A review by theperksofbeingmarissa
The Dream Keeper: And Other Poems by Langston Hughes

4.0

There are so many great poems that resonated with me. Hughes was soooooo freaking talented.

I’ve head the iconic “I, Too” since I was a kid, so imagine my face when I came across that poem in this book lol
Ok
Here are my two favorite poems from this collection:

Merry - Go - Round

“Colored child at carnival:

Where is the Jim Crow section
On this merry-go-round,
Mister, cause I want to ride?
Down South where I come from
White and colored
Can’t sit side by side.
Down south on the train
There’s a Jim Crow car.
On the bus we’re put in the back -
But there ain’t no back
To a merry-go-round!
Where’s the horse
For a kid that’s black?”

Parisian Beggar Woman

“Once you were young,
Now, hunched in the cold,
Nobody cares
That you are old.

Once you were beautiful.
Now, I’m the street,
Now one remembers
Your lips were sweet.

On, the withered old woman
Of rue Fontaine,
Nobody but death
Will kiss you again.”