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Selected Poems: Langston Hughes (Vintage V-910)

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I had read several Hughes poems before buying this book, but I will admit that I had no grasp on the extent of his talent. These vivid poems were chosen by Hughes personally before his death in 1967.

They do so well to paint a picture of the time he lived -- of the blues, of love, of passion, of choices. He writes about faith and protest in a way that will move you.

I have read all of the poems exactly as they are placed in the book several times. I think I keep going back to them because this is poetry free of pretense -- it is grounded in reality and in sorrow.

Independent of age, of your ethnicity, and of your literary grasp, you will enjoy these poems. Simple and superb -- read them out loud.

Langston Hughes wrote poetry of exquisite pain and beauty throughout his life. His poetry can be sparse and rhythmic. It evinces visions of cities, the south, churches and deep muddy rivers.

Hughes touches on every subject important to life in 20th century America: family, friends, race, religion,love, music, prejudice and poverty. Each poem sparingly provides an image in words. Together these poems represent the great work of a true artist of the American Poetry.

One of his most popular and poignant poems is Harlem. It contains such beauty in his phrase - "a dream deferred" and such power in his words or does it explode?

I recommend this highly to anyone interested in modern poets and poetry.

"Selected Poems of Langston Hughes" is a rich selection from several decades of this poet's work. Hughes (1902-1967) is a poet of many moods and voices. His work is at times mournful, humorous, sensuous, or ironic. Many poems capture the rhythms of African-American vernacular speech. A number of narrative poems tell stories of Black life, and a number of his best poems feature female speakers. He also writes poems of social protest that deal with the anti-Black violence that has plagued the United States for so much of its history.

The poems in this book are divided into several sections. One of my favorite such sections, "Feet of Jesus," contains poems which evoke the prayers, preaching, and religious songs of African-American churches. "Madam to You" contains a number of poems in which Alberta K. Johnson tells her story. A strong-willed entrepreneur who often challenges authority figures, "Madam" is one of the most delightful characters in African-American literature.

The other sections of the book contain many of Hughes' most memorable poems: the sensuous "Midnight Dancer" ("Lips / Sweet as purple dew"), "Mother to Son" ("Life for me ain't been no crystal stair"), "Theme for English B" ("I am the only colored student in my class"), and "I, Too" ("I, too, sing America. / I am the darker brother").

The lines I quoted from "I, Too" may call to mind Walt Whitman's great American poem "Leaves of Grass." Indeed, I consider Hughes to be one of the great 20th century poetic heirs of Whitman, and "Selected Poems" is a magnificent testament to Hughes' passion and vision.

This book of poetry was so fun and fast-paced that I read it all in one sitting. Some of the poems are so incredibly simple that they speak right to you and you say "hmm... that's so true", but the concept is so deep you never would have thought about it in such a simple way. Other poems are really inspiring and they will make you think a lot about them before going on to the next one.

In this Vintage Edition, the poems are grouped according to categories. For instance, "Afro-American Fragments" has a whole series of poems that speak of slavery and segregation that helped me understand even better the life of the people who overcame these tragedies, while "Lament Over Love" speaks about the pains of unrequited love that just about anyone can relate to. One of my favorite categories was "Madam to You", which is a series of poems all about one lady and what she does during her life, such as "Madam and the Rent Man" and "Madam and the Phone Bill Collector".

I was lucky to have read these poems so soon after reading The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. DuBois, because it embraced the theme of double conciousness that I found there. It also showed the double conciousness of African-Americans in regard to religion, which is an important theme in DuBois' book.

While I read the book I marked the pages of the poems I liked a lot. By the time I was finished I had a huge amount of dog-eared pages marking my "favorite" spots!

I haven't read many complete books of poetry but I extremely enjoyed this one and it prompted me to read more. I recommend it for anyone, whether you're new to reading a lot of poetry at once (like me), or whether you are a poetry fanatic who for some reason have failed to get your hands on poetry by Langston Hughes yet.

The SELECTED POEMS of LANGSTON HUGHE by Langston Hughes is exactly what is implied by the title. Absent from these "selected poems" are the more radical and controversial poems written by Hughes in the 1930s. After Hughes was forced to testify before the anti-Communist committee to defend himself, he shied away from the radicalism that so entranced him and other Afro Americans who saw socialism as an better alternative to Jim Crow.

In this selection of his poetry, there is no chronological order to the poems. Rather, they are divided into sections representing a specific theme. Here, Hughes was trying (?) to imitate Walt Whitman in arrangement. "Afro-American Fragments," "Feet of Jesus," "Shadow of the Blues," "Sea and Land," absent is the poem written for the Jamaican sailor Ferdinand Smith, SAILOR ASHORE, "Distance Nowhere," "After Hours," "Life is Fine," "Lament over Love," "Magnolia Flowers," "Name in Uphill Letter," "Madam to You," "Montage of a Dream Deferred," and "Words Like Freedom."

The last section of poems reveal Hughes as a patriot which he actually was in life. Hughes believed in idea of the real USA and what the nation could be without prejudice. The poems I,TOO, DEMOCRACY, AFRICA, CONSIDER ME, REFUGEE IN AMERICA, FREEDOM TRAIN, THE NEGRO MOTHER and so on in this section are indicative of a patriotism despite injustices.

For those interested in a more comprehensive ouvre of Hughes poetry, I strongly recommend the COLLECTED POETRY OF LANGSTON HUGHES edited by Arnold Rampersad and associate editor David Roessel. It contains the most up to date work by Hughes and "all" his "known and published" poems. I purposely emphasized "known and published" because according to some academics there is said to exist unpublished poems of Hughes written to a black male lover that has yet to surface.

Langston Hughes is the poet of black America. His work captures the aspirations, hope, joy, tragedy, anger, and pride of many blacks past and present. But, he is also a poet for the working class man, black and of any race. There is a reason his poems have been translated into many languages and continue to inspire. The other reviews here capture some the essential essence of Hughes spirit.

Langston Hughes' poems makes my knees knock. There is a little thrill with each poem, like I'm landing in a vat of buttermilk, and splashing happily about. With the subject matters he dares tackle one would think it'd be more realistic to walk away from a deluge of his work in deep depression.

Not so.

Instead I walked away with a dreamy smile and knocking knees. His ability to cull the beauty from the horror is...is...is

I'm wordless.

In the Selected Poems of Langston Hughes, this book contains many of Langston Hughes' classic poems. This collection of poems, which includes some of my favorites: "Mother to Son", "To Artina", "The Negro Speaks of Rivers", and "When Sue Wears Red", gives the readers not only a glimpse of the mind, heart, and soul of one of America's greatest poets, it also gives the reader an insight of a an era which Hughes' lived.

As a poet, or one who have a passion to write poetry, reading the poems in this book will give you an appreciation for poetry and an understanding of a time gone by but ever so present today as well. Hughes was very instrumental in the Harlem Renaissance, he wrote passionately against racism and deeply for the uplift, equality, justice, peace, and freedom for the African-American.

Hughes also helped innovate the art form of jazz poetry, and set the standard for many poets who came after him.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves poetry, who has a collection of poetry, and to anyone who aspires to be a poet.

Highly recommend this collection of Hughes poetry for promoting passionate, vibrant class discussions for English Literature and History students. A great resource!

It seems to me that Hughes' poetry is of greater importance sociologically and historically than aesthetically. His very brief poems in the language of everyday life cover a very wide range of subjects. One feels he is trying to speak for his people, for the black- American experience. And he is speaking of this with sympathy and strong positive identification. He however does this in what is often a low- key and tasteful way. The poems are often of small situations, little vignettes of life or feeling. But what I repeatedly found is that the literary expression was not in some way strong enough. There too is a sense of skimpiness and one- dimensionality in the poems. I feel the poetry is at its best when he speaks in some way for his people as a whole. Here is one outstanding example.

The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.

This book has so much content.

It is heartfelt poetry assembled in such a way that you can read Hughes mature, experience his joys and frustrations.

He brings a certain political perspective, as well as examinations of time on the human experience.

It's touching someone cared enough to give this to me as a gift.