The Collected Poems Quotes

“Life is for the living.
Death is for the dead.
Let life be like music.
And death a note unsaid.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Harlem

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
life is a broken-winged bird
that can not fly.

Hold fast to dreams
for when dreams go
life is a barren field
frozen with snow.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“To some people
Love is given,
To others
Only Heaven.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“America is a dream.
The poet says it was promises.
The people say itispromises—that will come true.
The people do not always say things out loud,
Nor write them down on paper.
The people often hold
Great thoughts in their deepest hearts
And sometimes only blunderingly express them,
Haltingly and stumbling say them,
And faultily put them into practice.
The people do not always understand each other.
But there is, somewhere there,
Always thetryingto understand,
And thetryingto say,
"You are a man. Together we are building our land.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“The past has been a mint Of blood and sorrow. That must not be True of tomorrow.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Gather up In the arms of your love—Those who expect No love from above.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“I wish the rent Was heaven sent.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“7 x 7 + love = An amount Infinitely above: 7 x 7 - love.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Life dosent frighten me at all.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Go home and write / a page tonight. / And let that page come out of you - / Then, it will be true.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Quiet Girl"

I would liken you
To a night without stars
Were it not for your eyes.
I would liken you
To a sleep without dreams
Were it not for your songs.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Union:

Not me alone--
I know now--
But all the whole oppressed
Poor world,
White and black,
Must put their hands with mine
To shake the pillars of those temples
Wherein the false gods dwell
And worn-out altars stand
Too well defended,
And the rule of greed's upheld-
That must be ended.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

“Besides,
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.

The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.

Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes

“Hold fast to dreams”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“What right has anyone to say
That I
Must throw out pieces of my heart
For pay?”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems

“Strange,
That in this nigger place,
I should meet Life face to face
When for years, I had been seeking
Life in places gentler speaking
Until I came to this near street
And found Life — stepping on my feet!”
― Langston Hughes, The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes