"Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes

Department of English

Faculty of Arts, Chulalongkorn University

"Mother to Son"

(1922)

Langston Hughes

(February 1, 1902 – May 22, 1967)

"Mother to Son" Notes

This poem was published in Hughes's first collection of poetry The Weary Blues (1926).

2 ain't: dialect for hasn't

9 I'se: dialect for I've

15 set: sit

16 kinder: kind of, kinda, sort of

Study Questions

The poem begins: "Well, son, I'll tell you:" What do you think prompted the speaker to respond thus?

Sample Student Responses to Langston Hughes's "Mother to Son"

Response 1:

Study Question:

Student Name

2202234 Introduction to the Study of English Literature

Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri

June 12, 2013

Reading Response 1

Title

Text.

Links

Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" (1926; text of the poem)
Regennia N. Williams and Carmaletta M. Williams. "Mother to Son: The Letters from Carrie Hughes Clark to Langston Hughes, 1928–1938," Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of Langston Hughes (2007)
Langston Hughes at 100, Yale University (online exhibition)

Langston Hughes at 100, Yale University (video and audio, including Hughes reading "Mother to Son")

Media		Langdon Hammer, Lecture 15: Langston Hughes, Modern Poetry, Open Yale Courses (2007; video clip, 45:57 min.)
		The Harlem Renaissance, Treasures of the New York Public Library (2008; video clip, 3:39 min.)

Langston Hughes

Arnold Rampersad, "Langston Hughes," Oxford Companion to African American Literature (1997)
On "The Weary Blues"

Langston Hughes at 100, Yale University (video and audio)
Langston Hughes (brief bio)
Langston Hughes (biography)
Langston Hughes, America's Library
"Langston Hughes," Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama (2004)

Reference

Home | Literary Terms

Last updated June 11, 2013