From the publication of his first book in 1926, Langston Hughes was hailed as the poet laureate of black America, the first to commemorate the experience of African Americans in a voice that no reader, black or white, could fail to hear. Lyrical and pungent, passionate and polemical, this volume is a treasure-an essential collection of the work of a poet whose words have entered our common language.

POEMS OF FIVE DECADES
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Aunt Sue’s Stories
Negro
Danse Africaine
Song for a Banjo Dance
Mother to Son
When Sue Wears Red
Jazzonia
Prayer Meeting
My People
Migration
Lament for Dark Peoples
Youth
Dream Variations
Johannesburg Mines
Negro Dancers
I, Too
The Weary Blues
To Midnight Nan at Leroy’s
Soledad
Cross
Summer Night
Jazz Band in a Parisian Cabaret
Midwinter Blues
Ma Man
Lament over Love
Homesick Blues
Ruby Brown
Elevator Boy
Bound No’th Blues
Feet o’ Jesus
Beale Street Love
A House in Taos
Railroad Avenue
Saturday Night
Midnight Dancer
Blues Fantasy
Lenox Avenue: Midnight
Spirituals
Fire
Moan
Angels Wings
Baby
Red Silk Stockings
Young Gal’s Blues
Magnolia Flowers
Hurt
Aesthete in Harlem
Afro-American Fragment
Black Seed
To Certain Negro Leaders
October 16: The Raid
Advertisement for the Waldorf-Astoria
Florida Road Workers
Always the Same
Letter to the Academy
Personal
Cubes
Madrid
Let America Be America Again
Genius Child
Poet to Patron
Visitors to the Black Belt
Note on Commercial Theatre
Seven Moments of Love
Daybreak in Alabama
Evenin’ Air Blues
Sunset in Dixie
Me and the Mule
Merry-Go-Round
Ku Klux
Reverie on the Harlem River
Words Like Freedom
Red Cross
Silhouette
Still Here
Moonlight in Valencia: Civil War
Madam’s Past History
Madam’s Calling Cards
Madam and Her Might-Have-Been
Madam and the Phone Bill
Madam and the Fortune Teller
Heart
Graduation
Freedom Train
Trumpet Player
Life Is Fine
Harlem [1]
Mama and Daughter
Third Degree
Interne at Provident
American Heartbreak
Envoy to Africa
Old Walt
In Explanation of Our Times
Memo to Non-White Peoples
Jim Crow Car
Go Slow
Junior Addict
Final Call
Long View: Negro
Birmingham Sunday
Sweet Words on Race
MONTAGE OF A DREAM DEFERRED
Dream Boogie
Parade
Children’s Rhymes
Sister
Preference
Necessity
Question
Buddy
Juke Box Love Song
Ultimatum
Warning
Croon
New Yorkers
Wonder
Easy Boogie
Movies
Tell Me
Not a Movie
Neon Signs
Numbers
What? So Soon!
Motto
Dead in There
Situation
Dancer
Advice
Green Memory
Wine-O
Relief
Ballad of the Landlord
Corner Meeting
Projection
Flatted Fifths
Tomorrow
Mellow
Live and Let Live
Gauge
Bar
Cafe´: 3 a.m.
Drunkard
Street Song
125th Street
Dive
Warning: Augmented
Up-Beat
Jam Session
Be-Bop Boys
Tag
Theme for English B
College Formal: Renaissance Casino
Low to High
Boogie: 1 a.m.
High to Low
Lady’s Boogie
So Long
Deferred
Request
Shame on You
World War II
Mystery
Sliver of Sermon
Testimonial
Passing
Nightmare Boogie
Sunday by the Combination
Casualty
Night Funeral in Harlem
Blues at Dawn
Dime
Argument
Neighbor
Evening Song
Chord
Fact
Joe Louis
Subway Rush Hour
Brothers
Likewise
Sliver
Hope
Dream Boogie: Variation
Harlem [2]
Good Morning
Same in Blues
Comment on Curb
Letter
Island
Index of First Lines

Langston Hughes; Edited by David Roessel