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jachinheckman's review against another edition
5.0
An alter of shimmering jewels,
Would pale in the light
Of they darkness,
Pale in the light
Of thy nightness
This is Langston Hughes first published collection, and it is his first collection I have ever read. You can tell this was written by a young man in his twenties in both the best and worst ways possible. Almost every mention of women in this book (especially the first half) feels exactly how you would expect a young man from the past to imagine women. However the farther I got into the collection the more enamored I became with his writing. This barely feels like poetry. It just feels like the thoughts of a fun loving, but deeply worn and worried black man processing what it means for him to be alive, and vomiting his feelings on the page in a beautifully visceral way.
Would pale in the light
Of they darkness,
Pale in the light
Of thy nightness
This is Langston Hughes first published collection, and it is his first collection I have ever read. You can tell this was written by a young man in his twenties in both the best and worst ways possible. Almost every mention of women in this book (especially the first half) feels exactly how you would expect a young man from the past to imagine women. However the farther I got into the collection the more enamored I became with his writing. This barely feels like poetry. It just feels like the thoughts of a fun loving, but deeply worn and worried black man processing what it means for him to be alive, and vomiting his feelings on the page in a beautifully visceral way.
raethereviewer's review against another edition
5.0
I started reading the poetry of Langston Hughes in middle school and it’s what inspired me to start writing my own poetry. It was nice to pick up this collection and read some familiar pieces while also finding some new favorites. I love the rhythm Hughes imbeds into his writing.
randisworld's review against another edition
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Lots of Langston’s classics here. I enjoyed listening. He had so many amazing adventures.
emilybolivia's review against another edition
5.0
Great collection! I would have liked a little longer introduction but chapters were impeccably organized and the poetry itself was beautiful and moving.
alexisclare's review against another edition
5.0
Langston Hughes poems good and moving and beautiful, water wet, fork found in kitchen, etc
supervocalic's review against another edition
I chose this for my library’s summer reading category of “Book Published in the 1920’s.” The whole first section of poems made me feel like I was in a cool jazz club down a stony path of a deeply rooted city. After that, my favorite individual poems were Dream Variation, As I Grew Older, Sea Charm, Suicide’s Note, and Afraid.
seeceeread's review against another edition
What is money for?
To spend, he says
And wine? To drink!
And women? To love
And today? For joy
And tomorrow? For joy! • Young Sailor
Carl Van Vechten sets the globetrotting stage in a brief introduction that mentions the many places where Hughes lived, traveled, worked. We skip geographical locations, class perspectives, topics, sailing through pan-African experiences:
- The loveliness of urban sex workers: "Her dark brown face is like a withered flower on a broken stem • Young Prostitute"
- The violent specificity of transitions at certain latitudes: "God having a hemorrhage, blood coughed across the sky, staining the dark sea red – that is the sunset in the Caribbean. • Caribbean Sunset"
- The cloistered charm of despair: "The calm, cool face of the river asked me for a kiss. • Suicide's Note"
Starting with the prologue "Proem," Hughes' "I" often stands for the Black collective:
"I am a negro, Black as the night is black. Black like the depths of my Africa."
He studies the tricks of light and feeling that distinguish memorable from mundane. And calls out to lovers of the song of life, to join him as he improvises joy.