As Beth and a few others have already touched on, Langston Hughes aided in the early breaking of barriers between whites and blacks in his field. He did this, I believe, by not closing himself off from whites or anyone “other than negroes,” as many other negro activists did in that time (almost understandably). This is exemplified by him willingly opening himself to the work of white writers, ultimately being influenced by them, such as humanist Walt Whitman and fellow poet Carl Sandberg. This was rightly a foundational feature of black intellectuals in the early to mid-20th Century.tIn turn, Hughes greatly influenced many others. Notables were negroes in Paris who, at that time, were largely inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and Hughes’ role in the movement, and, possibly most importantly, future leaders of the African-American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and early 1960s (Hughes took a backseat position in the movement, dying in 1965 from health complications). From the mid-1920s and on through the 30s, Hughes’ hope for his people can be felt in quite a bit of his work found here in Selected Poems, and (specifically) very prominently in Harlem (he later changed the title to A Dream Deferred).tExcerpt: “What happens to a dream deferred? – Does it dry up? – like a raisin in tthe sun? … Or does it explode?tHughes was a late pioneer, or early leader of the Civil Rights Movement, depending on how you look at him, his work and the course of American history, and he got to see some of the fruits of his work and the work of his late contemporaries come to fruition. If only he’d have seen the receding racial tensions of the late-20th Century when penning Harlem, what a joy he’d have felt; or did he see it, and was he prophesying it in Harlem? Whatever the case, the Dream Deferred he speaks of in that poem, and touches on in the bulk of the rest of his writings, was something that, for him and his, was rooted in Harlem, New York, and helped fuel the Harlem Renaissance (and ultimately, the Movement). To feel that hope, read with the “Beat” his work found in Selected Poems.
Poem: "The Big Sea."Like E.E. Cummings, Langston Hughes wrote beautiful poems about getting out of the hands of tyranny and letting go of inferiority. Like Willa Cather and Sherwood Anderson, Hughes wrote of “getting ahead,” and how the American Dream just isn’t for everyone. In The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, Hughes writes: “…this urge within the race toward whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible.” Hughes felt that black America were “getting ahead” by conditioning themselves to be white, of wanting all the virtues of a white man. And just like E.E. Cummings, Langston Hughes offered poetry that no one understood at first. He sang his open-verse poems with rhythm from his blues culture. Yes, the Harlem renaissance had a lot in common with the modern poets and writers of the Modernist Movement, but the Harlem Renaissance created something new all on its own.Blessed to be heading to Harlem, Chicago, Philadelphia for industrial opportunities, artists and musicians are filled with joy, and the “New Negro” is proud to know his worth. He demonstrated this concept in his poem Theme for English B by writing: “So will my page be colored that I write?/ Being me, it will not be white./ But it will be/ a part of you, instructor.” We are now one, and the average white American poet and writers could never come from this perspective of unequal rights and treatment via skin color.
What do You think about Selected Poems (1990)?
*3.75I remember reading some of these [around three?] in 8th grade - the one about a crystal stair, English B, and a dream deferred. Hughes is a decent poet - not my favorite, but some of them are pretty thought provoking and perhaps beautifully written. He speaks for not himself, but for his people, and I can see why it was important. I plan to read more [as he is my chosen - or, technically, someone else chose for me - poet for English] and I think I'll be able to fairly analyze his work and emulate his style. I'm curious to see what the 'unselected' poems consist of. I guess the main reason I'm not giving it higher is that a fairly small percentage of the poems really affected me. The others were just...standard poetry, if there is such a thing.
—Katie
Sometimes in a work (or works) everything lines up and a perfect thing is created. Meter, prose, flow and meaning all blend together in the voice of not a man, but a people. Langston Hughes was one of the many voices of a people oppressed, a people with a Dream Deferred. He fought and spoke up in a time when Freedom had little meaning, when the founding ideas of a beautiful country were so far from being realized. This collection of poetry speaks for a whole generation of Americans who were pushed aside, taken for granted, and swept under the rug, and it was works such as these that led the way for the Civil Rights Movement. While we as a society have made leaps and strides in the favor of Freedom and Liberty, we are still on the same path, and the works held in this volume still ring as true as ever.Every school child, elementary through high school age, should read at least a few works of Langston Hughes. Start with "Freedom's Plow" and continue with "Freedom Train" and "Negro" and go from there.It seems maybe we are starting to forget just how hard of a journey it has been, and how much work we have remaining. We aren't done, both the goal and the fight remain for many.
—Erik Dabel
Before I picked up the Selected Poems of Langston Hughes, I was familiar with some of his more famous poems like "Harlem (Dreams Deferred)", "A Negro Speaks of Rivers", "The Weary Blues", and "I, Too"but I didn’t know much more than that. I was really interested in reading more of his poetry and digging deeper into his work and I thought this collection would be a good place to start. Now that I have finished the book, I have to say that my favorite thing about Langston Hughes’ work is the sheer musicality of it. I’ve read a lot about how influenced he was by Jazz and the Blues and I can definitely see that, both in the rhythm of the poems and in the many references Hughes makes to that kind of music. But I really loved the gospel feel to poems like “Feet O’ Jesus,” “Tambourines,” and “Prayer Meeting.” Most of them seemed to fall in the section of the book made up of selections from Hughes’ book of poetry, Feet of Jesus and I enjoyed them so much that I am seriously thinking of picking up the entire book to see if there are other poems in a similar style that I could check out. As for the rest of the collection, with the exception of a couple of poems that were a bit on the disturbing side (notably "To Artina and "Genius Child"), I really enjoyed reading this book, particularly poems like "Ardella", Midnight Dancer, and Stars, which were so lovely and lyrical. And when all is said and done, I have really enjoyed getting to know Langston Hughes better and I am looking forward to discovering more of him and his work.
—Kerry
