James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902–67) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called jazz poetry. Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance. He famously wrote about the period that “the negro was in vogue” which was later paraphrased as “when Harlem was in vogue”.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Langston Hughes
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar overlie a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags like a heavy lead. Or does it explode?
—Langston Hughes
Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it.
—Langston Hughes
Dreams
Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
—Langston Hughes
Topics: Foresight, Vision, Dreams, Ambition
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
William S. Burroughs American Novelist
Thornton Wilder American Novelist, Dramatist
Charles W. Chesnutt American Novelist
William Saroyan American Playwright, Novelist
Joyce Carol Oates American Novelist
Toni Morrison American Novelist
Vladimir Nabokov Russian-born American Novelist
William Motter Inge American Playwright
Gore Vidal American Novelist
Herman Melville American Novelist