A Song to a Negro Washwoman - wsfcs.k12.nc.us



Langston Hughes(1902-1967)PagePoem 245678910111516181920212224252628“Mister Sandman”“The South”“Summer Night”“The Cat and the Saxophone (2 a.m.)”“Ruby Brown”“Being Old”“Scottsboro”“Song of the Revolution”“Let America be America Again”“Song of the Refugee Road”“Ballad of the Landlord”“Dark Youth of the U.S.A.”“Madam and the Rent Man”“Song of Adoration”“Madam and the Newsboy”“Theme for English B”“Brotherly Love”“doorknobs”“The Negro Mother”“Final Call”Source: The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. Arnold Rampersad, ed. NY: Vintage Classics, 1994.The names and dates below the poem’s title are for first known publication.Note: For the IOC, copies of the poems will contain no information other than the title, the poem’s text, and line numbers.Mister SandmanBrownie’s Book, Aug. 192151015202530The Sandman walks abroad tonight,With his canvas sack o’ dreams filled tight.Over the roofs of the little town,The golden face of the moon looks down.Each Mary and Willy and Cora and NedIs sound asleep in some cozy bed,When the Sandman opens his magic sackTo select the dreams from his wonder pack.“Ah,” says the Sandman, “To this little girlI’ll send a dream like a precious pearl.”So to Mary Jane, who’s been good all day,A fairy comes in her sleep to play;But for Corinne Ann, who teased the cat,There’s a horrid dream of a horrid rat,And the greedy boy, with his stomach too full,Has a bad, bad dream of a raging bull;While for tiny babes, a few days old,Come misty dreams, all rose and gold.And for every girl and every boyThe Sandman has dreams that can please or annoy.When at pink-white dawn, with his night’s work done,He takes the road toward the rising sun,He goes straight on without a pauseTo his house in the land of Santa Claus.But at purple night-fall he’s back againTo distribute his dreams, be it moon light or rain;And good little children get lovely sleep toys,But woe to the bad little girls and boys!For those who’d have dreams that are charming and sweet,Must be good in the day and not stuff when they eat,‘Cause old Mister Sandman, abroad each night,Has a dream in his sack to fit each child just right.The SouthCrisis, June 1922510152025The lazy, laughing SouthWith blood on its mouth.The sunny-faced South,Beast-strong,Idiot-brained.The child-minded SouthScratching in the dead fire’s ashesFor a Negro’s bones.Cotton and the moon,Warmth, earth, warmth,The sky, the sun, the stars,The magnolia-scented South.Beautiful, like a woman,Seductive as a dark-eyed whore,Passionate, cruel,Honey-lipped, syphilitic – That is the South.And I, who am black, would love herBut she spits in my face.And I, who am black,Would give her many rare giftsBut she turns her back upon me.So now I seek the North –The cold-faced North,For she, they say,Is a kinder mistress,And in her house my childrenMay escape the spell of the South.Summer NightCrisis, Dec. 1925510152025The soundsOf the Harlem nightDrop one by one into stillness.The last player-piano is closed.The last victrola ceases with the“Jazz Boy Blues.”The last crying baby sleepsAnd the night becomesStill as a whispering heartbeat.I tossWithout rest in the darkness,Weary as the tired night,My soulEmpty as the silence,Empty with a vague,Aching emptiness,Desiring,Needing someone,Something.I toss without restIn the darknessUntil the new dawn,Wan and pale, Descends like a white mistInto the court-yard.Hughes interspersed lines from the 1924 song “Everybody Loves My Baby, but My Baby Don’t Love Nobody but Me,” by Jack Palmer and Spencer Williams.The Cat and the Saxophone (2 a.m.)The Weary Blues, 192651015202530EverybodyHalf-pint, -Gin?No, make itLoves my babycorn. You likeliquor,don’t you, honey?But my babySure. Kiss me,Don’t love nobodydaddy.But me.Say!EverybodyYes?Wants my babyI’m yourBut my babysweetie, ain’t I?don’t want nobodySure.ButThen let’sMe,do it!Sweet me.Charleston,mamma!!Ruby BrownCrisis, Aug. 1926510152025She was young and beautifulAnd golden like the sunshineThat warmed her body.And because she was coloredMayville had no place to offer her,Nor fuel for the clean flame of joyThat tried to burn within her soul.One day,Sitting on old Mrs. Latham’s back porchPolishing the silver,She asked herself two questionsAnd they ran something like this:What can a colored girl doOn the money from a white woman’s kitchen?And ain’t there any joy in this town?Now the streets down by the riverKnow more about this pretty Ruby Brown,And the sinister shuttered houses of the bottomsHold a yellow girlSeeking an answer to her questions.The good church folk do not mentionHer name any more.But the white manHabitués of the high shuttered houses,Pay more money to her nowThat they ever did before,When she worked in their kitchens.Being OldCrisis, Oct. 19275101520It’s because you are so young, -You do not understand.But we are oldAs the jungle treesThat bloomed forever,Old as the forgotten riversThat flowed into the earth.Surely we know what you do not know;Joy of living,Uselessness of things.You are too young to understand yet.Build another skyscraperTouching the stars.We sit with our backs against a treeAnd watch skyscrapers tumbleAnd stars forget.Solomon built a templeAnd it must have fallen down.It isn’t here now.We know some things, being old,You do not understand.ScottsboroOpportunity, Dec. 19315101520258black boys in a southern jail.world, turn pale!8 black boys and one white lie.Is it much to die?Is it much to die when immortal feetMarch with you down Time’s street,When beyond steel bars sound deathless drumsLike a mighty heart-beat as They come?Who comes?Christ,Who fought alone.John Brown.That mad mobThat tore the Bastille downStone by stone.Moses.Jeanne d’Arc.Dessalines.Nat Turner.Fighters for the free.Lenin with the flag blood red.(Not dead! Not dead!None of those is dead!)Gandhi.Sandino.Evangelista, too,To walk with you –8black boys in a southern jail.world, turn pale!Song of the RevolutionNegro Worker, March 19335101520Sing me a song of the RevolutionMarching like fire over the world,Weaving from the earth its bright red bannerFor the hands of the masses to unfurl.Sing in me a song of the RevolutionDrowning the past with a thunderous shout:Filled with the strength of youth and laughter,And never the echo of doubt.O mighty roll of the Revolution,Ending the centuries of bloody strife,Ending the tricks of kings and liars,Big with the laughter of a new life.Breaking the bonds of the darker races,Breaking the chains that have held for years,Breaking the barriers dividing the people,Smashing the gods of terror and tears,Cutting, O flame of the Revolution,Fear from the world like a surgeon’s knife,So that the children of all creationWaken, at last, to the joy of life.Let America be America AgainEsquire, July 1936510152025303540455055606570758085Let America be America again.Let it be the dream it used to be.Let it be the pioneer on the plainSeeking a home where he himself is free.(America never was America to me.)Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed – Let it be that great strong land of loveWhere never kings connive nor tyrants schemeThat any man be crushed by one above.(It never was America to me.)O, let my land be a land where LibertyIs crowned with no false patriotic wreath,But opportunity is real, and life is free,Equality is in the air we breathe.(There's never been equality for me,Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark? And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.I am the red man driven from the land,I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek – And finding only the same old stupid planOf dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.I am the young man, full of strength and hope,Tangled in that ancient endless chainOf profit, power, gain, of grab the land!Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!Of work the men! Of take the pay!Of owning everything for one's own greed!I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.I am the worker sold to the machine.I am the Negro, servant to you all.I am the people, humble, hungry, mean –Hungry yet today despite the dream.Beaten yet today – O, Pioneers!I am the man who never got ahead,The poorest worker bartered through the years.Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dreamIn the Old World while still a serf of kings,Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,That even yet its mighty daring singsIn every brick and stone, in every furrow turnedThat's made America the land it has become.O, I'm the man who sailed those early seasIn search of what I meant to be my home –For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,And torn from Black Africa's strand I cameTo build a "homeland of the free."The free?Who said the free? Not me?Surely not me? The millions on relief today?The millions shot down when we strike?The millions who have nothing for our pay?For all the dreams we've dreamedAnd all the songs we've sungAnd all the hopes we've heldAnd all the flags we've hung,The millions who have nothing for our pay –Except the dream that's almost dead today.O, let America be America again –The land that never has been yet –And yet must be – the land where every man is free.The land that's mine – the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME –Who made America,Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,Must bring back our mighty dream again.Sure, call me any ugly name you choose –The steel of freedom does not stain.From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,We must take back our land again,America!O, yes,I say it plain,America never was America to me,And yet I swear this oath –America will be!Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,We, the people, must redeemThe land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.The mountains and the endless plain –All, all the stretch of these great green states –And make America again!Song of the Refugee Road sent to the American Negro Press in Chicago, Feb. 194051015202530Refugee road, refugee roadWhere do I go from here?Weary my feet! Heavy the road!My heart is filled with fear.The ones I left far behind –Home nowhere!Dark winds of trouble moan through my mind.None to care!Bitter my past! Tomorrow – What’s there?Refugee road! Refugee road!Where do I go from here?Walking down the refugee road.Must I beg? Must I steal?Must I lie? Must I kneel?Or driven like dumb war-weary sheep,Must we wander the high road and weep?Or will the world listen to my appeal?From China where the war gods thunder and roar.From all the dark lands where freedom is no more.Vienna, city of light and gladness,Once gay with waltzes, now bowed in sadness.Dark Ethiopia, stripped of her mirth.Spain, where the shells plans steel seeds in the earth.Oh, Statue of Liberty, lighting tomorrow,Look! And have pity on my sorrow:Home nowhere! None to care!Bitter my past! Tomorrow – what’s there?Refugee road! Refugee road!Where do I go from here?Walking down the refugee road.Ballad of the Landlord Opportunity, Dec. 194051015202530Landlord, landlord,My roof has sprung a leak.Don't you 'member I told you about itWay last week?Landlord, landlord,These steps is broken down.When you come up yourselfIt's a wonder you don't fall down.Ten Bucks you say I owe you?Ten Bucks you say is due?Well, that's Ten Bucks more'n I'll pay youTill you fix this house up new.What? You gonna get eviction orders?You gonna cut off my heat?You gonna take my furniture andThrow it in the street?Um-huh! You talking high and mighty.Talk on-till you get through.You ain't gonna be able to say a wordIf I land my fist on you.Police! Police!Come and get this man!He's trying to ruin the governmentAnd overturn the land!Copper's whistle!Patrol bell!Arrest.Precinct Station.Iron cell.Headlines in press:MAN THREATENS LANDLORDTENANT HELD NO BAILJUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS IN COUNTY JAIL!In the first version of this poem, there was no stanza break between lines 24 and 25, but line 30 was set apart by itself. Also in that version, the headlines occupied the final four lines of the poem, not three, and were not in capital letters. The lines become capitalized in Jim Crow’s Last Stand (1943), in which the last two lines are “JUDGE GIVES NEGRO 90 DAYS / IN COUNTY JAIL…” Those two lines became one line in the final version of the poem, in Selected Poems of Langston Hughes (1959).Dark Youth of the U.S.A.A recitation to be delivered by a Negro boy, bright, clean, and neatly dressed, carrying his books to school.1931-1940 (Reprinted in Common Sense Historical Review, Aug. 1953)510152025Sturdy I stand, books in my hand –Today’s dark child, tomorrow’s strong man:The hope of my raceTo mould a placeIn America’s magic land.American am I, none can deny:He who oppresses me, him I defy!I am Dark YouthSeeking the truthOf a free life beneath our great sky.Long a part of the Union’s heart –Years ago at the nation’s startAttucks diedThat right might abideAnd strength to our land impart.To be wise and strong, then, studying long,Seeking the knowledge that rights all wrong –That is my mission.Lifting my race to its rightful placeTill beauty and pride fills each dark faceIs my ambition.So I climb toward tomorrow, out of past sorrow,Treading the modern wayWith the White and the Black whom nothing holds back –The American Youth of today.Madam and the Rent ManPoetry, Sept. 194351015202530The rent man knocked.He said, Howdy-do?I said, WhatCan I do for you?He said, You knowYour rent is due.I said, ListenBefore I’d payI’d go to HadesAnd rot away!The sink is broke,The water don’t run,And you ain’t done a thingYou promised to’ve done.Back window’s cracked,Kitchen floor squeaks,There’s rats in the cellar,And the attic leaks.He said, Madam,It’s not up to me.I’m just the agent,Don’t you see?I said, Naturally,You pass the buck.If it’s money you wantYou’re out of luck.He said, Madam,I ain’t pleased!I said, Neither am I.So we agrees!Song of Adorationsent to the American Negro Press in Chicago, Winter 1943-1944510152025I would like to be a white man, wouldn’t you?There’s so many lovely things that I could do.I could lynch a Negro –And never go to jail, you know,I would love to be a white man, wouldn’t you?I would love to be a white man, wouldn’t you?So many tasty things that I could do.I could tell the starving Indian nationTo go straight to damnation,Oh, I would love to be a white man, wouldn’t you?I would love to be a white man, wouldn’t you?There’s such intriguing that one could do.I could say to Stalin, listen kid,You’re just an Asiatic mongrel Red.Ah, I would love to be a white man, wouldn’t you?I would love to be a white man, wouldn’t you?There’s so many cultural things that I could do.I could belong to the D.A.R.Tell Marian Anderson, stay…out to the D.A.R.!I could ADORE being a white woman, wouldn’t you?I’d love to be a white congressman, too.There’s so many helpful things I could do.Just to get the Negro’s goatI wouldn’t let NO soldiers vote.I would love to be a white congressman, wouldn’t you?Madam and the NewsboyNegro Story, Dec. 1944-Jan. 1945510152025Newsboy knocks,I buy the DEFENDER.These colored papersIs a solid sender.I read all aboutThe murdering news,And who killed whoWith the love sick blues.Then I readThe lynchings and such,Come to the conclusionWhite folks ain’t much.Then I turn overAnd read the scandalIn the gossip column,Initials for a handle.Then the pictures:Marva looks well –But if Joe was my husband,I’d also look swell.It’s just a matterOf Who is Who –If I was Marva I’d beIn the papers, too.Wouldn’t you?Theme for English BCommon Ground, Spring 1949510152025303540The instructor said, ??????Go home and write ??????a page tonight. ??????And let that page come out of you –??????Then, it will be true. I wonder if it’s that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.???I went to school there, then Durham, then here???to this college on the hill above Harlem.???I am the only colored student in my class.???The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,???through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,???Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,???the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator???up to my room, sit down, and write this page: It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me???at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you: hear you, hear me – we two – you, me, talk on this page.???(I hear New York, too.) Me – who? Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.???I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.???I like a pipe for a Christmas present, or records – Bessie, bop, or Bach. I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like the same things other folks like who are other races.???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. That’s American. Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.???Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that’s true! 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.Brotherly LoveA Little Letter to the White Citizens of the SouthNation, Aug. 18 19565101520In line of what my folks say in Montgomery,In line of what they’re teaching about love,When I reach out my hand, will you take it –Or cut it off and leave a nub above?If I found it in my heart to love you,And if I thought I really could,If I said, “Brother, I forgive you,”I wonder, would it do you any good?So long, so long a time you’ve been callingMe all kinds of names, pushing me down –I been swimming with my head deep under water,And you wished I would stay under till I drown.But I didn’t! I’m still swimming! Now you’re madBecause I won’t ride in the back end of your bus.When I answer, “Anyhow, I’m gonna love you,”Still and yet you want to make a fuss.Now listen, white folks!In line with Reverend King down in Montgomery –Also because the Bible says I must –I’m gonna love you – yes, I will! Or BUST!doorknobsOutsider, Fall 1961510152025The simple silly terrorof a doorknob on a doorthat turns to let in lifeon two feet standing,walking, talking,wearing dress or trousers,maybe drunk or maybe sober,maybe smiling, laughing, happy,maybe tangled in the terrorof a yesterday past grandpawhen the door from out there openedinto here where I, antenna,recipient of your coming,received the talking imageof the simple silly terrorof a door that opensat the turning of a knobto let in lifewalking, talking, standingwearing dress or trousers,drunk or maybe sober,smiling, laughing, happy,or tangled in the terroror a yesterday past grandpanot of our own doing.The Negro MotherReprinted in Selected Poems, 1959 (original source unknown)51015202530354045Children, I come back todayTo tell you a story of the long dark wayThat I had to climb, that I had to knowIn order that the race might live and grow.Look at my face – dark as the night –Yet shining like the sun with love’s true light.I am the child they stole from the sandThree hundred years ago in Africa’s land.I am the dark girl who crossed the wide seaCarrying in my body the seed of the free.I am the woman who worked in the fieldBringing the cotton and the corn to yield.I am the one who labored as a slave,Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave –Children sold away from me, husband sold, too.No safety, no love, no respect was I due.Three hundred years in the deepest South:But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth.God put a dream like steel in my soul.Now, through my children, I’m reaching the goal.Now, through my children, young and free,I realize the blessings denied to me.I couldn’t read then. I couldn’t write.I had nothing, back there in the night.Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,But I kept trudging on through the lonely years.Sometimes, the road was hot with sun,But I had to keep on till my work was done:I had to keep on! No stopping for me –I was the seed of the coming Free.I nourished the dream that nothing could smotherDeep in my breast – the Negro mother.I had only hope then, but now through you,Dark ones of today, my dreams must come true:All you dark children in the world out there,Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair.Remember my years, heavy with sorrow –And make those years a torch for tomorrow.Make of my past a road to the lightOut of the darkness, the ignorance, the night.Lift high my banner out of the dust.Stand like free men supporting my trust.Believe in the right, let none push you back.Remember the whip and the slaver’s track.Remember how the strong in struggle and strifeStill bar you the way, and deny you life –But march ever forward, breaking down bars.Look ever upward at the sun and the stars.Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayersImpel you forever up the great stairs –For I will be with you till no white brotherDares keep down the children of the Negro mother.Final CallAmerican Dialogue, Oct.-Nov. 1964510152025send for the pied piper and let him pipe the rats away.send for robin hood to clinch the anti-poverty campaign.send for the fairy queen with a wave of the wandto make us all into princes and princesses.send for king arthur to bring the holy grail.send for old man moses to lay down the law.send for jesus to preach the sermon on the mount.send for dreyfus to cry, “J’Accuse!”send for dead blind lemon to sing the b flat blues.send for robespierre to scream, “?a ira! ?a ira!?a ira!”send (god forbid – he’s not dead long enough!)for lumumba to cry, “freedom now!”send for layfayette and tell him, “help! help me!”send for denmark vesey crying, “free!”for cinque saying, “run a new flag up the mast.”for old john brown who knew slavery couldn’t last.send for lenin! (don’t you dare! – he can’t come here!)send for trotsky! (what? don’t confuse the issue, please!)send for uncle tom on his mighty knees.send for lincoln, send for grant.send for frederick douglass, garrison, beecher, lowell.send for harriet tubman, old sojourner truth.send for marcus garvey (what?) sufi (Who?) father divine (where?)dubois (when?) malcolm (oh!) send for stokely. (no?) thensend for adam powell on a non-subpoena day.send for the pied piper to pipe our rats away.(And if nobody comes, send for me.)Harlem Renaissance The first major, self-conscious literary movement of African American writers, although there had been much black writing in America earlier. Immediately after the First World War, as a result of a massive migration to northern cities, a group of young, talented writers congregated in Harlem and made it their cultural and intellectual capital. The artistic and literary of New York considered a visit to the Cotton club, where Duke Ellington played, a necessary journey. DuBose Heyward and Julia Peterkin, southern novelists, gave in Porgy and Scarlet Sister Mary immensely popular pictures of poor African Americans; however, the motive force of the Harlem Renaissance was not this fashionable position among intellectual whites but the accumulation in Harlem of an impressive group who created the true power of the Renaissance. They were Langston Hughes, poet, novelist, and playwright; Jean Toomer, author of the distinguished collection of poetry and poetic prose, Cane; the poets Countee Cullen and Claude McKay; the novelists Eric Waldron and Zora Neale Hurston; the poet and novelist Arna Bontemps, who was to become the historian of the movement. The Harlem Renaissance was the first intellectual and artistic movement that brought African America to the attention of the entire nation. The defining event of the Harlem Renaissance was the publication in 1925 of The New Negro: An Interpretation, an anthology edited by Alain Locke. (A Handbook to Literature, 7th ed.) ................
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