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Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

A Dream Deferred

What happens to a dream deferred?
 
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore—
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over—
like a syrupy sweet?
 
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
 
Or does it explode?

#Americans #Blacks

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Catch

Big Boy came Carrying a mermaid On his shoulders And the mermaid Had her tail
 1
Quiet Girl

I would liken you To a night without stars Were it not for your eyes. I would liken you To a sleep without dreams
Prize Fighter

Only dumb guys fight. If I wasn’t dumb I wouldn’t be fightin’. I could make six dollars a day On the docks
Bad Morning

Here I sit With my shoes mismated. Lawdy—mercy! I’s frustrated!
Madam and the Phone Bill

You say I O.K.ed LONG DISTANCE? O.K.ed it when? My goodness, Central That was then!
I look at the world

I look at the world From awakening eyes in a black fac… And this is what I see: This fenced—off narrow space Assigned to me.
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Merry-Go-Round

Where is the Jim Crow section On this merry—go—round, Mister, cause I want to ride? Down South where I come from White and colored
The Negro Speaks of Rivers

I’ve known rivers: I’ve known rivers ancient as the w… My soul has grown deep like the ri… I bathed in the Euphrates when da… I built my hut near the Congo and…
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Motto

I play it cool I dig all jive. That's the reason I stay alive. My motto
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Daybreak in Alabama

When I get to be a composer I’m gonna write me some music abou… Daybreak in Alabama And I’m gonna put the purtiest so… Rising out of the ground like a sw…
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Sick Room

How quiet It is in this sick room Where on the bed A silent woman lies between two lo… Life and Death,
To Certain

You sicken me with lies, With truthful lies. And with your pious faces. And your wide, out—stretched, mock—welcome, Christian hands.
Cultural Exchange

In the Quarter of the Negroes Where the doors are doors of paper Dust of dingy atoms Blows a scratchy sound. Amorphous jack—o’—Lanterns caper
Freedom's Plow

When a man starts out with nothing… When a man starts out with his han… Empty, but clean, When a man starts to build a world… He starts first with himself
When Sue Wears Red

When Susanna Jones wears red her face is like an ancient cameo Turned brown by the ages. Come with a blast of trumphets, J… When Susanna Jones wears red



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