Langston Hughes

Question 1

Of what movement is Hughes known for being a part?

Answer 1

The Harlem Renaissance

Question 2

Where was Hughes born?

Answer 2

Joplin, Missouri

Question 3

What two American poets was Hughes influenced by?

Answer 3

• Walt Whitman (attempts to “sing America”)

- Carl Sandburg (attempts to incorporate Jazz into poetry)

Question 4

The Negro Speaks of Rivers: What poetic technique is utilized in this poem?

Answer 4

Anaphora (repetition)

Question 5

Mother to Son: What is a famous line of this poem?

Answer 5

“Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”

Question 6

Mother to Son: What is the sentiment of this poem? Why is it significant?

Answer 6

In this poem, a mother tells her son that her life has been full of hardship, comparing it to a well-worn and treacherous staircase as opposed to a “crystal stair.” Nonetheless, she has endured, and encourages him to do the same.

This poem adopts the perspective of an African American mother. Black women tended to have an even more difficult time than black men.

Question 7

Mother to Son: What Biblical reference does this poem make?

Answer 7

To Jacob’s Ladder

Question 8

The Weary Blues: Why is this poem called “The Weary Blues”?

Answer 8

It mimics the rhythms of Blues music, and explores the reasons why black people need to sing them.

Question 9

The Weary Blues: Where does this poem take place?

Answer 9

On Lenox Avenue in Harlem

Question 10

The Weary Blues: In what anthology does this poem appear?

Answer 10

“The Weary Blues”

Question 11

The Weary Blues: What are some Blues elements in this poem?

Answer 11

• Repetition

- Meandering free verse (mimics songs and speech)

Question 12

I, Too: What is the verse form of this poem?

Answer 12

Free verse

Question 13

I, Too: What is the example of Jim Crow treatment used to makes Hughes’ point in this poem?

Answer 13

Being forced to eat in the kitchen instead of at the dining table

Question 14

What is a Hughes poem that could be used to explore the idea of double consciousness?

Answer 14

“I, Too”: The first line - “I, Too, Sing America” - exhibits the dual identity of the speaker, who is both American and Black.

Question 15

Song for a Dark Girl: What is going on in this poem?

Answer 15

Hughes uses a refrain from a popular minstrel song, “Way Down South in Dixie,” to draw attention to an all-too-common love song for black women in the South - the lynching of their lovers.

Question 16

Discuss the use of music in “The Weary Blues” and “Song for a Dark Girl”.

Answer 16

Both incorporate musical forms into poetry, but while “Weary Blues” uses the Blues, a traditionally black form of musical expression, “Song for a Dark Girl” uses a refrain from a minstrel song which celebrates Dixie, the place of atrocities committed against black people.

Both use repetition as a way to evoke musicality, and in both cases it suggests cyclical violence or oppression. In “Weary Blues,” the singer ultimately concludes he might as well be dead, and in “Song for a Dark Girl,” there is no suggestion that this type of horror will cease any time soon.

Question 17

Song for a Dark Girl: Discuss the gender dynamics of this poem.

Answer 17

Like “Mother to Son,” this poem highlights the experiences of black women during slavery and Jim Crow. Lynching was obviously horrific for those murdered, but it was also deeply, deeply traumatic for loved ones left behind – often unable to move away/flee the South where these traumas took place.

Question 18

Visitors to the Black Belt: What is the sentiment of this poem?

Answer 18

The speaker is criticizing “outsiders” – primarily white people – who talk about areas where black people live as if they are strange, distant lands.

He is perhaps especially commenting on those who consume black culture, like Jazz, but still, consciously or subconsciously, want to keep a separation (segregation) between where they live and where black people live.

The speaker reminds us that there are people who live “on this side of the tracks,” “in Harlem,” and “on the South Side.”

Question 19

Note on Commercial Theater: What is the sentiment of this poem?

Answer 19

The speaker accuses white culture of taking blues, spirituals, and jazz into their commercial entertainment, especially theater. The problem is that these forms of entertainment are appropriating black culture without representing black life (or even being accessible to black people).

The speaker ends by saying that one day there will be art that celebrates “black and beautiful” – but black people will have to be the ones to create it.

Question 20

Note on Commercial Theater: What Civil Rights slogan originated with this poem?

Answer 20

“Black and Beautiful”

Question 21

What two Hughes poems seem to speak specifically about cultural appropriation?

Answer 21

• Note on Commercial Theater

- Visitors to the Black Belt

Question 22

Words Like Freedom: What two concepts are being compared in this poem?

Answer 22

“Freedom” and “Liberty.”

While “Freedom” is sweet to say, and the speaker relishes it, he has a more vexed relationship with “Liberty.” “Liberty” brings a feeling of powerful yearning and sadness because, despite being freed after the Civil War, black people do not yet have liberty in America.

The speaker says that he doesn’t need to explain why “Liberty” makes him want to weep – if you’ve been through what he has, you already know.

Question 23

Silhouette: What ideas are explored in this poem?

Answer 23

Sexual anxiety about black men and white women has always been one of the main shields racism likes to hide behind.

This poem asks/forces white women to look at what is being done in the name of “protecting” them. Even if she might “swoon,” she must look at what is being done in her name and realize her complacency in the system.

Question 24

Theme for English B: What “happens” in this poem?

Answer 24

In this poem, the speaker addresses the inherent inequality in the Education system for black students. Even those that are given the opportunity for higher education - and that was not many - come from very different backgrounds from their fellow students and instructors.

The speaker is the only black student in the class, and describes the long journey from Harlem to the classroom he must make each day. For a class assignment, the instructor wants students to write a page about themselves. The speaker ruminates on how his “truth” will be different from everyone else’s in the class – it will not be white.

The poem ends by the speaker asserting that, though the black student’s truth may seem foreign to the instructor, and the instructor’s to the student, they are a part of each other, even when they don’t want to be, because they are both part of America.

Despite the privilege that the instructor has, ze learns from the speaker at least as much as the speaker learns from them.