poems “Second Attempt Crossing” by Javier Zamora, “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman and “Harlem” by Langston Hughes.
• The paper also focuses on how figurative language, diction and the structure of these poems can be used in describing the experience that the poet portrays.

Comparisons

• In the poem “Second Attempt Crossing” by Javier Zamora, the speaker paints a picture of the southwestern backdrop full of terms that illustrate nature.
• On the contrary, the speaker in the poem “I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman introduces an entirely different experience of America.
• One major difference between the poem “I Hear America Singing” and “Second Attempt Crossing” is that while Zamora paints a picture of a desert and nature in the mind of the reader. Whitman centers his depiction on the American working class individuals who make up the country and are usually happy even though they might not have the abundances in life.
• The poem “Harlem” by Langston Hughes illustrates a different setting of the poem whereby the author demonstrates Harlem’s treatment as a sign by American writers who developed during the Renaissance.
• The author asks several questions regarding images and dreams that explain decay, diminution, sickness, and death in American society.
• Dissimilar to the poems “Second Attempt Crossing” and “I Hear America Singing”, “Harlem” is a poem that illustrates America as a community for the whole of the United States in connection to individuals who are African American.
• McCay focuses on the issue of racial identity in the poem. Naturally, the author was a Jamaican immigrant to the United States. As a result, he utilizes his social position to represent the global and multinational perception of the Harlem Rennaisance.
• Unlike Zamora’s poem “Second Attempt Crossing”, McCay paints a picture of an exemplary relationship with modernization. The poem personifies poor and folk visual work that renders the experience of African-Americans in the United States.
• The use of figurative language, diction and the structure of these poems is an essential aspect that can be used to bring out their peculiarities.
• Zamora’s “Second Attempt Crossing” utilizes imagery and diction with a tone that is both forlorn and violent.
• Additionally, the use of imagery in “typhoons and tropics” is somehow challenging.
• Comparatively, the speaker in the poem “I Hear America Singing” utilizes figurative language including metaphors and personification in the poem. The speaker employs personification in making comparisons of America to the employees who are singing as they toil.
• The author uses metaphors of the singing workers in the poem, even though they are not celebrating or happy that they have work to do.
• Hughes uses figurative language in his poem Harlem similar to the other two poets. Hughes begins the poem with the use of simile.
• Hughes compares a dream to a raisin that has been left in the sun for an extended period. The meat is described as having pus and an awful smell, cracked and crusty.
• Among the significant structure of the poem, “Harlem” by Langstone Hughes includes several literary devices which include imagery that is represented in similes.

Conclusion

• This paper explains the significant differences between the three poems in terms of speaker’s experiences, figurative language, diction and the structure of these poems.