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Langston Hughes: An American Poet

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Langston Hughes is a well known as an American poet. Langston Hughes was born James Mercer Langston Hughes on February 1, 1902, and died 65 years later May 22, 1967. Langston Hughes made his mark in literature during the Harlem Renaissance as more than just a poet. Langston Hughes was a novelist, playwright, and social activist. Through his works he spoke out on racism, inequality all while still celebrating Black Culture.
Langston Hughes was born in Joplin Missouri to Carrie Langston Hughes and James N. Hughes. His mother and father both had lifestyles that did not allow them to raise their child. His mother was looking for a career on stage and his father went to México as a businessman. This resulted in Hughes living with his grandmother, …show more content…

In April of 1925 Langston Hughes’ poem “The Weary Blues” won him his first prize for poetry. It was from The Opportunity magazine’s literary contest. Langston decides to go back to university at the HBCU Lincoln University in Pennsylvania where he later graduated from in 1929. With the help of his sponsor, Charlotte Manson, Langston Hughes goes to Cuba where he sparks Nicolás Guillén to introduce Negro Poems to Cuba. Without the support of his sponsor, Langston Hughes returns back to the states and takes up playwriting at Hedgerow Theater. Langston Hughes novel Not Without Laughter is published and has great reviews. Langston Hughes goes on to win the Harmon Foundation Medal and $400. 1935 Langston Hughes finds his play Mulatto is about to open on Broadway. Even with his protest the play the play becomes the longest running play on Broadway by a black playwright until 1958. During WWII 1942, Langston Hughes wrote columns for The Chicago Defender and introduced the character, Jesse B Semple. This comedic character served as a way for Langston Hughes to address racism, inequality, and other social issues for the next 20 …show more content…

Segregation and inequality of People of Colour play a big role in the poems that I will be addressing in this Essay. As a Black American he uses his experience and the experiences of People of Colour in America to create his works and connect us in the struggle against racial injustice. Langston Hughes used these poems to express what People of Colour were going through and how we felt in that time.
“Let America be America Again” was a criticism of the treat of black people and other poc in America. The poem speaks to America or rather white America who have created a false sense of freedom on stolen land. At the beginning of the poem Hughes is asking for America to be America again and in parenthesis saids “(America was never America to me)” like he was saying it under his breath. America wasn’t the land of the free for black once they arrived it never had the same opportunities as it offered to White Americans. Black people had to fight to even be considered a whole human. “(It was never America to

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Arna Bontemps works is often times linked with the Harlem Renaissance, however, there is another poet that when thinking of this time, that always comes to mind. Langston Mercer Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. Southern living during this time, was surrounded with a thick cloud of racial tension, luckily for Hughes, he did not live in Missouri long. Like Arna, Hughes was not fully black as both of his partners were biracial. However, unlike Bontemps, his partners separated when he was young, leaving Langston with feelings of rejection and abandonment.

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Langston Hughes is a very famous and popular name in American literature. Langston Hughes was a poet, playwright, and columnist. Hughes was born in Joplin Missouri on February 1st 1902. Langston’s first and most popular piece of work “The Negro Speak of Rivers” was published in a very popular black journal, which allowed the everyday person to read his work. Langston Hughes was very well known in the Harlem Renaissance.

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James Mercer Langston Hughes was the first African American to achieve national prominence, and the figure of such stature in the black community. His influence and ideas were inescapable, as he saw himself as a poet for an entire nation. Hughes role model, Walt Whitman helped to give him the ideas of the optimistic vision of America and how to achieve and accomplish some of the things he did in his life. Langston Hughes inspired many people and expressed the African American spirt and soul in his works.

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Langston Hughes is unique because he steadily asks rhetorical questions like “The free?” and “Who said the free? Not Me?”(Hughes). With this Langston shows us that from his personal experience, he jokes about the United States of America as a land of freedom and then questions the people who said the United States of America is the land of the free. Because Langston Hughes has experienced the life of African Americans, Indians, and other immigrants have felt in the United States of America.

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The culture of most blacks was unwanted during this time. For this reason Hughes desired to make a change and illustrate such cultural identities in his poems. In doing this he caused a shift in ideas among all people. Although the change didn’t happen immediately it did eventually occur. With that said the African American people were given less of an opportunity at jobs, schooling, and most importantly culture.

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Hughes was attracted to the creative world of Harlem so he stayed there from time to time but never permanently resided there. As Hughes said “The Negro is in Vogue”. Poems and stories based on the passion, and the soul of black people in America, captivated audiences all over the

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Poetry, perhaps more than other genre of writing, often sparks controversy and discussion. Authors Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes are two authors in American Literature whose poetry is both debated and praised by critics. "I Hear America Singing" by Walt Whitman and "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes have sparked many discussions on their controversial content. Walt Whitman was the first of the two authors to write, followed by Langston Hughes who was influenced by Whitman's work. While Whitman's poem, "I Hear America Singing" reflects the happiness of the American people, the poem written by Hughes takes a different approach.

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During the 1900s, there were many famous authors who wrote about African Americans and Civil Rights. This was what was going on during this time period. Segregation and discrimination towards blacks was increasing. Two famous authors were Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. Langston Hughes wrote the poem “I, Too, Sing America.”

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Biography/Context: Langston Hughes (1902-1967) is widely considered as one of the most successful African-American poets of all time. He was also a columnist, playwright, novelist, and social activist for African-American rights. Consequently, Hughes wrote all sorts of literature about 20th century African-Americans living in Harlem--a major black residential within the Manhattan borough of New York City--and soon became an extremely influential figure in the Harlem Renaissance, which was the rebirth movement of African-American culture in the arts during the 1920s. Hughes also had great admiration for music, and was inspired by a variety of genres/musicians such as boogie, Bach, jazz, and blues. His special love for blues music caused

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Langston Hughes was an American poem born in the early nineteen hundreds, who became known as the leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He published many poems that brought light to the life of people of color in the twentieth century. There are three poems that the speakers are used to portray three major themes of each poem. Racism, the American Dream, and Hopes are all the major themes that Hughes uses to highlight the average life of a person of color. Theme for English B,” “Harlem,” and “Let America Be America Again” were three of Hughes’s poems that was selected to underline the themes.

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Langston Hughes is an African American Poet who is very closely connected to his culture and expresses his feelings very thoroughly through his poetry in a jazz style. Langston Hughes is a modern poet who ignore the classical style of writing poetry and instead, in favor of oral and improve traditions of the Black culture. In majority of Langston’s poetry, many of his audience seems to take away a very strong message that many can apply to themselves or to others or his poems gives you an educational background of what’s going on in the African American community right now. For example, Langston Hughes writes a poetry piece called Afro American Fragment, which gives you a great breakdown of what an everyday African American person goes through considering that their whole history is basically taken away from them. Langston seems to show his audience that in books we never hear much about what contributions a African American person has done except for being brought to America and being a slave.

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Throughout much of his poetry, Langston Hughes wrestles with complex notations of African American dreams, racism, and discrimination during the Harlem Renaissance. Through various poems, Hughes uses rhetorical devices to state his point of view. He tends to use metaphors, similes, imagery, and connotation abundantly to illustrate in what he strongly believes. Discrimination and racism were very popular during the time when Langston Hughes began to develop and publish his poems, so therefore his poems are mostly based on racism and discrimination, and the desire of an African American to live the American dream. Langston Hughes poems served as a voice for all African Americans greatly throughout his living life, and even after his death.

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In the poem “I, Too”, the author Langston Hughes illustrates the key aspect of racial discrimination faces against the African Americans to further appeals the people to challenge white supremacy. He conveys the idea that black Americans are as important in the society. Frist, Hughes utilizes the shift of tones to indicate the thrive of African American power. In the first stanza, the speaker shows the sense of nation pride through the use of patriotic tone. The first line of the poem, “I, too, sing America” states the speaker’s state of mind.

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