Aunt Sue's Stories

In "Aunt Sue's Stories" Langston Hughes tells a story about a woman who tells stories. I find this idea in itself to be very interesting. The narrator talks about how powerful these stories are; these stories that he knows come from real life. I have noticed that in my own writing the most powerful stories are those that come from my own experiences. There is something captivating about a story that has real emotion behind it, and real life stories always have emotion in them. Even though Hughes's poem is very short you can still feel the emotion in it. The verbs he uses work very well to tell his story: working, walking, singing, listening. His adjectives are also very effective too: hot, dewey, mighty, softly. The verbs and the adjectives work together to bring the emotion to the poem. When I read it I can feel the emotion in Aunt Sue's stories, the physical exertion and at the same time the bond between the slaves. I can also feel the emotion of the narrator, his complete captivation in these stories. He could listen to them all night without losing interest.