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Langston Hughes - Advertisement For The Waldorf-Astoria

Fine living . . . a la carte?
     Come to the Waldorf-Astoria!

     LISTEN HUNGRY ONES!
Look! See what Vanity Fair says about the
     new Waldorf-Astoria:

     "All the luxuries of private home. . . ."
Now, won't that be charming when the last flop-house
     has turned you down this winter?
     Furthermore:
"It is far beyond anything hitherto attempted in the hotel
     world. . . ." It cost twenty-eight million dollars. The fa-
     mous Oscar Tschirky is in charge of banqueting.
     Alexandre Gastaud is chef. It will be a distinguished
     background for society.
So when you've no place else to go, homeless and hungry
     ones, choose the Waldorf as a background for your rags--
(Or do you still consider the subway after midnight good
     enough?)

        ROOMERS
Take a room at the new Waldorf, you down-and-outers--
     sleepers in charity's flop-houses where God pulls a
     long face, and you have to pray to get a bed.
They serve swell board at the Waldorf-Astoria. Look at the menu, will 
you:

     GUMBO CREOLE
     CRABMEAT IN CASSOLETTE
     BOILED BRISKET OF BEEF
     SMALL ONIONS IN CREAM
     WATERCRESS SALAD
     PEACH MELBA

Have luncheon there this afternoon, all you jobless.
     Why not?
Dine with some of the men and women who got rich off of
     your labor, who clip coupons with clean white fingers
     because your hands dug coal, drilled stone, sewed gar-
     ments, poured steel to let other people draw dividends
     and live easy.
(Or haven't you had enough yet of the soup-lines and the bit-
     ter bread of charity?)
Walk through Peacock Alley tonight before dinner, and get
     warm, anyway. You've got nothing else to do.

Added: on December 13th, 2004 at 7:21 PM | Viewed: 16965 times | Comments and analysis of Advertisement For The Waldorf-Astoria by Langston Hughes Comments (4)


Advertisement For The Waldorf-Astoria - Comments and Information

Poet: Langston Hughes
Poem: Advertisement For The Waldorf-Astoria

Comment 4 of 4, added on December 7th, 2005 at 2:53 PM.

deep WOW?

maurice
Comment 3 of 4, added on May 14th, 2005 at 3:53 PM.

This poem could apply to today.
Increasingly the rich live more luxurious lives
by taking advantage of other people while the average
person's life grows bleaker and bleaker.
Lanston Hughes is right on here!

Jim Miller from United States
Comment 2 of 4, added on December 13th, 2004 at 7:21 PM.

I love this poem. It speaks to irony of the times. In the midst of the Depression, there was an uber-luxe hotel opening in New York- a city that embodied these extremes- something like the Waldorf-Astoria opening in the midst of the city's poverty. It really gives one the idea about the class conciousness of the time.

Victoria from United States

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