Langston Hughes: Poetry to the People I had been a writer who wrote mostly because, when I felt bad, writing kept me from feeling worse; it out my inner emotions into exterior form, and gave me an outlet for words that never came in conversation. During his lifetime as the "poet laureate of Harlem", Langston Hughes also worked as a journalist, dramatist, and children's author his poems, which tell of the joys and miseries of the ordinary black man in America, have been widely translated. In the 1950s and 1960s, Hughes' work included a volume of poetry, "Montage of a Dream Deferred" (published in 1951), a collection of short stories, "Laughing to Keep from Crying" (1952), and the play Don't You Want to be Free (1938), which deeply illustrates growing up African American in the United States a man to write of such things. Many people question what truly inspired/influenced Hughes and his work. Hughes traveled extensively throughout the nation during his career, and during these travels, he encountered numerous people from different aspects of the African-American society. The daily African-American struggle that Hughes witnessed and experienced influenced him to portray "black life" in his poetry, in using Langston Hughes' autobiography, I Wonder as I Wander and Martha Cobb's essay: "Langston Hughes", this influence will become evident. Hughes grew up in a middle class family and had a difficult lonely childhood due to his parents' divorce and his division of loyalties. When Hughes was a child living with is father in Mexico, he escaped many of the segregation issues that prevailed in the United States. However, Hughes returned to the states as a young man and lived in the then segregated Washington, D.C. (Cobb 103). Hughes saw this division as forcing the African American race into second class citizenship. This view of citizenship motivated Hughes greatly and he moved to New York City where he became involved in the black art ...
