Babies and gin and church
And women and Sunday
All mixed with dimes and
Dollars and clean spittoons
And house rent to pay.

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Brass Spittoons (l. 26-30). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. I, Too (l. 1-4). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.)

They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed?

I, too, am America.

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. I, Too (l. 16-18). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.)

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet and author. "Dreams," Golden Slippers, ed. Arna Bontemps (1941).)

Brown sugar lassie,
Caramel treat,
Honey-gold baby
Sweet enough to eat.
Peach-skinned girlie,

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Harlem Sweeties (l. 5-9). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.)

Night coming tenderly
Black like me.

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Dream Variation (l. 16-17). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.)

I was so sick last night I
Didn't hardly know my mind.
So sick last night I
Didn't know my mind.
I drunk some bad licker that
Almost made me blind.

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Morning After (l. 1-6). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.)

I could take the Harlem night
and wrap around you,
Take the neon lights and make a crown,
Take the Lenox Avenue buses,
Taxis, subways,
And for your love song tone their rumble down.

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Juke Box Love Song (l. 1-6). . . Selected Poems of Langston Hughes. (1959) Vintage Books.)

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.

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet, author. Survey Graphic (March 1925). I, Too, Selected Poems (1954).)

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?

(Langston Hughes (1902-1967), U.S. poet. Lenox Avenue Mural (l. 1-3). . . Norton Anthology of Poetry, The. Alexander W. Allison and others, eds. (3d ed., 1983) W. W. Norton & Company.)