Poetry Concerning the Human Race

I noticed that a lot of Langston Hughes's poetry dealt with the treatment of African Americans and the concern of their freedom. For Week 9, I decided to select a couple of my favorite poems by Langston Hughes and try to explain why I felt they had a lot of meaning behind them.

The first poem that I read was Aunt Sue's Stories. During the summer evenings, Aunt Sue holds a child on her lap and tells him stories that deals with slaves. In the poem, the child is silent and listens to his Aunt because he knows that her stories are real and didn't come from a book; They came from her own life. This reminds me of the debate between book learning and life experience. Langston Hughes says the child was silent because he knew the stories did not come from a book and they came from Aunt Sue's own life. I think this shows Langston Hughes believed that life experience was more important than book learning, and that there are some things that you just can't learn from a book.

The second poem that I looked at was Negro, and it is definitely one of my favorites! I feel there's just a lot of emotion behind this poem. The first and last lines in the poem say that he is a Negro, he is as black as the night. Its like he knows no matter what happens, he always was a Negro and always will be. He says he was a slave for Caesar, and cleaned Washington's boots. He was a worker, building pyramids and making mortar for the Woolworth Building. He was a singer, in Africa and in Georgia. He was a victim, getting his hands cut off in the Congo by the Belgians and still being lynched in Mississippi. Langston Hughes uses himself as a metaphor for the African American race. He shows that African Americans have always been slaves, workers, singers and victims. No matter what happens, he feels that people will look at him as a Negro. I feel that Langston Hughes had a lot of passion and emotion behind this poem.

My People is a short poem, but also holds a lot of meaning. He says that the night (which represents darkness) is beautiful, as are the faces of his people. He says that the stars (which represent brightness) are beautiful, as are the eyes of his people. He says the sun (which represents happiness and fun) is beautiful, as are the souls of his people. He gets his point across that his people have dark beautiful faces, bright beautiful eyes, and colorful souls. They are no different than these things in the sky, but are looked at in completely different ways.

Cross is a poem about a boy that has a white father and an African American mother. He is confused about what he is, since he is not completely white or African American. His father died in a fine big house and his mother died in a shack. This shows that there were many differences in the lives of people that were white and African American, even something like where they would die was completely different.

Flipping through my book of poems by Langston Hughes, I found a poem called Ku Klux. It was the first poem that I read in this book that rhymed. A group of white men took this black man out to the middle of nowhere, and asks him if he believed in the great white race. When the black man said he would believe in anything if they let him go, the white man declared he was sassing him. He hit him and in the head and kicked him while he was lying on the ground. The last lines are “Nigger, Look me in the face- And tell me you believe in the great white race.” I guess I couldn't really find a lot to say about this poem, just that it embarrassed me to be white. Its not like its just a fake story, these things really happened. I admire the courage the African American man had for speaking up to the white man, though.

Merry-Go-Round is about an African American child at a carnival. He asks where he is supposed to sit on a merry-go-round, since white and colored people can’t sit next to each other. He says that there’s a car for colored people on the train, and on the bus, he is put in the back. After reading this, I think about what the colored boy was asking. He probably wasn't aloud on the merry-go-round. All I could think of while I was reading this was that a merry-go-round is a circular shape. The song “Circle of Life” popped in my head and I started singing it:

It’s the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love

We’re all members of the human race and we’re all a part of “the Circle of Life.” The colored boy should have been aloud on the merry-go-round, which should have been for both colored and white people. Leave it to me to relate this to the Lion King. J

There’s a line from Theme for English B that I thought I would just through out. This colored man is the only colored man in his class. His instructor told his class told go home and write a page tonight, to let it come out of you and it would be true. He talks about his page being colored since he is colored, then he says:

But it will be
A part of you, instructor.
You are white-
Yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That’s American.

I know last year we talked about what it means to be American. Langston Hughes thought being American meant to be black and white.

The last poem I looked at was Democracy. Langston Hughes says he has as much right as a white man to own land. He’s tired of hearing people say “Let things take their course.” One line I love is “I do not need freedom when I’m dead.” He wants to live in the moment. I believe the end of the poem is amazing:

Freedom
Is a strong seed
Planted
In a great need
I live here, too.
I want freedom
Just as you.

All he wanted before he died was equality.