More handpicked essays just for you.
Introduction to Harlem Renaissance by Langston Hughes
Introduction to Harlem Renaissance by Langston Hughes
Critical analysis of Harlem poem by Langston Hughes
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
“I dream a world where… love will bless the earth and peace its paths adorn.” -- Langston Hughes
An artist in the truest sense of the word, Langston Hughes was quite simply a literary genius. Born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri, James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was a speaker for the simple man, a man who had no wealth or power but still had soundness of heart and virtues abundant. He was the one of the earliest innovators of the then new art form known as Jazz Poetry alongside with e.e. cummings, T.S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound. Hughes is also known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance (Francis).
Both of Hughes’ paternal great-grandmothers were African American and both of his paternal great-grandfathers were white slave owners of Kentucky. Langston Hughes was the second child of schoolteacher Carrie (Caroline) Mercer Langston and James Nathaniel Hughes. He grew up in a series of Midwestern small towns in Missouri. Hughes's father left his family and later divorced Carrie, going to Cuba, and then Mexico, seeking to escape the enduring racism in the United States (“Biography of Langston Hughes”). His grandmother raised him until he was thirteen (as his father had left him and his mother at a young age) when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband. They, later, settled in Cleveland, Ohio. Hughes started writing poetry when he was in Lincoln (“Langston Hughes”).
After graduating from high school, Hughes spent a year in Mexico followed by a year at Columbia University in New York City. During this time, he acquired menial jobs but, when he moved to Washington D.C. in November 1924, Alfred A. Knopf, published his first b...
... middle of paper ...
...tion to Langston Hughes." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 04 Dec. 2013.
"Biography of Langston Hughes." Poemhunter.com. Poemhunter Inc., n.d. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Davis, Arthur P. “Hughes.” Poetry Criticism. Ed. V. Young, Robyn. New York:
Gale Research Company, 1991. Vol. 1. 246-247.
Francis, Ted. Realism in the Novels of the Harlem Renaissance. New York, NY: Writers Club, 2002. www.wikipedia.org. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
"Langston Hughes." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
Patterson, Lindsay. "Langston Hughes -- The Most Abused Poet in America?" NY Times. The New York Times Company, 29 Jan. 1969. Web. 4 Dec. 2013.
Rampersad, Arnold. The Life of Langston Hughes. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002. 418. Print.
Whitaker, Charles. Langston Hughes: 100th birthday celebration of the poet of Black America, Ebony magazine, April 2002.
"A Centennial Tribute to Langston Hughes." Library System - Howard University. Howard University, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2014.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902, to James Nathaniel Hughes, a lawyer and businessman, and Carrie Mercer (Langston) Hughes, a teacher. The couple separated shortly thereafter. James Hughes was, by his son’s account, a cold man who hated blacks (and hated himself for being one), feeling that most of them deserved their ill fortune because of what he considered their ignorance and laziness. Langston’s youthful visits to him there, although sometimes for extended periods, were strained and painful. He attended Columbia University in 1921-22, and when he died he, left everything to three elderly women who had cared for him in his last illness, and Langston was not even mentioned in his will.
Hughes, a.k.a. Langston, a.k.a. “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed.
James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin , Missouri . His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico . He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln , Illinois , to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland , Ohio . It was in Lincoln , Illinois , that Hughes began writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University . During these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington , D.C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.
Jabari Asim, “The Politics and Poetry of Langston Hughes,” Washington Post, Monday, June 7, 2004. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21849-2004Jun7.html (accessed July 1, 2008).
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri on the first day of February in the year 1902. His parents were separated when Hughes was very young; his father fled the country in order to escape the ever-present racism in the United States, according to Christine Hill, author of Langston Hughes, Poet of the Harlem Renaissance. He was raised by his maternal grandmother in Lawrence, Kansas into adolescence, who succeeded in instilling a sense of pride for his heritage in Hughes (Hill). Hughes’ ancestry greatly influenced his work, and inspired his social activism. Hughes’ great grandmothers were of African American descent, and his great grandfathers were white plantation owners in Kentucky. Hughes’ family tree is ridden with politically active members, many of which were related to abolition and expanding the rights of African-American people. His grandfather’s brother, John Mercer Langston, acted as the head of the Ohio Anti-Slavery ...
Hughes started writing poetry in high school, but the major turning point in his poetic career was when he was working as a bus boy in Washington, D.C. A very famous critic, Vachel Lindsay, was at the place that Hughes worked. Hughes had always admired him and looked up to him, but he was too timid to confront him. Instead, he ran up to Lindsay, gave him a few poems that he had written, and ran away without saying anything. The next day Hughes was bombarded by reporters because Lindsay had published his poems in the paper. Since Lindsay had not known his name, he had received the name ?bus boy poet? in the paper. That was the jump start of Hughes?s career.
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri into an abolitionist family. Hughes hated his father and he was passed around between his different family members and family friend. Hughes began writing poetry in the seventh grade and when he graduated he was selected as the Class Poet. His father did not believe that he could make a living out of being a writer but he paid his tuition to college so his son could be an engineer. Langston continued to write poetry however and he dropped out of college with a B+ average.
Langston Hughes is considered one of the greatest African American poets to live in the last century. Langston Hughes wrote poems over oppression from 1926-1964, he wrote many poems, jazzes, blues, and spirituals. Langston Hughes uses America as symbolism to represent that America represents more than a country and it represents “The American Dream” and freedom.
Hughes, Langston. "Black Identity and Langston Hughes" The Craft of Literature third edition. Gioia, Dana and Kennedy X.J. New York: Longman, 2003. 772-773.
During his lifetime, he was known as "the poet laureate of Harlem." What this meant, is that he was worthy of honor and he excelled in poetry. In addition, he worked as a journalist, dramatist, essayist, novelist, playwright, lyricist, and children's author during his life. This man’s name is Langston Hughes, however his full name is James Langston Hughes.
Langston Hughes, a renowned poet from the early 1900s, has written numerous poems that have various themes and meanings. Although a lot of his poetry has to do with the struggles of African Americans during the time of slavery or during the early 1900s, Langston Hughes’ themes differ from poem to poem. One theme that appears in multiple poems of his is the theme of race, Langston Hughes uses the theme of race in his poems as a way to challenge the racial barriers that are placed on society. The theme of race is discussed in a plethora of his poems and it is important to examine a few of these poems which include, “I too, sing America”, “Theme for English b”, and “Let America be America Again”, to point out that Hughes tries to implement the sense of hope into African Americans of the time, also he uses race as a way to provide a focus on the oppression of slaves.
...arlem, New York: Lessons from the Harlem Renaissance Writers.” PMLA 105.1 (1990): 47-56. JSTOR. Web. 24 April 2014.
The Collection Poems of Langston Hughes, Rapersad, A. & Roessel, D. ( Eds.) (1995) , New York, Vintage Books
Critical Essays on Langston Hughes.