Mother to Son by Langston Hughes
The writer Langston Hughes was an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. This was a period of great creativity among African American artists. Hughes wrote about the joys and sorrows of ordinary Black people. He is known especially for his poetry.
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1901 or 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He lived in many different places as a child. He started writing poetry while in high school in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1921 Hughes entered Columbia University in New York City. He was so unhappy that he left school after a year. Then he took time to explore Harlem, a mostly Black New York City neighborhood. There he met other people interested in writing about the experiences of African Americans.
Hughes’s career as a writer took off in 1925. He was working as a busboy at a hotel in Washington, D.C. He showed his poems to U.S. poet Vachel Lindsay while Lindsay dined. Lindsay helped call the country’s attention to Hughes’s work. Hughes then received a scholarship to attend Lincoln University in Oxford, Pennsylvania. He graduated in 1929.
Hughes published his first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, in 1926. His most famous work may be Montage of a Dream Deferred (1951). This book-length poem describes the challenges faced by African Americans living in cities.
In addition to poetry, Hughes also wrote novels, plays, essays, short stories, and children’s books. He died in New York City on May 22, 1967.
Mother to Son
Well, son, I’ll tell you:
Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
It’s had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor—
Bare.
But all the time
I’se been a-climbin’ on,
And reachin’ landin’s,
And turnin’ corners,
And sometimes goin’ in the dark
Where there ain’t been no light.
So boy, don’t you turn back.
Don’t you set down on the steps
’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.
Don’t you fall now—
For I’se still goin’, honey,
I’se still climbin’,
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.