Langston Hughes

LANGSTON HUGHES (1902-1967)

“Hold fast to dreams,

For if dreams die

  Life is a broken-winged bird,

That cannot fly”

“In all my life, I have never been free. I have never been able to do   anything with freedom, except in the field of my writing”

·        1902 -Born in Missouri

·        1921 - first poem was published in The Crisis (the Magazine by the NAACP)

·        1926- The Weary Blues, his first collection of poetry  published

·        1927 – Fine Clothes to the Jew, his best work; – ‘The Negro Artist and the Racial                                                            Mountain’ ,an essay

·        1930 – Not Without Laughter, a novel

·        1940 – The Big Sea, first autobiography

·        1942 – Shakespeare in Harlem
      1943-  Jim Crow's Last Stand

·        1947- Fields of Wonder

·        1949 – One-Way Ticket

·        1951 -  Montage of a Dream Deferred

·        1956 – I Wonder as I Wander, second autobiography

·        1961 – Ask Your Mama

1967 – Death- The Panther and the Lash – posthumously published.

'Democracy'  Click this link      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23dAzTZqOXY

As I Grew Older

It was a long time ago.

I have almost forgotten my dream.

But it was there then,

In front of me,

Bright like a sun—

My dream.

And then the wall rose,

Rose slowly,

Slowly,

Between me and my dream.

Rose slowly, slowly,

Dimming,

Hiding,

The light of my dream.

Rose until it touched the sky—

The wall.

Shadow.

I am black.

I lie down in the shadow.

No longer the light of my dream before me,

Above me.

Only the thick wall.

Only the shadow.

My hands!

My dark hands!

Break through the wall!

Find my dream!

Help me to shatter this darkness,

To smash this night,

To break this shadow

Into a thousand lights of sun,

Into a thousand whirling dreams

Of sun

I, Too

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed —

I, too, am America.

Dear Mr. President

President Roosevelt, you

Are our Commander in Chief.

As such, I appeal

To you for relief.

Respectfully, sir,

I await your reply

As I train here to fight,

Perhaps to die.

I am a soldier

Down in Alabam

Wearing the uniform

Of Uncle Sam.

But when I get on the bus

I have to ride in the back.

Rear seats only

For a man who's black.

When I get on the train,

It's the Jim Crow e a r -

That don't seem to jibe

With what we're fighting for.

Mr. President, sir,

I don't understand

Democracy that

Forgets the black man.

Respectfully, therefore,

I call your attention

To these Jim Crow laws

Your speeches don't mention.

I ask why YOUR soldiers

Must ride in the back,

Segregated —

Because we are black?

I train to fight,

Perhaps to die.

Urgently, sir,

I await your reply.

The Black Man Speaks (from Jim Crow's Last Stand)

I swear to the Lord

I still can't see

Why Democracy means

Everybody but me.

I swear to my soul

I can't understand

Why Freedom don't apply

To the black man.

I swear, by gum,

I really don't know

Why in the name of Liberty

You treat me so.

Down South you make me ride

In a Jim Crow car.

From Los Angeles to London

You spread your color bar.

Jim Crow Army,

And Navy, too—

Is Jim Crow Freedom the best

I can expect from you?

I simply raise these questions

Cause I want you to state

What kind of a world

We're fighting to create.

If we're fighting to create

A free world tomorrow,

Why not end right now

Old Jim Crow's sorrow?

Ballad of the Landlord

Landlord, landlord,

My roof has sprung a leak.

Don't you 'member I told you about it

Way last week?

Landlord, landlord,

These steps is broken down.

When you come up yourself

It's a wonder you don't fall down.

Ten Bucks you say I owe you?

Ten Bucks you say is due?

Well, that's Ten Bucks more'n I'll pay you

Till you fix this house up new.

What? You gonna get eviction orders?

You gonna cut off my heat?

You gonna take my furniture and

Throw it in the street?

Um-huh! You talking high and mighty.

Talk on—till you get through.

You ain't gonna be able to say a word

If I land my fist on you.

Police! Police!

Come and get this man!

He's trying to ruin the government

And overturn the land

Copper's whistle!

Patrol bell!

Arrest.

Precinct Station.

Iron cell.

Headlines in press:

MAN THREATENS LANDLORD

TENANT HELD NO BAIL

JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL.

     (from JCLS)

I Dream a World

I dream a world where man

No other man will scorn,

Where love will bless the earth

And peace its paths adorn.

I dream a world where all

Will know sweet freedom's way,

Where greed no longer saps the soul

Nor avarice blights our day.

A world I dream where black or white,

Whatever race you be,

Will share the bounties of the earth

And every man is free,

Where wretchedness will hang its head

And joy, like a pearl,

Attends the needs of all mankind —

Of such I dream, my world!

Alice Walker stands with a display of the Langston Hughes commemorative stamp




 

Democracy

“I will not take ‘but’ for an answer. Negroes have been looking at democracy's ‘but’ too long”

                                                                   -Langston Hughes

                                                The poetry of Langston Hughes represents the noblest and most powerful aspects of Black American literature. In his literary career that lasted for over four decades, Hughes wrote more than fifty books with one central purpose: “to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America”. All his major works are powerful voices of protest against the physical and psychological oppression faced by the Negro community in White-dominant America. Poems like, ‘I too sing America’, ‘As I Grew Older’, ‘Let America be America Again’, ‘The Bitter River’ etc. pose disturbing questions to the world about the harmful practice of racial discrimination. ‘Democracy’, first published in his 1943 Collection, Jim Crow’s Last Stand, reveals the typical militant attitude that has evolved in the final stage of Hughes’ creative life.
           As a prominent leader of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes always raised his voice against the inhuman attempts to deprive the Negroes of their deserving democratic rights. ‘Democracy’, like the other poems (The Bitter River, Ballad of the Landlord, The Black Man Speaks etc.) in the collection Jim Crow’s Last Stand, obviously questions the misinterpretation and distortion of the principles of democracy so as to grant special favours to the White people. As in his major poems, here too, the collective Negro voice speaks through the poet. The poem’s passionately assertive tone clearly suggests that it is specifically addressed to the White Society. Throughout the poem, the speaker questions the validity of Jim Crow Laws, the legally permissible discriminatory practices against blacks which institutionalized economic, educational and social disadvantages for the African-American community.

                   It was Abraham Lincoln, the greatest American president, who offered the noblest definition to the concept of democracy as “a government of the people, by the people and for the people”. However, the Negroes in America have been denied their fundamental democratic rights for ages. They continued to suffer severe exploitation and brutal oppression even decades after the Abolition of Slavery in 1865. They were never considered equal to the White citizens and their grievances were never properly addressed. Quite frequently, they were told by the White authorities to wait patiently for a better future. But Hughes argues that Negroes are tired of the lame excuses and law’s delays. Generations have in fact perished without getting due recognition and natural justice. Hughes reminds the authorities that the Negroes are not at all ready to be deceived by their empty promises:

                   “I do not need my freedom when I am dead.

            I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.”

Freedom is as essential as the food we take or the air we breathe. Hughes is of the view that denying freedom to the Black is, of course, a gross violation of fundamental human right.

                 Throughout the poem, Hughes exhorts his Negro companions to intensify their fight for freedom and justice. He says that if they passively wait for favourable action from the White authorities, they will never get their democratic rights. Instead, they have to fight boldly without compromising with their goals. A black citizen has as much right as the white one to lead a life of dignity and self-reliance. He too should be provided equal opportunities to stand on his own feet. The various attempts to segregate them as inferior and dangerous ones have made them ever subservient to their white masters. Freedom, one of the fundamental principles of democracy, has been denied to the Negro community for ages. Hughes reminds the great truth to the whole world,

          “Freedom

        Is a strong seed

        Planted

        In a great need.”

It is from the seed of freedom all the other democratic rights germinate. The marginalized and exploited black people need this life-giving force better than anyone else.

                     Though written against the background of racial discrimination in the United States, ‘Democracy’ undoubtedly has a universal appeal. For millions of readers all over the world, this poem is an extremely concise yet powerful statement on the wounds caused by injustice everywhere. No wonder, even decades after its composition, this poem continues to inspire heroic struggle for freedom and justice all around the globe. Better than any other poem, ‘Democracy’ exemplifies Hughes’ own definition of poetry as, “…the human soul entire, squeezed like a lemon or lime, drop by drop, into atomic words”.