Hold fast to dreams / For when dreams go / Life is a barren field / Frozen with snow.” “The Weary Blues” (1925) One of several Hughes poems about dreams, appropriately titled “ Dreams,” was first published in 1922 in World Tomorrow.” The eight-line poem remains a popular inspirational quote: “Hold fast to dreams / For if dreams die / Life is a broken-winged bird / That cannot fly. But ultimately she encourages her son to forge ahead, as she leads by example: “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.” “Dreams” (1922) The 20-line poem traces a mother’s words to her child about their difficult life journey using the analogy of stairs with “tacks” and “splinters” in it. With recitations from notables ranging from King to Viola Davis, “ Mother to Son” was first published in the December 1922 issue of the magazine The Crisis. The opening lines show a soul deeper than his age: “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.” The style honors that of his poetic influences Walt Whitman and Carl Sandburg, as well as the voice of African American spirituals. Written when he was 17 years old on a train to Mexico City to see his father, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” was Hughes’ first poem which received critical acclaim after it was published in the June 1921 issue of the NAACP magazine The Crisis. Here are 10 of his most memorable poems: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (1921) Hughes died of complications from prostate cancer on May 22, 1967, but his influence continues both through his poetry and his theme of writing on dreams, which Martin Luther King Jr. He even worked as a war correspondent during the Spanish Civil War in 1937 for several American papers and as a columnist for the Chicago Defender.
While Hughes is best known for his poetry - often marked with lyrical patterns - he also wrote novels like 1929’s Not Without Laughter, short stories like his 1934 collection The Ways of White Folks, his 1940s autobiography The Big Sea and lyrics for the Broadway musical Street Scene. Though he dropped out of college and spent time in Africa, Spain, Paris, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, much of his work focused on Harlem - where he eventually settled in 1947 in a three-floor brownstone on East 127th Street, which is now a historic landmark. READ MORE: Langston Hughes' Impact on the Harlem Renaissance After spending a year in Mexico with his dad, he enrolled at Columbia University in New York City in 1921 and became a leading voice of the Harlem Renaissance movement. When she passed away, he went to live with his mom in Cleveland, where he began to write poetry.
#Soul gone home by langston hughes free#
In a 1926 story for The Nation, Langston Hughes wrote, “An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose.” And throughout his career, he crafted his words with that exact essence.īorn James Mercer Langston Hughes in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, the young boy moved around throughout his early years growing up with his maternal grandmother after his parents’ divorce.
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