The Poetry of Langston Hughes

The Poetry of Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was born at the turn of the century in America. Hughes spent a rootless childhood moving from place to place with his mother who was separated from his father. During one year in high school, Hughes spent time with his father in Mexico, a light-skinned man who found an escape from racism in ranching. With aid from his father, Hughes attended Columbia University, but soon became disgusted with university life and immersed himself in his first love - the poetry and jazz and blues in Harlem. Hughes supported himself in odd jobs such as nightclub doorman and steward while he traveled to places as remote as West Africa, Italy, and Paris. During this time Hughes wrote poems that earned him a scholarship to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania. His first book of verse was published in 1926. In this work, the rhythmic, lyrical nature of his poetry is evident as is his belief that only by staying connected to their African roots could African Americans find understanding. We see this in Cross, "My old man died in a fine big house / My ma died in a shack. / I wonder where I'm gonna die, / Being neither white nor black?" (Langston 2).

The poems of Langston Hughes share a relationship in that they most typically depict the African American experience in the midst of an oppressive white mainstream culture. Some of the poems are strident political protests or social criticism, while other depicts Harlem life including poverty, prejudice, hunger, hopelessness, and other themes. Hughes tried to maintain an artistic detachment despite his deep emotions with respect to the feelings expressed in his poems. He tried, though unsuccessfully in some poems, to depict the universal while at the same time specifically using African American issues, themes, and speech. We see this in color, "Wear it / Like a banner / For the proud - / Not like a shroud" (Langston 2). We can see in this poem that Hughes' work depicts the universal experience of being ostracized or oppressed for what one cannot change, but we also see it is directly targeting the black experience with such conditions.

Hughes' poems often have a musical rhythm to them, as his lyrics typically rhyme in the ABAB CDCD ABAB CDCD scheme. The music of Harlem, the spirituals of Negro slaves, and other influences like Walt Whitman and W.