The Aspect of Poetry Historical Background of African American

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CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE

2.1 The Aspect of Poetry

Lyric, music, and melody, it has the same structure and characteristic with poetry. Poetry has the stanzas; it has the same elements with song which also has the stanzas that is called the lyrics. Songs have the same function as poetry does, because song consists of the stanzas that are sung by people. The aspect of poetry will help us to understand it. Teaching Material compiled by: Martha Pardede The aspect of poetry are : a. Sense Sense is the subject matter of poem. What is the poem about. Very often, but not always, a poem’s tittle will give you some indication of its general meaning. Then by reading it over and over carefully we can catch it meaning. b. Feeling Feeling is the attitude of the writer toward the subject matter. By reading a certain poem carefully, we could understand what the writer thinks about the subject matter, feels of it and his opinion about it. Universitas Sumatera Utara 8 c. Tone Tone is the attitude of the writer toward the reader, whether the writer in good mood, pessimist or optimist, sad or happy. We understand it by giving our attention to the words the poet used in his poem diction. d. Intention Intention is undoubtedly a poet writes a certain poem for he has a special intention. At least for himself, to express his feeling. But we have to know, good poems are written because they have to be, not because their authors want them to be.

2.2 The Poetical Technique

2.2.1 Structural Devices

Structural devices consist of repetition, contrast, and illustration. a. Repetition Poet often repeats single lines or a whole stanza at intervals to emphasize a particular idea. Repetition is to be found in poetry which is aiming a special musical effects or when a poet want us to pay very close intention to something. Universitas Sumatera Utara 9 b. Contrast This is one of the most common of all structural devices. It occurs when we find two completely opposite pictures side by side. Sometimes the contrast is immediate obvious and sometimes implied. c. Illustration Illustration is the things that poet uses to represent his point of view about something. Usually the poet uses the illustration to make his own idea clear.

2.2.2 Sense Devices

a. Imagery Imagery is description which makes the readers imagie how things, sounds, or even smell feel like. Imagery refers ro the pictures that the readers see in their mind as they read. Good images are created by using specific details that appeal to the sense and make a dominant impression. The ability to use imagery stems from being a good abserver of the world. b. Symbol Symbol is a trope that combines a literal and sensuous quality with and abstract or suggestive aspect. Symbol is not literal meaning, but uses that meaning to suggest another. A symbol is something that is itself and also stands or something else as the letters. Universitas Sumatera Utara 10 c. Figure of speech Figure of speech is phrases or words that compare one thing to another unlike thing. Figures of speech can enchanted style and make ideas distinct. There are some kinds of figures of speech, they are: • Simile is generally the comparison of two things essentially unlike, on the basis of a resemblance in one aspect. It is a figure in which a similarity between two subjects is directly expressed. Most similes are introduced by as or like or even by such a word as compare, liken, or resemble. Example : my love is the rose of my heart • Metaphor Metaphor is an analogy identifying one object with another and ascribing to the first objects one more of the quality of the second. Metaphor refers to one thing as if it were another unlike thing. Example : - the captain cries, all hands on. A material to signify a thing made of material. - She was wearing cotton. - A container to represent the thing contained. Universitas Sumatera Utara 11 • Personification Personification is the arbitrary of human qualities to inanimate object. It refers to special kind of metaphor in which nonhuman thing or qualities such as animals, ideals, abstraction and other inanimate objects are describe as if they were human. Example : the little dog laughs as if it were a person. • Metonymy refers to a thing, person, or place by the name of something closely associated with it. So when the readers speech of the statement “coming from the white house”, they are using metonymy. • Antithesis is a device for placing opposing ideas in grammatical parallel. Example : - to err is human, to forgive is divine. • Irony is a verbal device which implies an attitude quite different and often opposite to literary expressed. • Allegory is a figure of speech which consist an exaggerated statement which is not meant to be taken literary. It is an abstractions represented in concrete imagery, almost always the form of a humanized character. • Euphemism is figure of speech in which a mild or vogue expression is substituted for a harsh or blunt one. Universitas Sumatera Utara 12

2.2.3 Sound Devices

Rhythm and Other Sound Effects Rhythm is essentially a mother of repetition. We achieve rhythm by repeating some combination of intervals between sounds or light and strong beats. Another sound effects are masculine ending, feminine ending, alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, euphony, cacophony.

2.3 Historical Background of African American

Essays on African American History, Culture and Society by William R. Scott and William G. Shade 2005, this book figures about the history of African American. In 1619, the first African arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, the first permanent settlement in British North America. But it took just about a century for a stratified biracial society to emerge in the colonies. The black population of the British mainland colonies was small. It began to grew rapidly, however, at the end of 17th century when the British actively managed the slave trade. The rising demand for forced labor to cultivate large scale cash crops led to the mass importation of African slaves in the 18th century, along with the natural increase of the slave population, produced a distinctive black presence in provincial America. Slaveholders in America realized little of the history of Africa, slaving and the diaspora now recovered in an age of reduced racial tension and vastly increased Universitas Sumatera Utara 13 knowledge. At the time, masters saw only strange dark faces and imagined the thoughts in the slaves heads through their own stereotyped fantasies of a savage continent. They substituted invented “tribal,” almost racial, identities and characters, based on the ethnic and cultural differences that African brought with them from their communities at home, as substitutes for understanding the individuals they owned. The treatment of slaves in the United States varied widely depending on conditions, times and places. Treatment was generally characterized by brutality, degradation, and inhumanity. Whippings, executions, and rapes were commonplace. Slaves were punished by whipping, shackling, hanging, beating, burning, mutilation, branding, and imprisonment. Punishment was most often meted in response to disobedience or perceived infractions, but sometimes abuse was carried out simply to re- assert the dominance of the master or overseer over the slave. Slave women in the United States were at high risk for rape and sexual abuse. Many slaves fought back against sexual attacks, and some died resisting. Others carried psychological and physical scars from the attacks. Sexual abuse of slaves was partially rooted in a patriarchal Southern culture which treated black women as property or chattel. Southern culture strongly policed against sexual relations between white women and black men on the purported grounds of racial purity but, before the late 18th century, many mixed-race slaves and slave children showed that white men had often taken advantage of slave women. Universitas Sumatera Utara 14

2.4 The Discrimination of African American