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Black History and Blacks in U.S. History
 Poets of the Harlem Renaissance

Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 5 to 7
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.95

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    broken-winged, nocturne, onomatopoeia, personification, wharf, well-known, superhuman, traditional, creativity, inspiration, emancipation, poetry, reading, ordinary, barren, repetition
     content words:    Harlem Renaissance, New York, Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, Arna Bontemps, James Weldon, Ev'ry Voice

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Poets of the Harlem Renaissance
By Sharon Fabian 		  
1     Poetry is a way of expressing your thoughts and feelings. It is a good way to say a lot with only a few words. Poets use rhyme and rhythm to hold their poems together and to make them more appealing to their readers. They use descriptive language and imagery to paint a picture for us with words. In school, we've all learned about some of the devices that poets use - similes, metaphors, repetition, onomatopoeia, and others.
 
2     The best way to learn about poetry is by reading good poems. If you'd like to look at examples of good poetry, you can find plenty by looking up poets of the Harlem Renaissance.
 
3     The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great creativity for African-Americans. It took place in Harlem, which is in New York, during the 1920's and the early 1930's, and it involved many of the arts including music and painting as well as poetry.
 
4     The most well-known poet of the Harlem Renaissance was Langston Hughes. He has served as an inspiration for generations of poets. Some of the other well-known poets of that era include Paul Lawrence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and Arna Bontemps.
 
5     James Weldon Johnson's poem "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," uses traditional rhymes and rhythms. When it was later set to music, it became so popular that eventually it became known as the Negro National Anthem. It is a song about hope and faith and looking forward to a future blessed with liberty. It begins, "Lift ev'ry voice and sing, ‘Til earth and heaven ring."

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