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Arna Bontemps vs. E.E. Cummings

Harlem Renaissance

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By 1962, he was the second most read poet in the United States...

His contribution to the Harlem Renaissance (cont)...

Cummings is a white poet during the roaring 20s.

  • In 1926 and 1927, Bontemps won his first three prizes for his publications.
  • In 1931, when he worte his first book, "God Sends Sunday", he was both criticized and praised for his work. He was praised for the significance of the book and because he was an African-American author, and he was criticized because of how he artistically showed the black life in a way that none had ever done.
  • In 1932, he recieved another prize for the short story, "A Summer Tragedy".
  • He wrote autobiographies and a lot more stories about different experiences African Americans endure and how they discover their cultural heritage.
  • His work was unique because he wrote about real life tragedies that African Americans were experiencing everyday. His work shows the human passion for freedom and the desire for social justice and equality that we all have.
  • To honor and reserve his great works, his family's old Louisiana home was made into the Arna Bontemps African American Museum and Cultural Arts Center.

His contribution to the Harlem Renaissance

Differences and similarities

Similaries

Differences

  • Bontemps' poems are traditional, whereas Cummings is very playful with his format and his writing.
  • Bontemps was good friends with major artists such as Countee Cullen, W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and especially Langston Hughes, with whom he frequently collaborated.
  • Bontemps' first poems were published in 1924 in Crisis and Opportunity, both literacy magazines that supported young African-American writers.
  • He wrote his first book of fiction, "God Sends Sunday", in 1931.
  • He wrote his first two children's books in 1934 with Langston Hughes; "Popo and Fifina: Children of Haiti", and "You Can't Pet a Possum".
  • He wrote his first novel, "Black Thunder: Gabriel's Revolt: Virginia 1800"; the story of a slave rebellion led by Gabriel Prosser. The book's main motif is the concept of freedom and it provokes questions about differences between writing and orality as a racial and cultural markets. It was published in 1936 and it was one of his most favored and recognised work.
  • As the years went by he kept writing while working as a librarian at Fisk University.
  • Cummings' writing is confusing and people often have to think hard to understand the meaning, but Bomtemps' writing on the other hand is clear and is focused on the concept of freedom.
  • Both Bontemps and Cummings were very talented writers.
  • They were both criticized and praised for their new ideas. Cummings used his own writing style, technique, and a new way of poetic expression. Bontemps used specific details in his writing about the life of African Americans and he wrote children's books that helped children understand the meaning of freedom at a young age.
  • They both received a lot of honors and prizes for their remarkable work.

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He was an admired figure of the Harlem Renaissance...

  • Cummings was known for his provocative subjects and for his signature style of writing, but Bontemps was mostly know for his great depiction of the black life and his great and moving stories.

Arna Bontemps was an African-American writer and poet during the roaring 20s...

Poem from Arna Bontemps

Poem from E.E.Cummings

THE DAY-BREAKERS

We are not come to wage a strife

With swords upon this hill,

It is not wise to waste the life

Against a stubborn will.

Yet would we die as some have done.

Beating a way for the rising sun.

Buffalo Bill 's

defunct

who used to

ride a watersmooth-silver

stallion

and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat

Jesus

he was a handsome man

and what i want to know is

how do you like your blueeyed boy

Mister Death

THE END

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