In honor of Black History Month, the February selection for the LWD Poet of the Month is the American poet, Langston Hughes. Today also happens to be his birthday!
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Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri in either 1901. He became a poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist.
Through his poetry, novels, plays, essays, and children’s books, he promoted equality, condemned racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality.
I must admit that despite my degree in English, I have not read much of Hughes’ poetry. I’m really looking forward to getting better acquainted with this American poet.
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. I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me to sleep. I looked upon the Nile and raised the pyramids above it.
I heard the singing of the Mississippi when Abe Lincoln went down to New Orleans, and I’ve seen its muddy bosom turn all golden in the sunset.
I’ve known rivers. Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
(Excerpt from: “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”)
A short YouTube biography:
Langston Hughes: Harlem Renaissance Poet, Novelist, Playwright (biography)
Here are a few links to articles about Hughes:
Poetry Foundation: Langston Hughes
“But jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America; the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul—the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.”
10 of the Best Langston Hughes Poems Everyone Should Read
Celebrating The Legacy Of Langston Hughes
I enjoyed the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets book I bought for last month’s poet – William Blake. A quality hardbound with a ribbon bookmark, it was a nice size and an attractive addition to my library. I was so pleased that I’ve purchased the Langston Hughes edition.
From the publication of his first book in 1926, Langston Hughes was hailed as the poet laureate of black America, the first to commemorate the experience of African Americans in a voice that no reader, black or white, could fail to hear. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, this volume is a treasure-an essential collection of the work of a poet whose words have entered our common language.
Previous Poets of the Month:
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