The+Reapers

=//Reapers//=

Black reapers with the sound of steel on stones Are sharpening scythes. I see them place the hones In their hip-pockets as a thing that's done, And start their silent swinging, one by one. Black horses drive a mower through the weeds, And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds, His belly close to ground. I see the blade, Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade. ==

=Jean Toomer=

Dec. 26, 1894 - March 30, 1967

 * Black ancestry but passed as white
 * Tried to rise above both race restrictions
 * Became important African American poet
 * Cane (1929): a collection of stories and poems
 * Hailed for depiction of African American culture
 * Included in Harlem Renaissance
 * //Reapers//
 * Became a Quaker
 * Moved to Doylestown PA in 1940
 * Died a recluse in Doylestown.

Visual Imagery: Figurative Language: Visual Imagery: Figurative Language: Structure: Rhyme Scheme: Structure:
 * ||~ __Element __ ||~ __Examples and Explanations __ ||~  ||
 * ~ Theme || * Reliance on machinery takes away humanity
 * Machines are subhuman and shouldn't be used || Toomer lived during the beginning eras of the industrial revolution. ||
 * ~ Imagery || Auditory Imagery:
 * "...the sound of steel on stones"
 * "...silent swinging..."
 * " a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds"
 * " Black reapers"
 * "Black horses drive a mower through the weeds"
 * "I see the blade, Blood-stained"
 * Metaphor "Black Reapers"
 * Compares reapers to farmers || Auditory Imagery:
 * Shows difference between machine and man
 * Man is quiet and natural
 * Machine causes misery and crying
 * Black reapers and Black horses shows their comparison
 * Both do the same job but one is human and one is not
 * Shows the destruction machinery caused
 * Shows that the farmers have a purpose in their work ||
 * ~ Meter || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Form:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Two quatrains distinctive through rhyme
 * Not separated by space
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Iambic first stanza but chaotic second stanza
 * Enjambment (Ideas carried between lines)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">AABB || Form:
 * Used to show a contrast between farmers and machines
 * Wanted to show that they are similar in function but nothing else
 * Shows that reapers are repetitive and natural but machines are chaotic and unnatural

Rhyme Scheme: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Mood: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Diction: <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Connotation: Connotation:
 * Emphasizes the repetitive nature of the farmer to contrast with the machine ||
 * ~ <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Emotion || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Tone:
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Dark
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Pessimistic
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Irritated
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sympathetic (Towards farmers and rat)
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Sorrowful
 * Reapers
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Black horses
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Field rat
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Reapers
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Black horses
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif;">Field rat || Diction:
 * A person or machine that harvests a crop
 * Two or more black horses
 * A small, abundant rodent
 * A scary, dark skeleton with a purpose of taking lives
 * Hellish black horses with a dark purpose
 * A disgusting vermin || ||  ||

=
<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">"Jean Toomer." //The Poetry Foundation//. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/jean-toomer>. ======

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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Jones, Robert B. "Jean Toomer's Life and Career." //Modern American Poetry//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/toomer/life.htm>. ======

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<span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">McKay, Nellie, and Micheal North. "On 'Repears.'" //Modern American Poetry//. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/toomer/reapers.htm>. ======