Langston Hughes 1902-1967 ENGL 2030: Experience of

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Langston Hughes 1902-1967
ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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Watch Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance
Langston Hughes and His Poetry (Library of
Congress)
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Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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W. E. B. Dubois (1868-1963)
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Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
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Malcolm X (1925-1965)
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W. E. B. Dubois (1868-1963)
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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Malcolm X (1925-1965)
Martin Luther King (1929-1968)
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Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
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ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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Do the Right Thing (1989)
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Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) novelist,
anthropologist
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James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) Writer, Poet
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Claude McKay (1889-1948) Poet
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Jean Toomer (1894-1967) Novelist and Poet
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Paul Robeson (1898-1976) Actor
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Countee Cullen (1903-1946)
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Langston Hughes
20th Century American Literature Dr. Lavery
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Langston Hughes
With Marianne Moore 1952
20th Century American Literature Dr. Lavery
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The Negro Speaks of Rivers Ive known rivers
Ive 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. I bathed
in the Euphrates when dawns were young. I built
my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep.
I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids
above it. I heard the singing of the Mississippi
when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and
Ive seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the
sunset. Ive known rivers Ancient, dusky
rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
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Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
Singing of/as America
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I, Too I, too, sing America.I am the darker
brother.They send me to eat in the kitchenWhen
company comes,But I laugh,And eat well,And
grow strong.Tomorrow,I'll be at the tableWhen
company comes.Nobody'll dareSay to me,"Eat in
the kitchen,"Then.
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I, Too Besides, They'll see how beautiful I
amAnd be ashamed--I, too, am America.
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Harlem 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?
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Mother to Son Well, son, I'll tell youLife 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
timeI'se been a-climbin' on,And reachin'
landin's,And turnin' corners,And sometimes
goin' in the darkWhere 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.
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from Let America Be America Again Let America be
America again.Let it be the dream it used to
be.Let it be the pioneer on the plainSeeking a
home where he himself is free.(America never
was America to me.)Let America be the dream the
dreamers dreamed--Let it be that great strong
land of loveWhere never kings connive nor
tyrants schemeThat any man be crushed by one
above.(It never was America to me.)O, let my
land be a land where LibertyIs crowned with no
false patriotic wreath,But opportunity is real,
and life is free,Equality is in the air we
breathe.(There's never been equality for
me,Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.)
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from Let America Be America Again . . .Yet I'm
the one who dreamt our basic dreamIn the Old
World while still a serf of kings,Who dreamt a
dream so strong, so brave, so true,That even yet
its mighty daring singsIn every brick and stone,
in every furrow turnedThat's made America the
land it has become.O, I'm the man who sailed
those early seasIn search of what I meant to be
my home-For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's
shore,And Poland's plain, and England's grassy
lea,And torn from Black Africa's strand I
cameTo build a "homeland of the free."The
free?
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ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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from Let America Be America Again O, let America
be America again--The land that never has been
yet-And yet must be--the land where every man is
free.The land that's mine--the poor man's,
Indian's, Negro's, ME--Who made America,Whose
sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,Whose hand
at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,Must
bring back our mighty dream again.Sure, call me
any ugly name you choose-The steel of freedom
does not stain.From those who live like leeches
on the people's lives,We must take back our land
again,America!O, yes,I say it plain,America
never was America to me,And yet I swear this
oath--America will be!
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Song for a Dark Girl Way Down South in Dixie
 (Break the heart of me) They hung my black
young lover  To a cross roads tree. Way Down
South in Dixie  (Bruised body high in air) I
asked the white Lord Jesus  What was the use of
prayer. Way Down South in Dixie  (Break the
heart of me) Love is a naked shadow  On a
gnarled and naked tree.
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ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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Theme for English B The instructor said,Go
home and writea page tonight.And let that page
come out of you--Then, it will be true. I
wonder if it's that simple?I am twenty-two,
colored, born in Winston-Salem.I went to school
there, then Durham, then hereto this college on
the hill above Harlem.I am the only colored
student in my class.The steps from the hill lead
down into Harlem,through a park, then I cross
St. Nicholas,Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come
to the Y,the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the
elevatorup to my room, sit down, and write this
page
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Theme for English BIt's not easy to know what
is true for you or me at twenty-two, my age. But
I guess I'm what I feel and see and hear,
Harlem, I hear youhear you, hear me--we
two--you, me, talk on this page.(I hear New
York, too.) Me--who?Well, I like to eat, sleep,
drink, and be in love.I like to work, read,
learn, and understand life.I like a pipe for a
Christmas present,or records--Bessie, bop, or
Bach.
Bop. Also called bebop. early modern jazz
developed in the early1940s and characterized by
often dissonant triadic and chromatic chords,
fast tempos and eccentric rhythms, intricate
melodic lines punctuated by pop -tune phrases,
and emphasizing the inventiveness of soloists.
Compare cool jazz, hard bop, modern jazz,
progressive jazz. 
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Theme for English BI guess being colored
doesn't make me not likethe same things other
folks like who are other races.So will my page
be colored that I write? Being me, it will not be
white. But it will bea part of you, instructor.
You are white-- yet a part of me, as I am a
part of you. That's American.Sometimes perhaps
you don't want to be a part of me. Nor do I
often want to be a part of you.But we are,
that's true! As I learn from you, I guess you
learn from me-- although you're older--and
white-- and somewhat more free.This is my page
for English B.
ENGL 2030 Experience of LiteraturePoetry
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