In studying Richard Wright and Langston Hughes' poetry, how does their tone argue that prose is more effective than poetry?

Both Langston Hughes and Richard Wright are both every
effective writers. I believe they are both excellent in conveying
images and feelings, and evoking strong emotional responses. In terms of poetry over
prose, I don't know if one can contend that one form is more effective than the other,
as both kinds reach the audience and share a message—albeit in different ways—whereby
the reader is touched…perhaps even changed by the
experience.

Wright's poetry is written like prose—in " title="free verse" href="http://www.types-of-poetry.org.uk/24-free-verse.htm">free
verse." In other words, there is no meter (rhythm). Many of his images are
disturbingly compelling:

readability="16">

And then they had me, stripped me, battering my
teeth

into my throat till I swallowed my own
blood.

My voice was drowned in the roar of their voices,
and my

Black wet body slipped and rolled in their hands
as

They bound me to the
sapling.

The effectiveness is
unquestionable as the poet drives his point home to the reader, who may well be shocked
and riveted by the profoundly sharp and vivid images, as seen the excerpt above, from
Wright's poem, "Between the World and Me"—which takes the reader to an experience that
he or she might never have witnessed, but who knows the the poem
speaks the truth. In reading it, we become vicarious witnesses,
horrified by the writer's visions and veracity. As the grandson of slaves, Wright's
truth was very different than other writers.

In his poem,
"I Have Seen Black Hands," it is clear that he draws the reader's attention to social
inequities—in one section to the harmful and dangerous work they are given to do, in
order to survive.

readability="9">

I am black and I have seen black hands, millions
and millions of them...
And they were caught in the fast-moving belts of
machines and snagged and smashed and crushed,
And they jerked up and down at
the throbbing machines massing taller and taller the heaps of gold in the banks of the
bosses...

Wright's tone is
very different than Langston Hughes, for even though Hughes captures the inequities of
his race, there is a more hopeful feeling to his work…he suffers from segregation, but
has hopes of equality one day in the land he is proud
of.

In Hughes' poem, "I, Too, Sing America" (also in free
verse), Hughes writes of being sent to eat in the kitchen, "the darker brother," who is
not allowed "out" when "company" comes. But he shows, too, that he lives his life as
well as he can:

But I
laugh,

And eat well,

And grow
strong.

We can infer ("grow
strong") that he is working toward a future goal, when he will be "good enough," and not
separated from others because of his
race:

Tomorrow,

I'll
be at the table

When company
comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to
me,

"Eat in the
kitchen,"

Then.

Hughes
dreams not only of a time when equality will exist between blacks and whites, but of a
time when the laws and conscience won't force people to see blacks and whites as equals,
but that the vision of segregationists will be unclouded, and they will see the
beauty of "the darker brother," and be ashamed of how they have
acted in the past…because he is just as much a part of America—he is an American son
also.

readability="5">

Besides,

They'll see
how beautiful I am

And be
ashamed--

I, too, am
America.

What separates each
Wright and Hughes as poets and writers is the hope that is—or is not—present in the
work.

Additional
Source:

http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/tpsocialsciences/us_history/civilrights/wright.htm

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15615