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The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you--
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it's that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.
I went to school there, then Durham, then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It's not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I'm what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me--we two--you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me--who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records--Bessie, bop, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn't make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white--
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.
Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that's true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me--
although you're older--and white--
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
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Comments
This is a wonderful poem, as Langston Hughes is a wonderful poet. I have read many of the reviews and see that many people feel as though the speaker in this poem is being segregated against in his life. I do not see that to be the case. I believe the speaker in this poem (btw, the speaker is not Hughes, as Hughes was a middle aged man when he wrote this poem) is segregating himself from a white society. I just wrote a 5 page paper arguing this idea. Many things the speaker says in the poem show that the instructor and other students are not the ones making a big deal about the fact that he is colored, but it is him who consistently is stating that he is colored and does not wish to be a part of the white society.
Sarah from United States