I, Whitney Watters, am the sole author of this website. I'm 16 years old, in a special program called Middle College that allows me to take high school and college classes at the same time, and spend almost all my time doing school work. I try to maintain all A's, and make sure I actually know what I'm doing as far as the lessons we cover in class go, but poetry was never my strongest topic, so be warned.
This site was created as an English project for me to pick an author and analyze three poems by him/her. I chose Langston Hughes for several reasons: 1) I know more about the time period he wrote about in his poems than any of the other authors I had to choose from, 3) the time period he writes about is one of my greatest interests, and 3) his poems are short but contain such a revolutionary perspective that it is hard to believe that such a small poem could have such a huge effect and open so many eyes on the racial discrimination and culture of a race that for so long was excluded from the rights . My goal with this webpage is to provide a detailed analysis of three of Hughes's poems for anyone looking for an opinion on them. I will then create my own narrative writing based on one of these poems.
Biography Videos
About Hughes
James Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. As a child his parents divorced and he was sent to live with his grandmother until he was thirteen years old. He went to live with his mother and her new husband in Lincoln, Illinois before they finally settles in Cleveland Ohio. It was in Lincoln that Hughes first began his escapades into writing poetry. After graduating high school and spending a year in Mexico, he attended Columbia University in New York City for a year. For this stretch of time, Hughes worked odd jobs such as a busboy, launderer, assistant cook, and traveled to Africa and Europe as a seaman. November of 1924, Hughes moved to Washington D.C. where his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, would be published two years late by Alfred A. Knopf. Three years later he finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, and in 1930 Hughes's first novel, Not Without laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.
Hughes is most known for his insightful portrayals of the lives of African Americans from the 1920s to the 1960s. Thought most famous for poetry, Hughes also wrote novels, plays, and short stories, and is also known for his engagement with jazz and the influence it had on his writing. His work was greatly influential in the shaping of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s because he refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of African Americans. He did not sugar coat his writing as would have been expects, but, instead, he wanted tto portray the over all culture of African Americans, including their suffering, love for music, laughter, and language. Donald B. Gibson pointed out that Hughes "differed from most of his predecessors among black poets...in that he addressed his poetry to the people, specifically to black people. During the twenties when most American poets were turning inward, writing obscure and esoteric poetry to an ever decreasing audience of readers, Hughes was turning outward, using language and themes, attitudes and ideas familiar to anyone who had the ability simply to read...Until the time of his death, he spread his message humorously—though always seriously—to audiences throughout the country, having read his poetry to more people (possibly) than any other American poet."
Hughes died from prostate cancer on May 22, 1967, leaving behind works of art that will open minds and hearts to the cruelties suffered by African Americans, as well as the losses, longings, laughter, language, and love shared by the many that were the exception to the rights of Americans for so long.