Langston Hughes

February is African-American History Month and in celebration of that time, I will be featuring some classic and contemporary African-American poets in my blog. I will start out with the poet whose words resonante with me the most: Langston Hughes.

"Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations. Although Hughes had trouble with both black and white critics, he was the first black American to earn his living solely from his writing and public lectures. Part of the reason he was able to do this was the phenomenal acceptance and love he received from average black people....  It was Hughes's belief in humanity and his hope for a world in which people could sanely and with understanding live together that led to his decline in popularity in the racially turbulent latter years of his life. Yet unlike younger and more militant writers, Hughes never lost his conviction that "most people are generally good, in every race and in every country where I have been."  -poetryfoundation.org

The first poem, "Mother to Son," is a lyrical dramatization of a black mother telling her son about the reality of the world they live in. (Conversations that are still happening today.)  She uses the imagery of the stair to illustrate to her young boy how things have never been easy for her, and also may not be for him. But he should keep climbing up those stairs, as she has done.

Mother to Son

By Langston Hughes 1902–1967 Langston Hughes

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

 

The next poem I want to share is "Harlem," also by Langston Hughes. It is a brief but impactful poem about what happens when a dream is "deferred," postponed or indefinitely suspended. Lorraine Hansberry uses this poem as the inspiration for her award winning play, A Raisin in the Sun, that chronicles the life of the Younger family in south side Chicago in the 1950s. You MUST read this play if you haven't already!

(This by the way, is an excellent companion piece to Death of a Salesman. It covers many of the same themes of working paycheck-to- paycheck, and trying to achieve the American Dream. The family dynamics of the Loman family and the Younger family are very similar, even though the issue of race is present in Raisin.)?

 

Both poems are about wanting to live your best life and the necessity of having an upward-moving step/a dream (typically hopeful Hughes) but with an undercurrent of fatalistic reality.

Harlem

By Langston Hughes 1902–1967 Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

      Does it dry up

      like a raisin in the sun?

      Or fester like a sore—

      And then run?

      Does it stink like rotten meat?

      Or crust and sugar over—

      like a syrupy sweet?

      Maybe it just sags

      like a heavy load.

      Or does it explode?