poet Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

#6 on top 500 poets

Langston Hughes Quotes

  • ''I was so sick last night I
    Didn't hardly know my mind.
    So sick last night I
    Didn't know my mind.
    I drunk some bad licker that
    Almost made me blind.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Morning After (l. 1-6). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    3760 person liked.
    		1666 person did not like.
  • ''Way Down South in Dixie
    (Break the heart of me)
    They hung my black young lover
    To a cross roads tree.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Song for a Dark Girl (l. 1-4). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    3214 person liked.
    		1355 person did not like.
  • ''Love is a naked shadow
    On a gnarled and naked tree.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Song for a Dark Girl (l. 11-12). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    2531 person liked.
    		1122 person did not like.
  • ''I swear to the Lord
    I still can't see
    Why Democracy means
    Everybody but me.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet, author. The Black Man Speaks, Jim Crow's Last Stand (1943).
    2943 person liked.
    		989 person did not like.
  • ''here
    to this college on the hill above Harlem
    I am the only colored student in my class.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Theme for English B (l. 8-10). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    702 person liked.
    		281 person did not like.
  • ''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.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Theme for English B (l. 27-32). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    345 person liked.
    		119 person did not like.
  • ''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.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Theme for English B (l. 37-41). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    343 person liked.
    		100 person did not like.
  • ''I've known rivers:
    Ancient, dusky rivers.

    My soul has grown deep like the rivers.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. The Negro Speaks of Rivers (l. 11-13). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    324 person liked.
    		111 person did not like.
  • ''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's dead.''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. The Weary Blues (l. 1-5). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    313 person liked.
    		94 person did not like.
  • ''Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
    Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
    I heard a Negro play.

    Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
    By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light''
    Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. The Weary Blues (l. 1-5). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.
    278 person liked.
    		94 person did not like.

Read more quotations »
Poem Hunter ›
›
Quotations
Best Poem of Langston Hughes

Dreams

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

Read the full of Dreams

Life Is Fine

I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.

I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.

Read more »