Langston Hughes

PS American Literature: Love It or Loathe It: Pathways to American Poetry

WS 2009/10 Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Claudia Schwarz Franz Burgmann Matr. Nr.: 9617155 Stkz.: C190 406 344

Table of Contents

Introduction...............................................................................................................................2 The Person Langston Hughes........................................................................................... 4 Childhood and Education................................................................................................ 4 The Poet Langston Hughes...............................................................................................7 A Negro Speaks of Rivers............................................................................................... 7 I, Too................................................................................................................................9 Langston Hughes's Legacy and Influence......................................................................... 11 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................13 Bibliography........................................................................................................................... 14

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Introduction
Love It or Loathe It: Pathways to American Poetry - the title of the Proseminar this

paper is based on opens up a whole spectrum of various feelings. I still remember that in my early years, when I started reading more extensively, I would always steer clear of quite every literary product where rhymes were involved. I cannot recall what the exact reason for this my aversion was and how it came into being; maybe I just did not like that my back-then teacher would have us pupils learn some of the works of all those famous Goethes or Schillers by heart, or maybe it was just due to the fact that my young mind was not yet able to crack open the poems' mystic shells and to make their hidden meaning and their inherent beauty tangible and visible.

I might never learn the answer to that, but poetry remained inaccessible for me for a long time and it was not until getting in contact with the likes of John Milton or William Shakespeare, and it was mainly due to Shakespeare's witty and ironic Sonnet CXXX that I started to see an arising possibility that poetry could be something that was not entirely lost on me.

Encouraged by my newly aroused interest in poetry, I confidently enrolled for the proseminar with the name tag Pathways to American Poetry, the very title of which not too long ago would have made me disregard being part of it at once. Additionally, at the time I chose to do my presentation and to write my paper about Langston Hughes I had never even heard about this poet, let alone have come in contact with his works; the

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only things I learned that very first day of the proseminar were that he was black and that he was dead.

I do not know anymore what made me choose Langston Hughes as my subject of inquiry; it turned out to be a good choice, though. Many of Hughess poems are as powerfully touching as they are simple, a wonderful example that poems can be mighty in their meaning in spite of, or due to, being plain and simple, is I, Too, Sing America, an ingenious and powerful appeal against the oppression and mistreatment of AfricanAmericans.

So what can the reader of this paper expect? One of the main points this paper is to take a closer look at the person as well as the poet Langston Hughes. The reader will get some insights into Langston Hughess life as well as an overview over his works. Additionally, I am going to deal with two famous poems of one of the innovators of what is nowadays known as jazz poetry. Last, but not least, this paper points out that Langston Hughes was not only concerned with the African-American cause and the African-American Civil Rights Movement as such, but that his work can and should looked upon and be understood from a broader perspective.

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The Person Langston Hughes

Childhood and Education

At the beginning of this paper some light is being shed on the upbringing and education of Langston Hughes. While looking upon this early phase of Hughes's life, the foundation of his later engagement for the emancipation and equality of AfricanAmericans shines through and his engagement becomes more comprehensible.

James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri, on February 1, 1902. Both Hughess parents were of mixed-race descent. One of his non-black ancestors was a slaveholder, another one a Cherokee Indian woman. So Langston Hughes was of African-American, European-American and Native-American descent. One of

Langston Hughes's ancestors was also the first ever black American congressman. His mother was a school teacher and she also wrote poetry. His father worked as a lawyer, as had been Langston Hughess grandfather's occupation. After the separation of Hughes's parents, his mother would often travel seeking employment, so young Langston was mainly raised my his grandmother, his mother's mother.

What might have affected Langston Hughess life and his long-term relation to his father was the separation of Hughes's parents shortly after his birth. Throughout Hughes's life the relationship to his father James remained a distant and difficult one. In his autobiography The Bis Sea Langston Hughes wrote the following about his father:

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"I had been thinking about my father and his strange dislike of his own people. I didn't understand it, because I was a Negro, and I liked Negroes very much." (Hughes: 54).

Even though it sounds contradictory to Hughes's aforementioned quote, did Langston Hughes not consider himself a Negro. In his aforementioned autobiography The Big Sea Hughes also writes: "Unfortunately, I am not black" (Hughes: 36). Here Hughes obviously acknowledges that he was not to be considered black and he at the same time expresses his regretfulness that he was not entirely of African heritage. Nevertheless was one of Hughes's major topics in his works the depiction of ordinary lives of black people and pointing out racial intolerance, injustice and inequality in American society.

Already in his early years Langston Hughes came across the harsh reality of racism. When time came for him to enter school, he was told that he had to go to a black school. Hughes's mother would not accept this and confronted the school board with this issue, pointing out that the white school was nearer to her house and therefore more convenient. She won the case and Langston Hughes was allowed to attend (Mikolyzk).

In grammar school Langston Hughes was elected class poet. Looking back, Hughes thought it was mainly due to the fact of the stereotype that African-Americans are more rhythmical: I was a victim of a stereotype. There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in

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poetry. Well, everyone knows, except us, that all Negroes have rhythm, so the elected me as class poet. (Johnson: 138)

In his high-school-years, Hughes wrote for the school newspaper, edited the yearbook and already wrote his first poetry, short stories and dramas. It was also in his high school years that Hughes discovered his love for reading. Later on Hughes would acknowledge the influence of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Carl Sandburg on his own poetry.

Langston Hughes tried to convince his father to provide money for attending University, but James Hughes did not support his son's vocation to become a writer. So they came to the agreement that Hughes should start studying engineering. Langston Hughes did not graduate, though, but later Hughes got a scholarship to Lincoln University and received his Bachelor degree in 1929.

Langston Hughes never married, nor is he known to ever have been in a relationship. This fact and additional analytical examinations of his works make some academics and biographers believe that Langston Hughes was homosexual and included homosexual codes in many of his poems, similar to Walt Whitman, whose work Hughes cited as another influence on his poetry. (Johnson: 139)

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On May 22, 1967, at the age of 65, Langston Hughes died from complications after abdominal surgery. His ashes are interred in the Arthur Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Hughes beloved Harlem.

The Poet Langston Hughes

Nowadays Langston Hughes is best known for his poems; Hughes was not only poet, though, but also novelist, play writer and from 1942-1965 also columnist for the Chicago Defender.

Hughes's first published poem is A Negro Speaks of Rivers . Written in 1920, it was published first in 1921 in The Crisis. This his signature poem is also included in Hughes's first collection of poetry, The Weary Blues, which he published at the age of 24.

In this paper two of the most famous poems of Langston Hughes, A Negro Speaks of Rivers, and I Too, will be discussed more closely.

A 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.

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I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young. 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.

Langston Hughes wrote A Negro Speaks of Rivers while on a train to Mexico to visit his father. He was inspired by the beauty of the Mississippi River and also by remembering the role this very river played in sustaining slavery. Hughes was about 18 years old at that time and had just graduated from Cleveland high school. The poem was published for the first time about one year later in the magazine The Crisis. In his autobiography The Big Sea Hughes talks about The Negro Speaks of Rivers and makes personal comments (Kutzinski: 108). Vera M. Kutzinski points out, though, that Hughes himself is not to be seen as the poems's speaker, but rather the titular 'Negro', whose oral incantations are distant, depersonalized utterances. (Kutzinski: 108). Kutzinski goes on saying the Hughes's purpose is to create a collective voice as a vehicle for cultural memory. (Kutzinski: 108) So according to Kutzinski the Negro Speaks of Rivers can be seen as the heart of the black community with Hughes giving a voice to a suppressed black community at a time when the members of a dominant white society would generally look down their noses at people of African descent. The poem's protagonist tells the story of enslavement and freedom that
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black people have encountered, and at the same time he praises this people's wisdom and strength.

Du to his commitment and dedication, Langston Hughes became one of the most notable writers of the Harlem Renaissance, also called the New Negro Movement, a cultural movement in the 1920s and 1930s, which was mainly concerned with the emancipation and the striving for political and social equality of African-Americans. Some of the other known members of the Harlem Renaissance alongside Hughes were known writers such as Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alain Locke. The movement helped to establish a new

black identity with the result that black authors became a lasting part of the American cultural history.

Another of Hughes's most famous poems is I, Too, it deals with the very same topic of the suppression of African-Americans:

I, Too
I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I'll be at the table

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When company comes. Nobody'll dare Say to me, "Eat in the kitchen," Then. Besides, They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed I, too, am America.

Like in A Negro Speaks of Rivers, Langston Hughes in I, Too speaks his mind about poverty, discrimination, and racism. As an example Hughes uses the disrespect from the master towards his servant by sending him away when visitors come. At the same time the poem points out the self-esteem and pride of the suppressed servant, when the poem's protagonist in line five says But I lough and in line 7 And grow strong. Hughes urges that AfricanAmericans are entitled to have the same rights and freedom as white people have and that they also should have the same status than white people have; Hughes additionally stresses this with the closing line I, too, am America.

As already explained, was Langston Hughes very proud to be of African descent. Johnson states that Hughes was unashamedly black at a time when blackness was dmod, and [] his main concern was the uplift of his people [], whose strengths, resiliency, courage, and humor he wanted to record as part of the general American experience. (Johnson: 141). In this sense Langston Hughes's manifesto The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain can be seen as his and all of his Harlem Renaissance contemporaries' motto. Even though the text

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type of the following text is not what can considered poetry, I take the liberty of reciting it, because it shows Hughes's very ideals, visions and also his determination with the utmost clarity:

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain The younger Negro artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. If white people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, it doesn't matter. We know we are beautiful. And ugly, too. The tom-tom cries, and the tom-tom laughs. If colored people are pleased we are glad. If they are not, their displeasure doesn't matter either. We build our temples for tomorrow, strong as we know how, and we stand on top of the mountain free within ourselves.

Langston Hughes's Legacy and Influence

A Negro Speaks of Rivers and I, Too are outstanding examples for why Hughes was considered to be the most representative of African American writers by virtue of his publication in virtually all areas of literary activity (Baxter: 37). Hughes gave hope and encouragement to many of his suppressed black fellow countrymen. By reading Hughes's poems and writings they knew they were not only not alone, but that with Hughes they had a spokesman who gave them both a voice and a face. So Hughes was both an inspiration and comforter to them and Hughes was able to bring complications of race relations in general, and specifically the African-Americans (Baxter, 2002).

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In The Worlds of Langston Hughes Vera M. Kutzinski looks at another aspect of Hughes's work, his interpreted and translated works. Kutzinski takes a look at the importance of translations especially for writers who are part of the African diaspora. Kutzinski shows that due to translations into other languages, especially Spanish, Langston Hughes's reputation in the Hispanic Americas is the stuff of legend. (Kozinski: 57)

Up to now Hughes's influence has been unbroken, Kutzinski goes on saying that Hughes continues to be regarded as the most important Negro poet of the twentieth century in many parts of the Hispanic world, including Spain. (Kozinski: 57).

It has to be mentioned, though, that Langston Hughes's influence also goes beyond Hispanic countries. In the film The Great Debaters Denzel Washington, playing a school teacher, recites Hughes's famous poem I, Too. (The Great Debaters). Also have many of Hughes's rhythmical poems been melodized.

Hughes is also known as one of the innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry. alongside with Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, and E. E. Cummings Hughes was one of this art form's most famous members. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines jazz poetry as poetry that is read to the accompaniment of jazz music. Authors of such poetry attempt to emulate the rhythms and freedom of the music in their poetry. Hughes wrote his first piece of jazz poetry, entitled When Sue Wears Red, when he was still in high school. (Johnson: 138)

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Conclusion

This paper covered life and works of one of the great American poets of the 20th century. With his unique style, his rhythmical language and at the same time his appeal against racism, discrimination and suppression of African-Americans, Langston Hughes has been one of the most influential voices of the African-American Civil Rights Movement. At the same time Hughes would always emphasize that our race problem is not really of black against white, and white against black. Its a problem of people who are not very knowledgeable, or who have small minds, or small spirits. (Neis: 29).

Therefore, Langston Hughes is to be considered as having been much more than just a forerunner and advocate for equality of African-Americans, but at the same time a supporter and advocate of humanism in general. One could even go as far as to say that Hughes used the inequality issues of African Americans merely as a background analogy and a metaphorical device, and his touching awareness-raising poems should be considered an appeal against prejudice, pride, arrogance and preconceptions not only in regard to people of different race, but also in regard to every single one of our fellow human (and not human!) beings. For those this assumption is to far fetched, Langston Hughes remains the American poet who has made a difference in the way African-Americans are being seen nowadays,

within and outside of America.

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Bibliography

Hughes, Langston. 1993. The Big Sea. New York: Hill & Wang. Tidwell, John Edgar and Ragar, Cheryl R., eds. 2007. Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes. Missouri: University of Missouri. Langston Hughes. 1995. The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Vintage. Vera M. Kutzinski. 2012. The Worlds of Langston Hughes: Modernism and Translation in the Americas. New York: Cornell University Press. Baxter, Miller R., ed. 2002. The Short Stories: 15 (Collected Works of Langston Hughes). Columbia: London University of Missouri Press. Thomas A. Mikolyzk. 1990. Langston Hughes: A Bio-bibliography (Bio-Bibliographies in Afro-American & African Studies). Westport: Greenwood Press. George D. Johnson. 2011. Profiles in Hue. Bloomington: Xlibris Corp. Therese Neis. 2012. Extraordinary African-American Poets (African-American Collective Biographies). New Jersey: Enslow Elementary. Langston Hughes, "The uselessness of tears", The Guardian, 26 October 2002, http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/oct/26/featuresreviews.guardianreview37, Accessed 23 October 2012. The Great Debaters. Dir. Denzel Washington. 2007. DVD. Genius Products (TVN), 2008.

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