Jandy’s Anthology

To a Dead Friend
by Langston Hughes

The moon still sends its mellow light
     Through the purple blackness of the night;
The morning star is palely bright
          Before the dawn.

The sun still shines just as before;
The rose still grows beside my door,
          But you have gone.

The sky is blue and the robin sings;
The butterflies dance on rainbow wings
          Though I am sad.

In all the earth no joy can be;
Happiness comes no more to me,
          For you are dead.

first published in Crisis, 1921.

Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 13th, 2007