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Selected poems of Langston Hughes.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Vintage classicsPublication details: New York : Vintage Books, 1990.Edition: Vintage classics edDescription: 297 p.; 21 cmISBN:
  • 067972818X (alk. paper) :
  • 9780679728184
Uniform titles:
  • Poems. Selections
LOC classification:
  • PS3515.U274 A6 1990
Summary: With the publication of his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, in 1926, Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in black writing in America. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night." They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended the spoken with the sung, that turned poetic lines into the phrases of jazz and blues, and that ripped through the curtain separating high from popular culture. They spanned the range from the lyric to the polemic, ringing out "wonder and pain and terror-- and the marrow of the bone of life." The poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death in 1967 and represent work from his entire career, including "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Weary Blues," "Still Here," "Song for a Dark Girl," "Montage of a Dream Deferred," and "Refugee in America." It gives us a poet of extraordinary range, directness, and stylistic virtuosity.
List(s) this item appears in: Black Poetry
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Item type Current library Home library Collection Call number Copy number Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Standard Loan Hayden Library Adult Nonfiction Hayden Library Book 811.5/HUGHES (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Checked out 05/18/2024 50610017648168
Standard Loan Plummer Library Adult Nonfiction Plummer Library Book 811.52/HUGHES (Browse shelf(Opens below)) 1 Available 16276
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Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in Black writing in America-the poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death and represent stunning work from his entire career.

The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women- of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night." They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended the spoken with the sung, that turned poetic lines into the phrases of jazz and blues, and that ripped through the curtain separating high from popular culture. They spanned the range from the lyric to the polemic, ringing out "wonder and pain and terror-and the marrow of the bone of life."

The collection includes "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Weary Blues," "Still Here," "Song for a Dark Girl," "Montage of a Dream Deferred," and "Refugee in America."It gives us a poet of extraordinary range, directness, and stylistic virtuosity.

With the publication of his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, in 1926, Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in black writing in America. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night." They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended the spoken with the sung, that turned poetic lines into the phrases of jazz and blues, and that ripped through the curtain separating high from popular culture. They spanned the range from the lyric to the polemic, ringing out "wonder and pain and terror-- and the marrow of the bone of life." The poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death in 1967 and represent work from his entire career, including "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Weary Blues," "Still Here," "Song for a Dark Girl," "Montage of a Dream Deferred," and "Refugee in America." It gives us a poet of extraordinary range, directness, and stylistic virtuosity.

NP Lexile.

Reading Counts RC 6-8 9 9 Quiz: 13097 Guided reading level: NR.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

  • Afro-American Fragments
  • Afro-American Fragment (p. 3)
  • The Negro Speaks of Rivers (p. 4)
  • Sun Song (p. 5)
  • Aunt Sue's Stories (p. 6)
  • Danse Africaine (p. 7)
  • Negro (p. 8)
  • American Heartbreak (p. 9)
  • October 16 (p. 10)
  • As I Grew Older (p. 11)
  • My People (p. 13)
  • Dream Variations (p. 14)
  • Feet of Jesus
  • Feet o' Jesus (p. 17)
  • Prayer (p. 18)
  • Shout (p. 19)
  • Fire (p. 20)
  • Sunday Morning Prophecy (p. 21)
  • Sinner (p. 23)
  • Litany (p. 24)
  • Angels Wings (p. 25)
  • Judgment Day (p. 26)
  • Prayer Meeting (p. 27)
  • Spirituals (p. 28)
  • Tambourines (p. 29)
  • Shadow of the Blues
  • The Weary Blues (p. 33)
  • Hope (p. 35)
  • Late Last Night (p. 36)
  • Bad Morning (p. 37)
  • Sylvester's Dying Bed (p. 38)
  • Wake (p. 39)
  • Could Be (p. 40)
  • Bad Luck Card (p. 41)
  • Reverie on the Harlem River (p. 42)
  • Morning After (p. 43)
  • Early Evening Quarrel (p. 44)
  • Evil (p. 45)
  • As Befits a Man (p. 46)
  • Sea and Land
  • Havana Dreams (p. 49)
  • Catch (p. 50)
  • Water-Front Streets (p. 51)
  • Long Trip (p. 52)
  • Seascape (p. 53)
  • Moonlight Night: Carmel (p. 54)
  • Heaven (p. 55)
  • In Time of Silver Rain (p. 56)
  • Joy (p. 57)
  • Winter Moon (p. 58)
  • Snail (p. 59)
  • March Moon (p. 60)
  • Harlem Night Song (p. 61)
  • To Artina (p. 62)
  • Fulfilment (p. 63)
  • Gypsy Melodies (p. 64)
  • Mexican Market Woman (p. 65)
  • A Black Pierrot (p. 66)
  • Ardella (p. 67)
  • When Sue Wears Red (p. 68)
  • Love (p. 69)
  • Beale Street (p. 70)
  • Port Town (p. 71)
  • Natcha (p. 72)
  • Young Sailor (p. 73)
  • Sea Calm (p. 74)
  • Dream Dust (p. 75)
  • No Regrets (p. 76)
  • Troubled Woman (p. 77)
  • Island (p. 78)
  • Distance Nowhere
  • Border Line (p. 81)
  • Garden (p. 82)
  • Genius Child (p. 83)
  • Strange Hurt (p. 84)
  • Suicide's Note (p. 85)
  • End (p. 86)
  • Drum (p. 87)
  • Personal (p. 88)
  • Juliet (p. 89)
  • Desire (p. 90)
  • Vagabonds (p. 91)
  • One (p. 92)
  • Desert (p. 93)
  • A House in Taos (p. 94)
  • Demand (p. 96)
  • Dream (p. 97)
  • Night: Four Songs (p. 98)
  • Luck (p. 99)
  • Old Walt (p. 100)
  • Kid in the Park (p. 101)
  • Song for Billie Holiday (p. 102)
  • Fantasy in Purple (p. 103)
  • After Hours
  • Midnight Raffle (p. 107)
  • What? (p. 108)
  • Gone Boy (p. 109)
  • 50-50 (p. 110)
  • Maybe (p. 111)
  • Lover's Return (p. 112)
  • Miss Blues'es Child (p. 113)
  • Trumpet Player (p. 114)
  • Monroe's Blues (p. 116)
  • Stony Lonesome (p. 117)
  • Black Maria (p. 118)
  • Life is Fine
  • Life Is Fine (p. 121)
  • Still Here (p. 123)
  • Ballad of the Gypsy (p. 124)
  • Me and the Mule (p. 125)
  • Kid Sleepy (p. 126)
  • Little Lyric (p. 127)
  • Fired (p. 128)
  • Midnight Dancer (p. 129)
  • Blue Monday (p. 130)
  • Ennui (p. 131)
  • Mama and Daughter (p. 132)
  • Delinquent (p. 133)
  • S-sss-ss-sh! (p. 134)
  • Homecoming (p. 135)
  • Final Curve (p. 136)
  • Little Green Tree (p. 137)
  • Crossing (p. 138)
  • Widow Woman (p. 139)
  • Lament over Love
  • Misery (p. 143)
  • Ballad of the Fortune Teller (p. 144)
  • Cora (p. 146)
  • Down and Out (p. 147)
  • Young Gal's Blues (p. 148)
  • Ballad of the Girl Whose Name Is Mud (p. 149)
  • Hard Daddy (p. 150)
  • Midwinter Blues (p. 151)
  • Little Old Letter (p. 152)
  • Lament over Love (p. 153)
  • Magnolia Flowers
  • Daybreak in Alabama (p. 157)
  • Cross (p. 158)
  • Magnolia Flowers (p. 159)
  • Mulatto (p. 160)
  • Southern Mammy Sings (p. 162)
  • Ku Klux (p. 163)
  • West Texas (p. 164)
  • Share-Croppers (p. 165)
  • Ruby Brown (p. 166)
  • Roland Hayes Beaten (p. 167)
  • Uncle Tom (p. 168)
  • Porter (p. 169)
  • Blue Bayou (p. 170)
  • Silhouette (p. 171)
  • Song for a Dark Girl (p. 172)
  • The South (p. 173)
  • Bound No'th Blues (p. 174)
  • Name in Uphill Letters
  • One-Way Ticket (p. 177)
  • Migrant (p. 178)
  • Summer Evening (p. 180)
  • Graduation (p. 182)
  • Interne at Provident (p. 184)
  • Railroad Avenue (p. 186)
  • Mother to Son (p. 187)
  • Stars (p. 188)
  • To Be Somebody (p. 189)
  • Note on Commercial Theatre (p. 190)
  • Puzzled (p. 191)
  • Seashore through Dark Glasses (p. 192)
  • Baby (p. 193)
  • Merry-Go-Round (p. 194)
  • Elevator Boy (p. 195)
  • Who But the Lord? (p. 196)
  • Third Degree (p. 197)
  • Ballad of the Man Who's Gone (p. 198)
  • Madam to You
  • Madam's Past History (p. 201)
  • Madam and Her Madam (p. 202)
  • Madam's Calling Cards (p. 203)
  • Madam and the Rent Man (p. 204)
  • Madam and the Number Writer (p. 206)
  • Madam and the Phone Bill (p. 208)
  • Madam and the Charity Child (p. 210)
  • Madam and the Fortune Teller (p. 211)
  • Madam and the Wrong Visitor (p. 212)
  • Madam and the Minister (p. 213)
  • Madam and Her Might-Have-Been (p. 215)
  • Madam and the Census Man (p. 217)
  • Montage of a Dream Deferred
  • Montage of a Dream Deferred (p. 221)
  • Words Like Freedom
  • I, Too (p. 275)
  • Freedom Train (p. 276)
  • Georgia Dusk (p. 279)
  • Lunch in a Jim Crow Car (p. 280)
  • In Explanation of Our Times (p. 281)
  • Africa (p. 284)
  • Democracy (p. 285)

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Langston Hughes, February 1, 1902 - May 22, 1967 Langston Hughes, one of the foremost black writers to emerge from the Harlem Renaissance, was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Mo. Hughes briefly attended Columbia University before working numerous jobs including busboy, cook, and steward. While working as a busboy, he showed his poems to American poet Vachel Lindsay, who helped launch his career. He soon obtained a scholarship to Lincoln University and had several works published.

Hughes is noted for his depictions of the black experience. In addition to the black dialect, he incorporated the rhythms of jazz and the blues into his poetry. While many recognized his talent, many blacks disapproved of his unflattering portrayal of black life. His numerous published volumes include, "The Weary Blues," "Fine Clothes to the Jew," and "Montage of a Dream Deferred." Hughes earned several awards during his lifetime including: a Guggenheim fellowship, an American Academy of Arts and Letters Grant, and a Spingarn Medal from the NAACP.

Langston Hughes died of heart failure on May 22, 1967.

(Bowker Author Biography)

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