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by: Langston Hughes
List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.52
EAN: 9780679728184
ISBN: 067972818X
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 320
Publication Date: September 12, 1990
Publisher: Vintage
Release Date: September 12, 1990
Sales Rank: 122680
Studio: Vintage
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
With the publication of his first book of poems, The Weary Blues, in 1926, Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in black writing in America. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who 'rushed the boots of Washington'; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in 'the raffle of night.' They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended the spoken with the sung, that turned poetic lines into the phrases of jazz and blues, and that ripped through the curtain separating high from popular culture. They spanned the range from the lyric to the polemic, ringing out 'wonder and pain and terror-- and the marrow of the bone of life.'
The poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death in 1967 and represent work from his entire career, including 'The Negro Speaks of Rivers,' 'The Weary Blues,' 'Still Here,' 'Song for a Dark Girl,' 'Montage of a Dream Deferred,' and 'Refugee in America.' It gives us a poet of extraordinary range, directness, and stylistic virtuosity.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Beauty from Horror.
Langston Hughes' poems makes my knees knock. There is a little thrill with each poem, like I'm landing in a vat of buttermilk, and splashing happily about. With the subject matters he dares tackle one would think it'd be more realistic to walk away from a deluge of his work in deep depression.
Not so.
Instead I walked away with a dreamy smile and knocking knees. His ability to cull the beauty from the horror is...is...is
I'm wordless.
Rating: - A Poet for all people!!!
The SELECTED POEMS of LANGSTON HUGHE by Langston Hughes is exactly what is implied by the title. Absent from these "selected poems" are the more radical and controversial poems written by Hughes in the 1930s. After Hughes was forced to testify before the anti-Communist committee to defend himself, he shied away from the radicalism that so entranced him and other Afro Americans who saw socialism as an better alternative to Jim Crow.
In this selection of his poetry, there is no chronological ... Read More
Rating: - Hughes is Pure
I had read several Hughes poems before buying this book, but I will admit that I had no grasp on the extent of his talent. These vivid poems were chosen by Hughes personally before his death in 1967.
They do so well to paint a picture of the time he lived -- of the blues, of love, of passion, of choices. He writes about faith and protest in a way that will move you.
I have read all of the poems exactly as they are placed in the book several times. I think I keep going back to them ... Read More
Rating: - He, too, sang America
"Selected Poems of Langston Hughes" is a rich selection from several decades of this poet's work. Hughes (1902-1967) is a poet of many moods and voices. His work is at times mournful, humorous, sensuous, or ironic. Many poems capture the rhythms of African-American vernacular speech. A number of narrative poems tell stories of Black life, and a number of his best poems feature female speakers. He also writes poems of social protest that deal with the anti-Black violence that has plagued the United States ... Read More
Rating: - Dreams Deferred
Langston Hughes wrote poetry of exquisite pain and beauty throughout his life. His poetry can be sparse and rhythmic. It evinces visions of cities, the south, churches and deep muddy rivers.
Hughes touches on every subject important to life in 20th century America: family, friends, race, religion,love, music, prejudice and poverty. Each poem sparingly provides an image in words. Together these poems represent the great work of a true artist of the American Poetry.
One of his most popular and ... Read More
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