Langston Hughes

An African-American author, a leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance.

The Weary Blues

The blues performance of a man named Jesse B Simple on Lenox Avenue in Harlem

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”

It speaks of how he “bathed in the Euphrates” and “heard the singing of the Mississippi”. The rivers are called “ancient as the world and older than the flow of blood in human veins”

Invokes world rivers like the Euphrates and the Congo and repeats the line “My soul has grown deep like the rivers”

“I Too, Sing America”

“Let America Be America Again”

“Harlem”

“What happens to a dream deferred?”

“One-Way Ticket”

Expresses a desire to be “gone up North, gone out West, / gone!”.