Selected Poems of Langston Hughes: A Classic Collection of Poems by a Master of American Verse

338 Pages·1990·0.73 MB·English

by  Langston Hughes

VINTAGE CLASSICS EDITION, SEPTEMBER 1990
Copyright © 1959 by Langston Hughes
Copyright renewed 1987 by George Houston Bass, Surviving Executor of the Estate of Langston Hughes, Deceased
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in
Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1959.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hughes, Langston, 1902–1967.
[Poems. Selections]
Selected poems of Langston Hughes
p. cm. —(Vintage classics)
eISBN: 978-0-307-94940-0
I. Title II. Series.
PS3515.U274A6 1990 90-50179
811’.52—dc20
Display typography by Stephanie Bart-Horvath
v3.1
To my cousin, Flora
This book contains a selection of the poems of Langston Hughes chosen by
himself from his earlier volumes:

THE WEARY BLUES

FINE CLOTHES TO THE JEW

SHAKESPEARE IN HARLEM

FIELDS OF WONDER

ONE-WAY TICKET
MONTAGE OF A DREAM DEFERRED
and from the privately printed limited edition
DEAR LOVELY DEATH
together with a number of new poems published here for the first time in
book form, some never before anywhere.
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
AFRO-AMERICAN FRAGMENTS
Afro-American Fragment
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Sun Song
Aunt Sue’s Stories
Danse Africaine
Negro
American Heartbreak
October 16
As I Grew Older
My People
Dream Variations
FEET OF JESUS
Feet o’ Jesus
Prayer
Shout
Fire
Sunday Morning Prophecy
Sinner
Litany
Angels Wings
Judgment Day
Prayer Meeting
Spirituals
Tambourines
SHADOW OF THE BLUES
The Weary Blues
Hope
Late Last Night
Bad Morning
Sylvester’s Dying Bed
Wake
Could Be
Bad Luck Card
Reverie on the Harlem River
Morning After
Early Evening Quarrel
Evil
As Befits a Man
SEA AND LAND
Havana Dreams
Catch
Water-Front Streets
Long Trip
Seascape
Moonlight Night: Carmel
Heaven
In Time of Silver Rain
Joy
Winter Moon
Snail
March Moon
Harlem Night Song
To Artina
Fulfilment
Gypsy Melodies
Mexican Market Woman
A Black Pierrot
Ardella
When Sue Wears Red
Love
Beale Street
Port Town
Natcha
Young Sailor
Sea Calm
Dream Dust
No Regrets
Troubled Woman
Island
DISTANCE NOWHERE
Border Line
Garden
Genius Child
Strange Hurt
Suicide’s Note
End
Drum
Personal
Juliet
Desire
Vagabonds
One
Desert
A House in Taos
Demand
Dream
Night: Four Songs
Luck
Old Walt
Kid in the Park
Song for Billie Holiday
Fantasy in Purple
AFTER HOURS
Midnight Raffle
What?
Gone Boy
50–50
Maybe
Lover’s Return
Miss Blues’es Child
Trumpet Player
Monroe’s Blues
Stony Lonesome
Black Maria
LIFE IS FINE
Life Is Fine
Still Here
Ballad of the Gypsy
Me and the Mule
Kid Sleepy
Little Lyric
Fired
Midnight Dancer
Blue Monday
Ennui
Mama and Daughter
Delinquent
S-sss-ss-sh!
Homecoming
Final Curve
Little Green Tree
Crossing
Widow Woman
LAMENT OVER LOVE
Misery
Ballad of the Fortune Teller
Cora
Down and Out
Young Gal’s Blues
Ballad of the Girl Whose Name Is Mud
Hard Daddy
Midwinter Blues
Little Old Letter
Lament over Love
MAGNOLIA FLOWERS
Daybreak in Alabama
Cross
Magnolia Flowers
Mulatto
Southern Mammy Sings
Ku Klux
West Texas
Share-Croppers
Ruby Brown
Roland Hayes Beaten
Uncle Tom
Porter
Blue Bayou
Silhouette
Song for a Dark Girl
The South
Bound No’th Blues
NAME IN UPHILL LETTERS
One-Way Ticket
Migrant