I came to
the conclusion that Langston was writing about te struggle to
freedom for blacs. Lanston Hughes wrote about racism often
in his poems, and this particular poem seems to follow that
pattern. Hughes gives the feeling of loneliness and dismay at
the fact that he is not considered equal to white people. The
poem represents the struggle for freedom and to be
considered equal. The speaker conveys a feeling of sadness
and loneliness in the tone of their voice, as stated in the
opening sentence of the poem. "Wave of sorrow", expresses
the sadness, by the speaker who I interpret to be a black
person caught up in the struggle to have equal right. Hughes
uses language that is used in everday life. There are no
obsolete of slang words incorporated in the course of the
poem. The author uses static imagery, painting a picture of
an island standing alone by itself off in the distance. I see a
sunny, smoothe sandy island surrounded by cal waters and a
warm atmosphere. Langston Hughes uses four stanzas which
are all couplets written in closed form. The rhyme scheme is
an end rhyme with the pattern ab cb cd ad. This is a unique
poem structure with the first line reapeating itself again in line
seven, and the third line repeating itself again in line five. This
is a lyric poem, meditation, which in this case th physical
object is the island. The rhythm is set to be short quck
verses with pauses to lead into each couplet. The word
choice of the poem is use to keep the poem’s structure short
and compact. The word order is slightly different from
normal use. The unconventional syntax is used to create a
rhyme scheme. I decided to do this poem because of the
versatility of the meaning. The way Hughes writes "Island" it
leaves the reader to develop their own opinions of the
author’s meaning. This poem can be interpreted in many
different ways, for instance: I also thought that this poem
could mean a person is close to reaching their goal and by
saying "Wave of sorrow, Take me there", I interpreted that
as meaning they needed some sort of motivation to point
them in the direction of their island or goal. The vesatility of
the poem is what makes the poem a success. It allows the
readerto get involved in the poem and develop their own
opinion and interpretations. My interpretation was influenced
by otherpoems written by Langston Hughes. He has been
known to write about racism in other works and that
influenced my interpretation of this poem. This is a very short
but powerful poem that provides motivation to keep our
hopes alive to reach our dreams.