Online assesment 2: My favourite poet

James Mercer Langston Hughes, born on February 1, 1902 was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer and columnist(a journalist who writes for publication in a series). He is my favourite poet as I find that he is an extremely talented person. He written so many poems such as Montage of a Dream Deferred, One-Way ticket and The Weary Blues. He has also written many books, both fiction and non-fiction such as Not without Laughter and Famous American Negroes. He has even written plays! I also dug up a recording of an interview with him. In that interview, he talks with Studs Terkel about a few different topics, mainly the blues. In one incident, he actually wrote a blues on a blank Western Union telegram for his program later right on the spot! He did not have any time to think about it, albiet a few seconds, but still managed that feat! Such talents are scarce in the world. Sadly, Langston Hughes died on 22 May, 1967 due to complications after abdominal surgery, related to prostrate cancer.

Hughes gained white-collar employment in 1925 as a personal assistant to the historian Carter G.Woodson at the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. Hughes quit to work as a busboy in a hotel as he did not like the time constraint that limited his writing. While working as a busboy, Hughes met the poet Vachel Lindsay who was impressed with the poems Hughes showed him. Lindsay then publicized his discovery of a new black poet. By this time, Hughes' earlier work had already been published in magazines and was about to be collected into his first book of poetry. This may be how he rose to fame.

However, it is believed that Hughes was a homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar in manner to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry. Arnold Rampersad, the primary biographer of Hughes, determined that Hughes exhibited a preference for other African-American men in his work and life.This love of black men is evidenced in a number of reported unpublished poems to a black male lover.

Here are some poems from Lanston Hughes

The Negro speaks of rivers
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 danced in the Nile when I was old
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.

Dream deferred
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sagslike a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

Dinner Guest: Me
I know I amThe Negro Problem
Being wined and dined,
Answering the usual questions
That come to white mind
Which seeks demurely
To Probe in polite way
The why and wherewithalOf darkness U.S.A.
Wondering how things got this way
In current democratic night,
Murmuring gentlyOver fraises du bois,
"I'm so ashamed of being white.

"The lobster is delicious,
The wine divine,
And center of attention
At the damask table, mine.
To be a Problem onPark Avenue at eight
Is not so bad.
Solutions to the Problem,
Of course, wait.








Recording of interview: http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/Content.aspx?audioID=28870
Biological information, The Negro speaks of rivers poem: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes#Death
Dream deferred poem:http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dream-deferred/
Dinner Guest:Me poem :http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dinner-guest-me/