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1.“I, Too” seems on the surface like a poem about inclusion, integration, and possibly assimilation. If you compare lines like “I am the darker brother” and “I, too, am America,” do you think Hughes derives more pride from being black than from being American?2.”Or does it explode?” Explosion is a violent response to a condition. Is it inevitable that a dream deferred will come to a violent end, or explosion, as suggested in the last line of “Harlem”?3.In the poem, “American Heartbreak: 1619” has Hughes abandoned the “I, too, am America” sentiment? What do you make of the fact that the recorded version shows Hughes changing from “I” to “we”? 4.What has happened to Hughes and the country between the time of “I, Too” and the later poems, “Harlem” and “American Heartbreak: 1619,” to make the latter poems seem so much less hopeful?5.How would you relate these poems to Dunbar’s “We Wear the Mask” (if at all)?https://speakola.com/arts/langston-hughes-we-are-t…
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Langston Hughes • 1611
“Now you have started something. Aint no man living can hit me and get away
with it. Come on on the outside.”
. .
The house, tumultuously stirring, grabs its wraps and follows the men.
The man leads Dan up a black alley. The alley-air is thick and moist with smells
of garbage and wet trash. In the morning, singing niggers will drive by and ring their
gongs . . . Heavy with the scent of rancid flowers and with the scent of fight. The
crowd, pressing forward, is a hollow roar. Eyes of houses, soft girl-eyes, glow reticently upon the hubbub and blink out. The man stops. Takes off his hat and coat.
Dan, having forgotten him, keeps going on.
192?
.
Langston Hughes 1902-1967
•
. . . . . . .
• •
Langston Hughes was one of the most
original and versatile of twentieth-century
black writers. Born in Joplin, Missouri, to
James Nathaniel and Carrie Mercer
Langston Hughes, he was reared for a time
by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas,
after his parents’ divorce. Influenced by
the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and
Carl Sandburg, he began writing creatively
while still a boy. After his graduation from
high school in Cleveland, he spent fifteen
months in Mexico with his father; upon his
return to the United States in 1921,
Hughes attended Columbia University for
a year. Disillusioned with formal education, in 1923 he joined the crew of the SS
Malone bound for Africa, where the ship
visited thirty-odd ports. Before returning
to New York, Hughes lived in Paris,
Venice, and Genoa.
Despite the celebrated story of
Hughes’s being “discovered” by the white
poet Vachel Lindsay while working as a
hotel busboy in 1925, by that point
Hughes had already established himself as
a bright young star of the New Negro Renaissance. One of his most famous and innovative poems, “The Negro Speaks of
Rivers” (dedicated to W.E.B. Du Bois), appeared in the Crisis in 1921; and in 1923,
the New York’s Amsterdam News carried
his “The Weary Blues.” Two years later, his
first collection, also entitled The Weary
Blues, was published.
The most important stage in Langsfori
Hughes’s development as a writer was his
discovery of New York, of Harlem, of the
cultural life and literary circle of the “New
Negro” writers: Countee Cullen,. Arna
Bontemps, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale
Hurston, Eric Walrond and others. The
black revue Shuffle Along was on Broadway, and Harlem was the center of a thriving theater and the new music—-jazz,
Hughes steeped himself in the language,
music, and feeling of the common people
of Harlem. Proud of his folk heritage,
Hughes made the spirituals, blues, and jazz
the bases of his poetic expression. Hughes
wrote, he contended, “to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America.”
As his friends said of him, “No one enjoyed being a Negro as much as Langston
Hughes.” He portrayed the humor, wit,
endurance, and faith of his people with extraordinary skill. Subjected to discrimination and segregation, he remained steadfast in his devotion to human rights. His
well-known defense of black writers was
typical: “We younger Negro artists who
create now intend to express our individual dark skinned selves without fear or
shame….”
The versatility of Langston Hughes is
1
•
‘
:
…
—
•
1612
• Modern Period: 1910-1945
evident in his capacity to create in every literary genre—poetry, fiction, drama, essay,
and history. He was also the most prolific
of black writers; more than 12 volumes of
his poetry appeared in his lifetime. Hughes
won several prizes, awards, and fellowships, and was in constant demand for
readings and lectures throughout the
world. His fiction is equally distinguished.
In addition to his fine coming-of-age
novel, Not Without Laughter (1930),
Langston Hughes created the character of
Jesse B. Simple, a lively embodiment of urban black life, whose folk wit and wisdom
allowed Hughes to undermine the bourgeois pretentions of our society while
pointing out the hypocritical nature of
American racism. Like Whitman, Hughes
enhances our love of humanity, our vision
of the just society with a spiritual transcendence and ever-widening horizons of joy
and hope. In its spontaneity and race
pride, his poetry found a response among
poets of Africa and the Caribbean; and in
his own country Hughes served as both an
inspiration and a mentor for the younger
black writers who came of age in the 1960s.
With his rich poetic voice, nurturing generosity, warm humor, and abiding love of
black people, Langston Hughes was one of
the dominant voices in American literature
of this century and the single most influential black poet.
Charles H. Nichols
Brown University
PRIMARY WORKS
Poetry: The Weary Blues, 1926; Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927; Shakespeare in Harlem, 1942;
Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951; Fiction: Not Without Laughter, 1930; The Ways of White
Folks, 1934; The Best of Simple, 1961; Something in Common and Other Stories, 1963; Autobiography: TheBigSea, 1940; I Wonderasl Wander, 1956; Anthologies edited by Hughes: The
Poetry of the Negro (with Arna Bontemps), 1949; The Book of Negro Folklore (with Arna Bontemps), 1958; New Negro Poets: U.S.A., 1964; The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers, 1967;
Histories: A Pictorial History of the Negro in America (with Milton Meltzer), 1956; Famous Negro Heroes of America, 1958; Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP, 1962.
SECONDARY WORKS
James A. Emanuel, Langston Hughes, 1967; Therman B. O’Daniel, Langston Hughes, Black
Genius: A Critical Evaluation, 1971; Jemie Onwuchekwa, Langston Hughes: An Introduction
to the Poetry, 1976; Richard Barksdale, Langston Hughes: The Poet and His Critics, 1977; R.
Baxter Miller, Bio-Bibliography of Gwendolyn Brooks andLangston Hughes, 1978; Faith Berry,
Langston Hughes, Before and Beyond Harlem, 1983; Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston
Hughes, Vol. I, 1986 and Vol. II, 1988.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of
human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
1618 • Modern Period: 1910-1945
1
I don’t know what
10 Po’ weary me can do.
Gypsy says I’d kill my self
If I was you.
1927
I, Too
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
5 But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
10 When company comes.
Nobody’11 dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
15 Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
1925
Dream Variations
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
5 Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
Hughes Freedom Train
Dark like me—
That is my dream!
10 To fling my arms wide
In the face of the sun,
Dance! Whirl! Whirl!
Till the quick day is done
Rest at pale evening . . .
A tall, slim tree . . .
Night coming tenderly
Black like me.
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?
10
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
Freedom Train
I read in the papers about the
Freedom Train.
I heard on the radio about the
Freedom Train.
I seen folks talkin’ about the
Freedom Train.
Lord, I been a-waitin’ for the
Freedom Train!
Langston Hughes • 1611
“Now you have started something. Aint no man living can hit me and get away
with it. Come on on the outside.”
. .
The house, tumultuously stirring, grabs its wraps and follows the men.
The man leads Dan up a black alley. The alley-air is thick and moist with smells
of garbage and wet trash. In the morning, singing niggers will drive by and ring their
gongs . . . Heavy with the scent of rancid flowers and with the scent of fight. The
crowd, pressing forward, is a hollow roar. Eyes of houses, soft girl-eyes, glow reticently upon the hubbub and blink out. The man stops. Takes off his hat and coat.
Dan, having forgotten him, keeps going on.
192?
.
Langston Hughes 1902-1967
•
. . . . . . .
• •
Langston Hughes was one of the most
original and versatile of twentieth-century
black writers. Born in Joplin, Missouri, to
James Nathaniel and Carrie Mercer
Langston Hughes, he was reared for a time
by his grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas,
after his parents’ divorce. Influenced by
the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and
Carl Sandburg, he began writing creatively
while still a boy. After his graduation from
high school in Cleveland, he spent fifteen
months in Mexico with his father; upon his
return to the United States in 1921,
Hughes attended Columbia University for
a year. Disillusioned with formal education, in 1923 he joined the crew of the SS
Malone bound for Africa, where the ship
visited thirty-odd ports. Before returning
to New York, Hughes lived in Paris,
Venice, and Genoa.
Despite the celebrated story of
Hughes’s being “discovered” by the white
poet Vachel Lindsay while working as a
hotel busboy in 1925, by that point
Hughes had already established himself as
a bright young star of the New Negro Renaissance. One of his most famous and innovative poems, “The Negro Speaks of
Rivers” (dedicated to W.E.B. Du Bois), appeared in the Crisis in 1921; and in 1923,
the New York’s Amsterdam News carried
his “The Weary Blues.” Two years later, his
first collection, also entitled The Weary
Blues, was published.
The most important stage in Langsfori
Hughes’s development as a writer was his
discovery of New York, of Harlem, of the
cultural life and literary circle of the “New
Negro” writers: Countee Cullen,. Arna
Bontemps, Wallace Thurman, Zora Neale
Hurston, Eric Walrond and others. The
black revue Shuffle Along was on Broadway, and Harlem was the center of a thriving theater and the new music—-jazz,
Hughes steeped himself in the language,
music, and feeling of the common people
of Harlem. Proud of his folk heritage,
Hughes made the spirituals, blues, and jazz
the bases of his poetic expression. Hughes
wrote, he contended, “to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America.”
As his friends said of him, “No one enjoyed being a Negro as much as Langston
Hughes.” He portrayed the humor, wit,
endurance, and faith of his people with extraordinary skill. Subjected to discrimination and segregation, he remained steadfast in his devotion to human rights. His
well-known defense of black writers was
typical: “We younger Negro artists who
create now intend to express our individual dark skinned selves without fear or
shame….”
The versatility of Langston Hughes is
1
•
‘
:
…
—
•
1612
• Modern Period: 1910-1945
evident in his capacity to create in every literary genre—poetry, fiction, drama, essay,
and history. He was also the most prolific
of black writers; more than 12 volumes of
his poetry appeared in his lifetime. Hughes
won several prizes, awards, and fellowships, and was in constant demand for
readings and lectures throughout the
world. His fiction is equally distinguished.
In addition to his fine coming-of-age
novel, Not Without Laughter (1930),
Langston Hughes created the character of
Jesse B. Simple, a lively embodiment of urban black life, whose folk wit and wisdom
allowed Hughes to undermine the bourgeois pretentions of our society while
pointing out the hypocritical nature of
American racism. Like Whitman, Hughes
enhances our love of humanity, our vision
of the just society with a spiritual transcendence and ever-widening horizons of joy
and hope. In its spontaneity and race
pride, his poetry found a response among
poets of Africa and the Caribbean; and in
his own country Hughes served as both an
inspiration and a mentor for the younger
black writers who came of age in the 1960s.
With his rich poetic voice, nurturing generosity, warm humor, and abiding love of
black people, Langston Hughes was one of
the dominant voices in American literature
of this century and the single most influential black poet.
Charles H. Nichols
Brown University
PRIMARY WORKS
Poetry: The Weary Blues, 1926; Fine Clothes to the Jew, 1927; Shakespeare in Harlem, 1942;
Montage of a Dream Deferred, 1951; Fiction: Not Without Laughter, 1930; The Ways of White
Folks, 1934; The Best of Simple, 1961; Something in Common and Other Stories, 1963; Autobiography: TheBigSea, 1940; I Wonderasl Wander, 1956; Anthologies edited by Hughes: The
Poetry of the Negro (with Arna Bontemps), 1949; The Book of Negro Folklore (with Arna Bontemps), 1958; New Negro Poets: U.S.A., 1964; The Best Short Stories by Negro Writers, 1967;
Histories: A Pictorial History of the Negro in America (with Milton Meltzer), 1956; Famous Negro Heroes of America, 1958; Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP, 1962.
SECONDARY WORKS
James A. Emanuel, Langston Hughes, 1967; Therman B. O’Daniel, Langston Hughes, Black
Genius: A Critical Evaluation, 1971; Jemie Onwuchekwa, Langston Hughes: An Introduction
to the Poetry, 1976; Richard Barksdale, Langston Hughes: The Poet and His Critics, 1977; R.
Baxter Miller, Bio-Bibliography of Gwendolyn Brooks andLangston Hughes, 1978; Faith Berry,
Langston Hughes, Before and Beyond Harlem, 1983; Arnold Rampersad, The Life of Langston
Hughes, Vol. I, 1986 and Vol. II, 1988.
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of
human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
1618 • Modern Period: 1910-1945
1
I don’t know what
10 Po’ weary me can do.
Gypsy says I’d kill my self
If I was you.
1927
I, Too
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
5 But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
10 When company comes.
Nobody’11 dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
15 Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
1925
Dream Variations
To fling my arms wide
In some place of the sun,
To whirl and to dance
Till the white day is done.
5 Then rest at cool evening
Beneath a tall tree
While night comes on gently,
1366 • Modern Period: 1910-1945
Hughes Come to the Waldorf-Astoria! • 1367
m
FINE LIVING
a
Miten Hungry Ones!
Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the new
Waldorf Astoria:
“All the luxuries of private home …”
Now, won’t that be charming when the list flophouse has turned you down this winter? Furthermore;
“It M far beyond anything hitherto attempted in the
hotel world. . . ” It cost twenty-eight million
dollars. The famous Oscar Tschirky is in charge
of banqueting. Alexandra Gastaud is chef. It
will be a distinguished background for society.
So when you’ve got no place else to go, homeless and
hungry one*.
choose the Waldorf as a background for you
/
II
clean white fingers because your hands dug coal,
drilled stone, sewed garments, poured steel—to
let other people draw dividends and live easy.
(Or haven’t you had enough yet of the soup-lines
and the bitter bread of charity?)
Walk through Peacock Alley tonight before dinner,
and get warm, anyway. You’ve got nothing else
to do.
lem.)
Glory be to God—
De Waldorf-Astoria’s open.’
All you families put out in the street: Apartments
Everybody
in the Towers are only $ 10,000 a year. (Three
»
*
rooms and two baths.) Move in there until So get proud and rare back, everybody! The new
times get good, and you can do better. $10,000
Waldorf-Astoria’s open!
and SI.00 are about the same to you, aren’t they?
(Special siding for private can from the railroad
yards.)
Who cares about money with a wife and kids homeless, and nobody in the family working? Would’
You ain’t been there yet?
n’t a duplex high above the street be grand,
(A thousand miles of carpet and a million bath
with a view of the richest city in the world at
rooms.)
your nose?
What’s the matter? You haven’t seen the ads in the
“A lease, if you prefer; or an arrangement terminable
papers? Didn’t you get a card? Don’t you know
at will.”
they specialize in American cooking?
Ankle on down to 49th Street at Park Avenue. Get
up off that subway bench tonight with the evening POST for cover! Come on out o” that
O, Lawd, I done forgot Harlem!
flop-house! Stop shivering your guts out all
Say. you colored folks, hungry a long time in 135th
day on street corners under the L,
Street—they got swell music at the Waldorf-As- Jesus, ain’t you tired yet?
toria. It sure is a mighty nice place to shake hips
in. too. There’s dancing after supper in a big
warm room. It’i cold as bell on Lenox Avenue. Hail Mary, Mother of God!
All you’ve had all day is a cup of coffee. Your
The new Christ child of the Revolution’s about to
pawnshop overcoat’s a ragged banner on your
be bom.
hungry frame. . . . You know, down-town folks (Kick hard, red baby, in the bitter womb of the
are just crazy about Paul Robeson. Maybe they’d
mob.)
like you, too, black mob from Harlem. Drop in Somebody, put an ad in Vanity Fair quick!
at the Waldorf this afternoon for tea. Stay to
Call Oscar of the Waldorf—for Christ’s sake!
dinner. Give Park Avenue a lot of darkie color
It’s almost Christmas, and that little girl—turned
—free—for nothing! Ask the Junior Leaguers
whore because her belly was too hungry to stand
to sing a spiritual (or you. They probably know
it any more—wants a nice clean bed for the Im’em better than you do—and ftrir lipi won’t be
maculate Conception.
so chapped with cold after they step out of their
Listen, Mary, Mother of God, wrap your new bom
closed cars in die undercover driveways.
babe in the red flag of Revolution:
Hallelujah! undercover driveways!
The Waldorf-Astoria’s the best manger we’ve got.
Ma soul’s a witness for de Waldorf*
For reservations: Telephone
Astoria!
ELdondo 5-3000.
(A thousand nigger section-bands keep the road’
Evicted F amllle.
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