James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents, James Hughes and Carrie Langston soon separated after his birth. His father moved to Mexico and his mother moved around during his youth. Hughes was raised primarily by his grandmother, Mary, until she died in his teens. Hughes then went to live with his mother and they moved to several cities, but eventually were settled in Cleveland, Ohio. While in Cleveland, Hughes began to write poetry and was also introduced to poetry of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman by one of his teachers. Hughes graduated from high school in 1920 and spent the following year with his father. The Crisis magazine published one of Hughes poems, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and
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“Feet o’ Jesus” is about asking Jesus for mercy and “Song for a Dark Girl” is about love and racism. In the first poem, Jesus is seen as a God that we pray to for mercy and forgiveness, but the second poem is questioning “Why do we pray at all” especially to the “white Lord Jesus.” Calling Jesus white because of his skin can raise the question “Why does a black man pray to a white man?” and “Because Jesus is “white” will he save black people?” So one poem is asking Jesus for something and the other one is questioning what people do for Jesus.
“As I Grew Older” by Langston Hughes is one of his most famous poems. Each line in the poem only has a few words, one to nine words, but to save space some of the lines were combined. Throughout the whole poem in speaks about how a person’s dream was shining so brightly until a wall covered it, making the area dark as a shadow. To see the dream again, the narrator uses his/her hands to break through the wall and back into the light.
The first few lines talk about how for a long time the narrator has not seen his/her dream and that they have almost forgotten what it was. It is explained that a wall that reaches the sky covered the narrator’s dream and that they are now left in the darkness. They can no longer see their dream; instead they see a dark shadow. The narrator wants to use his/her hands to break through the darkness, to find their dream and thousands of other dreams. They want to see light
“Feet o’ Jesus” is about asking Jesus for mercy and “Song for a Dark Girl” is about love and racism. In the first poem, Jesus is seen as a God that we pray to for mercy and forgiveness, but the second poem is questioning “Why do we pray at all” especially to the “white Lord Jesus.” Calling Jesus white because of his skin can raise the question “Why does a black man pray to a white man?” and “Because Jesus is “white” will he save black people?” So one poem is asking Jesus for something and the other one is questioning what people do for Jesus.
“As I Grew Older” by Langston Hughes is one of his most famous poems. Each line in the poem only has a few words, one to nine words, but to save space some of the lines were combined. Throughout the whole poem in speaks about how a person’s dream was shining so brightly until a wall covered it, making the area dark as a shadow. To see the dream again, the narrator uses his/her hands to break through the wall and back into the light.
The first few lines talk about how for a long time the narrator has not seen his/her dream and that they have almost forgotten what it was. It is explained that a wall that reaches the sky covered the narrator’s dream and that they are now left in the darkness. They can no longer see their dream; instead they see a dark shadow. The narrator wants to use his/her hands to break through the darkness, to find their dream and thousands of other dreams. They want to see light