Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes (February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967) was an American poet, novelist, playwright, and newspaper columnist.

Quotations from select other poems

:::Motto

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::I stay cool, and dig all jive,

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::That's the way I stay alive.

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::My motto, as I live and learn, is

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::Dig and be dug, in return.

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:::Cross

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::My old man's a white old man

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::And my old mother's black.

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::If ever I cursed my white old man

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::I take my curses back.

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::If ever I cursed my black old mother

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::And wished she were in hell,

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::I'm sorry for that evil wish

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::And now I wish her well.

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::My old man died in a fine big house.

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::My ma died in a shack.

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::I wonder where I'm gonna die,

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::Being neither white nor black........

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:::"Mother to Son"

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::Well, son, I'll tell you:

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::Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

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::It's had tacks in it,

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::And splinters,

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::And boards torn up,

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::And places with no carpet on the floor --

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::Bare.

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::But all the time

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::I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's,

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::And turnin' corners,

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::And sometimes goin' in the dark Where there ain't been no light.

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::So boy, don't you turn back.

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::Don't you set down on the steps

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::'Cause you finds it's kinder hard.

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::Don't you fall now --

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::For I'se still goin', honey,

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::I'se still climbin',

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::And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.

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