Locano
AP Literature
26 September 2016
In the poem "Suicide's Note," by Langston Hughes in chapter 1 of Sound and Sense the speaker talks about death. When Hughes writes "the calm,/" (1) I think this was meant to have a bigger impact on the audience than it did. The speaker is about to kill him/ or herself and is calm about it. Meaning that this was premeditated and maybe even that the speaker had thought of killing him or himself before. Maybe more than just this once. The speaker then goes into depth of where he or she chooses to end his or her life in the following line. Hughes writes "Cool face of the river/" which I think isn't a coincidence. When someone dies their body becomes cold and the speaker here is referring to the river as cold because soon it is where his/ or her body will lie. And finally when Hughes writes "Asked me for a kiss." This is it! No turning back now for the speaker. His or her mind is made up that this what s/he wants to do. In that final moment the speaker is ready to die and will no longer have to deal with the pain of this world. This poem was definitely one of the shortest poems I think I'll ever read but I think Hughes does this on purpose. I think he made the poem short just like this speakers life (although I don't know the actual age of the speaker... it was cut 'short,' when s/he decides to ends its life.) Very brilliant. Hughes is a genius.
Hughes has a few very short poems. One of my favorites is "Subway Rush Hour". I agree that it is genius that he is able to say so much with so few words.
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