Relationship between the two

1) These two pieces honestly don't seem related at all. On the surface, Hughes' seems like a little kid complaining about the fact that he's not included in Whitman's piece. I didn't really enjoy Whitman's poem at all, simply because it was hokey in a sense, like any other poem about America. Speaking about the hard working Americans doesn't seem like a new theme to me, and doesn't seem that riveting at all.

2) The relationship between the two poems is that of a big brother and a little brother. Whitman is the big brother that has learned to speak eloquently, as if in front of a crowd. Hughes' poem, is almost like a little brother sitting in his bedroom that night after the big brothers poem. The little brother is making his remarks partly out of jealousy and partly because the big brother forgot some things. "I am the darker brother.They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes..." when Hughes' makes this remark, it's almost as if he is reminding Whitman of the fact that he is still there, and that his role in the family--America--is just as important as the others, just simply overlooked. Hughes responds to Whitman's conception of America, by challenging the idea that everything has to be hard. There is a sense in Hughes' poem that at some point, life will get easier, that at some point there will be a greatness of America that was never expected of it before. A point of greatness that will be so great, that whomever looked down their nose at us before will come around to see the greatness that lies within. I think that the two poems are related, but that Hughes', though shorter, has more of an impact.