(1 February 1902 – 22 May 1967 / Missouri)

poet Langston Hughes
#11 on top 500 poets

Quotations

  • ''I was so sick last night I
    Didn't hardly know my mind.
    So sick last night I
    Didn't know my mind.
    I drunk some bad licker that
    Almost made me blind.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Morning After (l. 1-6). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    2189 person liked.
    		903 person did not like.
  • ''Way Down South in Dixie
    (Break the heart of me)
    They hung my black young lover
    To a cross roads tree.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Song for a Dark Girl (l. 1-4). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    1839 person liked.
    		751 person did not like.
  • ''Love is a naked shadow
    On a gnarled and naked tree.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Song for a Dark Girl (l. 11-12). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    1204 person liked.
    		546 person did not like.
  • ''I swear to the Lord
    I still can't see
    Why Democracy means
    Everybody but me.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet, author. The Black Man Speaks, Jim Crow's Last Stand (1943).
    1411 person liked.
    		489 person did not like.
  • ''here
    to this college on the hill above Harlem
    I am the only colored student in my class.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Theme for English B (l. 8-10). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    204 person liked.
    		83 person did not like.
  • ''So will my page be colored that I write?
    Being me, it will not be white.
    But it will be
    a part of you, instructor.
    You are white—
    yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Theme for English B (l. 27-32). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    219 person liked.
    		89 person did not like.
  • ''As I learn from you,
    I guess you learn from me—
    although you're older—and white—
    and somewhat more free.

    This is my page for English B.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Theme for English B (l. 37-41). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    223 person liked.
    		74 person did not like.
  • ''I've known rivers:
    Ancient, dusky rivers.

    My soul has grown deep like the rivers.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. The Negro Speaks of Rivers (l. 11-13). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    205 person liked.
    		82 person did not like.
  • ''The singer stopped playing and went to bed
    While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
    He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. The Weary Blues (l. 1-5). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    199 person liked.
    		69 person did not like.
  • ''Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
    Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
    I heard a Negro play.

    Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
    By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. The Weary Blues (l. 1-5). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    176 person liked.
    		69 person did not like.

Read more quotations »

Freedom's Plow

When a man starts out with nothing,
When a man starts out with his hands
Empty, but clean,
When a man starts to build a world,
He starts first with himself
And the faith that is in his heart-
The strength there,
The will there to build.

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