"By age 25, Hughes would publish his first poetry collection, The Weary Blues, which included such seminal pieces as the title poem, an earthy, songlike evocation of music's powers as a salve to sorrows, and The Negro Speaks of Rivers, which weaves wisps of geography, history and spiritual symbolism into a brief but incantatory celebration of African-American pride. The collection helped cement his place as a central figure in the Harlem Renaissance,"
"There were only two of us Negro kids in the whole class and our English teacher was always stressing the importance of rhythm in poetry. Well, everyone knows, except us, that all Negroes have rhythm, so they elected me as class poet." It's possible, of course, that Hughes merely was indulging in a little humor here, twisting a nugget of self-deprecation into the wry racial commentary he so often deployed."
Langston Hughes received an early, stereotype-tinged honor as his grammar-school class poet, reflecting assumptions about Black rhythmic ability. He came from a family of educators and became a devoted reader, developing a gift for expressing elevated ideas in relatable, down-to-earth language. By age 25 he published The Weary Blues, which contains the songlike title poem and The Negro Speaks of Rivers, a concise, incantatory blend of geography, history and spiritual symbolism celebrating African-American pride. The collection established Hughes as a central voice of the Harlem Renaissance, combining musicality with social and cultural insight.
Read at Oregon ArtsWatch * Arts & Culture News
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]