American author Langston was born on February 1st, 1902, in the United States.He was an American columnist, novelist, playwright, and social crusader from Joplin. Along with other well-known writers, he was one of the first to create the new genre of jazz poetry. James Mercer Langston Hughes is his complete name. From 1926 to 1964, Langston attended Lincoln University of Pennsylvania.(Kutzinski 34). He was well-known in New York City as the founder of the Harlem Renaissance. He also famously wrote about the time when the Negro was in vogue which was later on paraphrased as when Harlem was in vogue. Just like many American s, Hughes has a very sophisticated origin. Both of his great paternal great-grandparents were enslaved African Americans .he, therefore, grew up in a series of Small Midwestern towns. Later his father left his family and divorced Carrie. He traveled to Cuba and then to Mexico seeking to escape the throbbing racism that was already in the United States. His mother started seeking employment, and maternal grandmother raised little Hughes. She instilled in him the virtue of racial pride owing to the oral tradition and drawing from the activist experiences of her generation. Hughes said he did not enjoy the life he lived with his grandmother and that is when books became his companion. When his grandmother died, he went to live with his family friends for a short period before going back to his mother in Lincoln. His writing experiments started when he was young in grammar school where he was appointed class poet. At first, he thought it was because of the stereotype that African Americans had rhythm. When he was schooling in Cleveland, he wrote for the school newspaper.
Hughes poems
Hughes began his poetry journey as a young boy in high school. Apart from writing the school newspaper he also edited the yearbook and began writing short stories, poems, and dramatic plays. His first piece of jazz poetry was ''when she wears red'' in high school. When he got employed, he had limited writing time, and due to his passion for writing, he decided to quit his job as a busboy at a hotel. There he met the poet Vachel Lindsay with whom he shared some poems. Impressed with the poems, Lindsay published his discovery of a new black poet. By this time Hughes earlier work had already been published and was about to be collected in his book of poetry. Langston was one of those writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance which was the African American artistic movement in the 20s that sought to celebrate blacks and their culture (Kutzinski 123). His works helped shape American literature and politics. Through his poetry, essays novels, plays and children's books, he was able to promote equality, condemn racism and injustice, and celebrated African American culture, humor, and spirituality. He inspired many young blacks who had the passion for literary work but were afraid to venture their creativity in the paper. Being such a great poet, Hughes wrote poems that talked about basically everything that went on in the society. He wrote poems that touched on love issues, celebrations, sorrow, politics and vices, those that criticized and those that appreciated the nature of human beings. However, it is important to note that he majorly spoke of racism even though he did other issues too. Among the poems he did were; The weary blues, Lament over love, Po boy blues, Danse Africaine jazzonia, Dream Variations, a Jazz band in Parisian cabaret. These poems received a lot of reactions for there are those who supported and appreciated them, and that found it outrageous.
Hughes critics
Just like any other black poet or writer, Hughes experienced frustrations and negative receipt regarding his poems. He was seen as the most abused poet in America. Some critics ignored him whereas less severe critics compared his poems to those of Cassius Clay and other just grudgingly admired him. Some poets like James Baldwin were downright malicious about his poetic success. He said that Hughes poems were not going to be around after a short period, that they were not going to last in the literary world. Then his tragedy was doubled; he was proud of his black color due to the racial pride that his grandmother had instilled in him (Stewart 27). The incident was tragic because it was that time that blacks were discriminated and Racism was at its peak, and therefore it was not so easy remaining relevant in the poem industry. Hughes held on to his notion that black was beautiful. He had the brains and the intelligence to explore the black human condition in a variety of perspectives.There was so much pressure to survive as a black writer in a white environment. It is miraculous that he survived for so long, with creative relevance. He talked about how hard it was to remain relevant as a black poet.Most of Hughes used a simple language in his poetry such that a lot of critics mistook it for paucity (Kutzinski 134). Actually to understand his poetry ultimately one must have a deep insight into that poor life and psychology and get deeply engrossed emotionally. Hughes proffered his poems performed than reading silently for one to realize its emotional intentions. However, some people agreed that the most successful performances are those of Hughes pieces. Hughes was proud however amid all that was going on.
Hughes view on his poems
Hughes says that all his poems are intended to send some message whether it happened in real life or not. He says that he sympathized deeply with those critics and those intellectuals. Hughes argues that he saw the need to for some kinds of books that the society needed and decided to do the writing. However, he says that not every black author had to write about the issues if they did not want to. Despite all the racism and discrimination, Hughes says that he knew some people who were wholly good. He further argues that all the works he did 'were meant for everyone in the society regardless of status, race, color or level of education, therefore to ensure this was achieved Hughes said his works would be written in the ways he did (Stewart 37). The simple language was controversial though according to most critics but Hughes said that he was not a supporter of the discrimination that everyone else had. He said that not everyone was privileged enough to get a chance to a degree class and therefore he did not wish to close the door on the poor in the society (Stewart 64). Himself he will not be able to relate much with the upper black people that is why he did not write about them. He further explains that the kind of life he went through was not all roses like everyone thought. Hughes says that he grew up and related much with those kids whose shoes were not always shining and that are why his poems needed to relate to the ghetto and engage their emotions. Most of those who criticized him did not understand this complexity. The whites criticized his works saying it was not correct to hang out their imperfections out in everyone's gaze.
For this reason, some of his of poems were misunderstood like the poem "fine clothes to the Jew." At first, it was misinterpreted and misunderstood by many people because Jews owned most of the cloth stores at that time. They, therefore, felt like they were indirectly being attacked. They believed that a back did not deserve to stand up and confront the whites in such a manner. It was something they hadn't seen or heard before. However, Hughes determination drove higher because this is something he had laid down his job to do and he was not ready to receive threats from the whites. In his poetry, he sought to capture emotions, experiences, desires, the life, and culture of Americans.
Hughes died on the 22 Of May 1967 leaving behind a legacy in poetry that is celebrated in recent times. His works are recognized today globally and can be fit on the same platform with other great poets like William Shakespeare (Morgenstern 145). I believe that the achieves of his works helped a great deal in addressing issues that were gross during those time and even still carried forward today. Due to his pieces, the whites slowly appreciated the works that he did. They realized that blacks were as human as Americans and those races did not matter. Cases of discrimination and abuse on the basis of color reduced. The renaissance movement also worked a great deal in not only molding the talent of young blacks, but they also learned to have the sense of racial pride. The blacks were seen getting better jobs, enrolling in better school, affording better treatment and blending in with the whites. With the cropping up of other activists like Martin Luther King, the Americans began realizing that racial discrimination as a vice and they started embracing unity and love among all their citizens. He has been recorded as the first American to earn a living as a writer and a shining star (Morgenstern 178). He has been called the poet laureate of the Negro race. Hughes is most admired for his style of writing that seemingly gave a voice to men and women. He traveled a lot and hence related to people of the different walk. Hughes total output written throughout his lifetime is prolific. He published 16 volumes of poetry, three short story collections, two novels, and nine children work. He also wrote 20 plays and many more other genres of arts that he did with utmost perfection.
Although he died at an when people least expected, his memories still live on to be remembered because he was an extremely versatile author and he was well known for his sense of humor .his chief influencers being his grandmother who helped him so much in appreciating his race and hence he grew up with the pride that enabled him to prosper amidst the pressure from white critics. Those who knew him well said that the poet could not hold a pen and paper without scribbling poetry. He often talked about how Vachel Lindsay discovered him. Some referred him as the Shakespeare in Harlem. Aside from that he majorly focused on depicting the Negro life in America. One contribution of Hughes was also that he translated the poems of Negro writers in Cuba and Haiti because he revealed that his interests were encouraging literary ability among colored whites. He understood how the environment was and hence saw the need to hold their hands. Hughes got a scholarship which enabled him to complete his education. At Lincoln University from where he graduated in 1929.Before the scholarship he did several jobs including seaman, he was a cook at some point then he became a busman from where he quit at ventured fully into writing until Lindsay discovered him and managed to publish his first book.
Hughes always wants his work to be simple and understood by everyone, thus in this poem Negro he simplifies to give the reader simple work. Accordingly, the diction employed by Hughes is more basic an easy for one to comprehend. Thus, to represent Black-Americans, he chose to write his work in the first perspective hence employed the use of pronoun "I." In this case, he is emphasizing the collective voice that he represents. He knows how to use and apply recognized landmarks to illustrate the points he wishes to convey. He makes good use of familiar objects such as pyramids, houses among others. He has perfect structural arrangements which he uses to tell his audience the things that are happening to blacks what the things that they have been involved in. Nonetheless, he avoids the use of dialect as well as the lofty prose to communicate o the audience. Hughes's diction is a good reflection of his tone. He is a clever poet who wants his work to be direct, understandable and having the epitome of simplicity.
Nonetheless, in Negro, he gives the audience a restricted visual exposure regarding historical events of the blacks. He is not telling the audience in detail the things that happened to the blacks he thus let these specifications to pickle in the reader's mind. Instead of referring to him as a black man who resides in America he is just saying that he is a black person to avoid creating a mysterious impression about the blacks however he leaves such matters to the reader. He does not want to create mayhem by talking positively about one race or demeaning one race and praising the other. Neither does he elevate himself to appoint where he sees himself to be superior.
Works cited
Kutzinski, Vera M. The Worlds of Langston Hughes: Modernism and Translation in the Americas. Cornell University Press, 2017.
Morgenstern, Hayley. "Exhibit: The Black Queer Studies Collection." Library Events (2017).
Stewart, Lenaya. "Purity through Nature: A Comparative Analysis of Metaphoric Structures Linked to Nature in the Poetic Works of John Donne and Langston Hughes." (2015).
