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A Poet to Remember. James Langston Hughes. Personal Life.
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A Poet to Remember James Langston Hughes
Personal Life James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri. When his parents got divorced when he was a young boy, his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was 13, when he moved to Lincoln, Illinois to live with his mother and her husband. They eventually moved and settled in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. In November, 1924 he moved to Washington D.C. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. Langston Hughes died of Cancer in New York, 1967.
An Artist At Work Langston Hughes Black Heritage Stamp Langston Hughes was no only a poet, but a play writer and a novelist. His first play, Mulatto, opened on Broadway in 1935. His poem, The Nigro Speaks of Rivers, was made into a musical piece. He was first inspired by Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whiteman to write poems, He first started writing poems in Lincoln, Illinois. His first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. In 1930, his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.
A Few Poems by Langston Hughes A few poems by Langston Hughes are The Nigro Speaks of the River, Mother to Son, My People, I Too, The Dream Keeper, Migration, and The Weary Blues. The Weary Blues was about the music from the Harlem Renaissance. A verse from The Weary Blues: Thump, Thump, Thump went his foot on the floor He played a few chords then he sang some more I got the Weary Blues And I can’t be satisfied Got the Weary Blues And can’t be satisfied-- I ain’t happy no mo And I wished I had died “ And into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. 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 was dead.
Sources By Amanda, Jeff, Conner, Tye, Loke, and Devan. • www.howard.edu • www.poets.org • www.americaslibrary.gov • www.pbs.org • Google Images
