Langston Hughes

“I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong.”

“They'll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed — I, too, am America.”

“The night is beautiful, So are the faces of my people.”

“I've known rivers: I've known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

“I've known rivers: Ancient, dusky rivers. My soul has grown deep like the rivers.”

“The stars went out and so did the moon. 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.”

“Way Down South in Dixie (Break the heart of me) They hung my black young lover To a cross roads tree.”

“Love is a naked shadow On a gnarled and naked tree.”

“While over Alabama earth These words are gently spoken: Serve — and hate will die unborn. Love — and chains are broken.”

“Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly.”

“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.”

“I swear to the Lord I still can't see Why Democracy means Everybody but me.”

“Humor is laughing at what you haven't got when you ought to have it.”

“If I were marooned on a desert island...I would miss...Jackie Ormes's cute drawings”

“Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.”

“Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed — Let it be that great strong land of love Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme That any man be crushed by one above.”

“O, let my land be a land where Liberty Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath, But opportunity is real, and life is free, Equality is in the air we breathe.”

“I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart, I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars. I am the red man driven from the land, I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek — And finding only the same old stupid plan Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.”

“For all the dreams we've dreamed And all the songs we've sung And all the hopes we've held And all the flags we've hung, The millions who have nothing for our pay — Except the dream that's almost dead today.”

“O, let America be America again — The land that never has been yet — And yet must be — the land where every man is free.”

“Sure, call me any ugly name you choose — The steel of freedom does not stain. From those who live like leeches on the people's lives, We must take back our land again, America!”

“O, yes, I say it plain, America never was America to me, And yet I swear this oath — America will be!”

“Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death, The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies, We, the people, must redeem The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers, The mountains and the endless plain — All, all the stretch of these great green states — And make America again!”

“For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.”

“My motto, As I live and learn, is: Dig And Be Dug In Return.”

“When you turn the corner And you run into yourself Then you know that you have turned All the corners that are left.”

“Good evening, daddy I know you’ve heard The boogie-woogie rumble Of a dream deferred”

“Why should it be my loneliness, Why should it be my song, Why should it be my dream deferred overlong?”

“What happens to a dream deferred? Daddy, ain’t you heard?”

“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?”