Monday, March 21, 2011

Time to Rise by Robert Louis Stevenson


A birdie with a yellow bill
Hopped upon my window sill,
Cocked his shining eye and said:
"Ain't you 'shamed, you sleepy-head!"
This poem is a short and funny poem that applies to all of us.  We always want to sleep in and this poem reminds us that we     should be ashamed of ourselves.  In this poem, Stevenson uses personification and imagery to express his feelings towards the   idea of waking up late.  I can relate to this poem because my dad gets on my case every time I wake up late.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Children's Rhymes by Langston Hughes

By what sends
the white kids
I ain't sent:
I know I can't
be President.
What don't bug
them white kids
sure bugs me:
We know everybody
ain't free.

Lies written down
for white folks
ain't for us a-tall:
Liberty And Justice--
Huh!--For All? 





This poem by Langston Hughes is about the discrimination against African-Americans in the early and mid 1900s.  He questions the phrase "Liberty And Justice For All" and says that he is bothered by things that white children take for granted.  Hughes writes his opinion on the racial discrimination going on at the time through this poem.