During the civil rights movement, Langston Hughes and Robert Hayden each wrote poems that addressed the future of the movement. Two of these poems, which expressed their hope for the future and equality of black Americans, were “I, too” by Hughes and “Douglass” by Hayden. While both poems address a brighter, better future, they arrive at it in different ways. Both poets use very specific tones and voices for their poems, creating two very different experiences for readers to arrive at the same liberated future. Hughes' direct, first-person poetry creates a much more immediate sense of the future and creates a personal emotional reaction to oppression. The degree of repression in Hayden's poetry, however, allows the poem to be more abstract and passionate, read as an emotional response rather than a source of inspiration. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Hughes' poem "Me Too" is written in the first person, inviting the reader into the position of "I," to experience the narrator's emotional journey. “I,” who reveals himself as the “darker brother” (ln.2), desires a better place in the future. It is not a question of a distant future, but one that imagines seizing "tomorrow" (ln.8). Immediacy is shown through the seemingly small-scale victories in which the narrator defines this better future. The narrator uses the table as an indicator of achieving the equality he desires. The smallness of the event also allows more personalized emotions to seep into the voice of the poem. The narrator is frustrated and angry, as he “dares” (ln.11) anyone to send him away from the table tomorrow, and imagines how “ashamed” (ln.17) those who sent him away will be for doing so. They will be ashamed of having denied the “handsome” (ln.16) and “strong” (ln.7) narrator, Hughes's black America, the right to join them. The narrator's strength comes from having survived oppression, and it is with this strength that he will be elevated to equality, using fear and defiance to defeat his oppressors. The poem goes on to say that hopefully, one day, the narrator will not be seen as an equal through fear and force, but will be accepted as an equal through the sincere regret of others for oppressing him. Black America, closes the circle, but grows along the journey. When it begins “sing[s] America” (ln.1). He longs for America and has the voice of America, a man of the poor, huddled masses. At the end of the poem his future has not been realized, but he imagines it, sees it, almost grasps it. And with this future at hand, this equality, liberty and freedom, he no longer simply wants America. He realizes that his struggle, and his power to overcome, means that he "[is] America" ​​(ln.18). Hayden does not use a first-person narrator in his poem "Douglass", but writes his poem as a romantic explosion of feeling. Since the reader is not given an identity, an “I,” he must imagine himself to be a perhaps of the audience Hayden is addressing. When Hayden writes “our” in the first line, he sets the oratorical tone and immediately creates a distinction between himself and the reader; a distinction that is absent in “Me Too”. The “our” tells us that this poem is not specifically about us. This is not a single point of view, but a people, a race, claiming freedom for itself. Unlike Hughes' poem, "Douglass" is not driven by the narrator's actions, but is driven by the speaker's passion and emotion. “Douglass” is not emotional on a personal level as Hughes' poem is, but, rather, it is emotional in a repressed way..’