When Laurel was a child, in this room and in this bed where she lay now, she closed her eyes like this and the rhythmic, nighttime sound of the two beloved reading voices came rising in turn up the stairs every night to reach her. She could hardly fall asleep, she tried to keep awake, […]
Filed under: 1969, 20th-century, United States, fiction on September 14th, 2007 | No Comments »
To the Lighthouse
by Virginia Woolf
The jacmanna was bright violent; the wall staring white. She would not have considered it honest to tamper with the bright violet and the staring white, since she saw them like that, fashionable though it was, since Mr. Paunceforte’s visit, to see everything pale, elegant, semitransparent. Then beneath the colour there […]
Filed under: 1927, 20th-century, Britain, Virginia Woolf, fiction on July 16th, 2007 | 2 Comments »
This is what my father told me when I was five: a key signature is a king’s court in miniature. It is ruled by a king (the first step) and his two right-hand men (steps five and four). They have four other dignitaries at their command, each of whom has his own special relation to […]
Filed under: 20th-century, fiction on June 11th, 2007 | No Comments »
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,
[…]
Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 13th, 2007 | No Comments »
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
by Langston Hughes
I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the
flow of human blood in human veins.
My soul has grown deep like the rivers.
I bathed in the Euphrates when dawns were young.
I built my hut near the Congo and it lulled me […]
Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 5th, 2007 | No Comments »
Note on Commerical Theatre
by Langston Hughes
You’ve taken my blues and gone–
You sing ‘em on Broadway
And you sing ‘em in Hollywood Bowl,
And you mixed ‘em up with symphonies
And you fixed ‘em
So they don’t sound like me.
Yep, you done taken my blue and gone.
You also took my spirituals and gone.
You put me in Macbeth and Carmen Jones
And […]
Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 5th, 2007 | No Comments »
Air Raid: Barcelona
by Langston Hughes
Black smoke of sound
Curls against the midnight sky.
Deeper than a whistle,
Louder than a cry,
Worse than a scream
Tangled in the wail
Of a nightmare dream,
The siren
Of the air raid sounds.
Flames and bombs and
Death in the ear!
The siren announces
Planes drawing near.
Down from bedrooms
Stumble women in gowns.
Men, half-dressed,
Carrying children rush […]
Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 5th, 2007 | 9 Comments »
Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on th eplain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
(America never was America to me.)
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings […]
Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 5th, 2007 | No Comments »
Black Dancers
Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 5th, 2007 | No Comments »
Ph.D.
by Langston Hughes
He never was a silly little boy
Who whispered in the class or threw spit balls,
Or pulled the hair of silly little girls,
Or disobeyed in any way the laws
That made the school a place of decent order
Where books were read and sums were proven true
And paper maps that showed the land and water
Were held […]
Filed under: 20th-century, United States, poetry on March 5th, 2007 | No Comments »