Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes is considered by many readers to be the most significant black poet of the twentieth century. He is described as ³...the beloved author of poems steeped in the richness of African American culture, poems that exude Hughesıs affection for black Americans across all divisions of region, class, and gender.² (Rampersad 3) His writing was both depressing and uplifting at times. His poetry, spanning five decades from 1926 to 1967, reflected the changing black experience in America, from the Harlem Renaissance to the turbulent sixties. At the beginning of his career, he was surrounded by the Harlem Renaissance. New York City in the 1920ıs was a place of immense growth and richness in African-American culture and art. For Hughes, this was the perfect opportunity to establish his poems. His early work reflects the happy times of the era. However, as time progressed he became increasingly bitter and upset over race relations. Except for a few examples, all his poems from! this later period spoke about social injustice in America. The somber tone of his writing often reflected his mood. Race relations was the shadow of his career, following him from his first poem to his last. The tone and subject matter of Hughesıs poetry
² Unfortunately, Hughes died feeling as though his writing did not help his race, and that his legacy was to be forgotten. He wonıt admit to a crime he did not commit. And yet in this final poem, even after the civil rights movement had peaked, Hughes is left feeling worthless. It was an amazing period in New York for African Americans, the first real large scale expression of their culture. Often children do not consider the consequences of their actions; they act on instinct and desire. For! Hughes, it would appear that his life ended on a dejected note. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. The bitterness he faced during his lifetime built up to a dull apathy that appears in this piece. ³White Man! White Man! / Let Louis Armstrong play it- / And you copyright it / And make the money. a single-glance tableau of interracial flirtation against a background of heady jazz. On top of the fina!ncial difficulties the depression brought, widespread racism re-surfaced in the North. It represents yet another case of whites letting blacks down.
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Acceptance Essays
