Great Regulars: No one would confuse Lorraine Hansberry

with any of her characters in her play, A Raisin in the Sun. Yet, when Langston Hughes writes, "My old man is a white old man/And my old mother's black," readers may assume that Hughes had a white father and black mother. In fact, both of Hughes' parents were black. Hughes is speaking through a created character, just as Lorraine Hansberry speaks through her created characters in her play.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Poet and Speaker

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The form's key purpose is to make a comment about human nature, and it often makes a scathing observation about human behavior. Poets, not unlike philosophers, often fancy engaging in the assessment of the human condition, which includes the delicious toil of criticizing the conduct of fellow human beings. Thankfully, most poets appreciate that they are not above the frailties they blast.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: The Versanelle

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The speaker continues to engage his own romantic fantasies about the nature of the starving poet and his world of poetry. He believes it takes a "risky spirit" to "leap" "headlong" "into the vast/unknown of love." Because in that vastness "anything/and everything might happen." He wonders where those romantic views have gone.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Where is the Romance?

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