Race: Langston Hughe Respond
I, Too
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,”
Then.
Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
SoRead Langston Hughes’ poem “I, Too”. Then, select ONE of the following prompts and respond to it in a focused and directed piece of 300+ words.
1) Compare/contrast the theme with what we discussed in class about “Desiree’s Baby” (Chopin) and “What It Feels to Be Colored Me” (Hurston). What new perspectives is Langston bringing to the pre-Civil Rights Era conversation?
2) Is it important that Langston Hughes is writing from the male perspective here, while the other two race-related readings we’ve done were from the female-perspective? If so, what do each of the gendered perspectives provided to us as the reader? How does their experiences differ (or do they?)?
3) Langston Hughes is responding to this poem by Walt Whitman, written in 1860 (you’ve probably heard the Walt Whitman poem as a song). The Whitman poem is focused on patriotism that is easy to come by in the pre-Civil War era as a young, free, white man of mean. How does Langston Hughes’ narrator respond to the structure, narration, and focus of the earlier poem?
CI Hear America Singing
BY WALT WHITMAN
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.