It would be remiss not to feature some poems of Langston Hughes in this his centenary. I can't claim to know much of his work as a whole. I remember having a poster of his poem "A Dream Deferred" in my highschool English class, and not thinking very much of it. Now I better realize the skill with which such a simple-seeming poem is put together. He works in a loose free verse as well as in short song-lyric-like trimeters, tetrameters and dimeters. His work is among the many good arguments that the "tradition" belongs to everyone, and is not the exclusive domain of dead white males.
I have recently been thinking about this gem. It can seem modest and simple at first, which is part of its power, but is really more complex than it appears. The colloquialism of the speaker is not unlike, say, that of some of Housman's small and perfect lyrics, and suits the folksy ballad meter. And it has a simple but strong rhetorical structure. This is also one of the most efficient uses of a one-word multi-valent titles I know.
Cross
My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well.
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I'm gonna die,
Being neither white nor black?
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