The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it’s that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. *
I went to school there, then Durham,** then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records—Bessie,*** bop****, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That’s American.
Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that’s true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you’re older—and white—
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
Go home and write
a page tonight.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
I wonder if it’s that simple?
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. *
I went to school there, then Durham,** then here
to this college on the hill above Harlem.
I am the only colored student in my class.
The steps from the hill lead down into Harlem,
through a park, then I cross St. Nicholas,
Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y,
the Harlem Branch Y, where I take the elevator
up to my room, sit down, and write this page:
It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me
at twenty-two, my age. But I guess I’m what
I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you:
hear you, hear me—we two—you, me, talk on this page.
(I hear New York, too.) Me—who?
Well, I like to eat, sleep, drink, and be in love.
I like to work, read, learn, and understand life.
I like a pipe for a Christmas present,
or records—Bessie,*** bop****, or Bach.
I guess being colored doesn’t make me not like
the same things other folks like who are other races.
So will my page be colored that I write?
Being me, it will not be white.
But it will be
a part of you, instructor.
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That’s American.
Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me.
Nor do I often want to be a part of you.
But we are, that’s true!
As I learn from you,
I guess you learn from me—
although you’re older—and white—
and somewhat more free.
This is my page for English B.
* Winston-Salem : Winston-Salem è una città degli Stati Uniti d'America, capoluogo della Contea di Forsyth nello Stato della Carolina del Nord.
** Durham : Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina
*** Bessie :Bessie Smith ( 1892 or 1894 – 1937) was an American blues singer. She was sometimes called "The Empress of the Blues" and was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s.[1] A lot of people think that she was one of the best singers of her time, and along with Louis Armstrong, she was an important influence on later jazz singers.
**** “ bop “ : abbreviazione di be bop , è uno stile di jazz che si sviluppò soprattutto a New York negli anni quaranta caratterizzato da tempi molto veloci e da elaborazioni armoniche innovative. Protagonisti principali del be bop , fra gli altri , sono stati Dizzie Gillespie,Charlie Parker , Thelonious Monk e Bud Powell .
** Durham : Durham is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina
*** Bessie :Bessie Smith ( 1892 or 1894 – 1937) was an American blues singer. She was sometimes called "The Empress of the Blues" and was very popular in the 1920s and 1930s.[1] A lot of people think that she was one of the best singers of her time, and along with Louis Armstrong, she was an important influence on later jazz singers.
**** “ bop “ : abbreviazione di be bop , è uno stile di jazz che si sviluppò soprattutto a New York negli anni quaranta caratterizzato da tempi molto veloci e da elaborazioni armoniche innovative. Protagonisti principali del be bop , fra gli altri , sono stati Dizzie Gillespie,Charlie Parker , Thelonious Monk e Bud Powell .
inviata da Pluck - 4/1/2025 - 00:01
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Source: The Collected Works of Langston Hughes (University of Missouri Press (BkMk Press), 2002)
• “Theme for English B” was published by the American poet Langston Hughes in 1951, toward the end of Hughes’s career. The poem is a dramatic monologue written in the voice of a twenty-two-year-old black college student at Columbia University in New York City. His professor gives an apparently simple assignment: to write one page that is “true” to himself. But for the speaker, this assignment raises complicated questions about race, identity, and belonging. As he puzzles through these difficult questions, the speaker arrives at a powerful argument against American racism: white people and black people are not (and should not be) separate or distinct. Instead, they are “part” of each other.
Theme for English B Summary & Analysis