Activity on the poem As I Grew Older by langhston hughes

Table of Contents 

The poem ________________________________________________________________3

About the author ___________________________________________________________5

 A Letter To The Author ______________________________________________________7

My Dream _________________________________________________________________9

As I Grew Older

It was a long time ago.
I have almost forgotten my dream.
But it was there then,
In front of me,
Bright like a sun—
My dream.
And then the wall rose,
Rose slowly,
Slowly,
Between me and my dream.
Rose until it touched the sky—
The wall.
Shadow.
I am black.
I lie down in the shadow.
No longer the light of my dream before me,
Above me.
Only the thick wall.
Only the shadow.
My hands!
My dark hands!
Break through the wall!
Find my dream!
Help me to shatter this darkness,
To smash this night,
To break this shadow
Into a thousand lights of sun,
Into a thousand whirling dreams
Of sun!

about the author

Langston Hughes was an American poet, novelist, and playwright whose African-American themes made him a primary contributor to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Synopsis
Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. He published his first poem in 1921. He attended Columbia University, but left after one year to travel. His poetry was later promoted by Vachel Lindsay, and Hughes published his first book in 1926. He went on to write countless works of poetry, prose and plays, as well as a popular column for the Chicago Defender. He died on May 22, 1967.
Early Life
James Mercer Langston Hughes was born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His parents, James Hughes and Carrie Langston, separated soon after his birth, and his father moved to Mexico. While Hughes’s mother moved around during his youth, Hughes was raised primarily by his maternal grandmother, Mary, until she died in his early teens. From that point, he went to live with his mother, and they moved to several cities before eventually settling in Cleveland, Ohio. It was during this time that Hughes first began to write poetry, and that one of his teachers first introduced him to the poetry of Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, both whom Hughes would later cite as primary influences. Hughes was also a regular contributor to his school’s literary magazine, and frequently submitted to other poetry magazines, although they would ultimately reject him.

Hughes graduated from high school in 1920 and spent the following year in Mexico with his father. Around this time, Hughes’s poem “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” was published in The Crisis magazine and was highly praised. In 1921 Hughes returned to the United States and enrolled at Columbia University where he studied briefly, and during which time he quickly became a part of Harlem’s burgeoning cultural movement, what is commonly known as the Harlem Renaissance. But Hughes dropped out of Columbia in 1922 and worked various odd jobs around New York for the following year, before signing on as a steward on a freighter that took him to Africa and Spain. He left the ship in 1924 and lived for a brief time in Paris, where he continued to develop and publish his poetry.

a letter to the Author

Dear langhston hughes ……

i wish that you can hear me …

recently i read your poem ,I know that you suffered a lot in your life its not an easy thing to be rejected by the people , although all of this i can feel the strength in your poem i feel very pride for having a person like you in this world .

you gave my a booster shot  that I need in life .

i learned from it a lot , how to never give up and how to let the sunshine shine in the hard times .

i wish that your letter be spreading among the people to erase the bad features of the people’s personality’s.

My Dream 

Dream is something that all of us need to have. It is our vision. Dream is what you want to do for your future. I believe that having a great dream, is a must to us and I have a big dream.

My dream is to be great neurosurgeons. I know it is not simple at all. But I know I can achieve it. I feel like this is my destiny. This is why I came to this world.  I do not know when or how I am going to achieve this. But it will not be easy. I am constantly studying in school right now. I cannot give up even if I fail. There is a saying that failure is the greatest teacher. I know in order to pursue my dream, I will face failure This cannot be stopped.

My dream is to  graduate from the collage then i will make a lot of money I will buy my parents what they need and they can rest comfortably in the house without doing any difficult works. They had gone through a lot in order to raise me and my sisters.

Like I said before, it is very important to have a big dream it is not wrong Even if you cannot achieve if, just make it as your vision.

Dream can help you to prepare to face this challenging world. What am I going through now is just the start I just find the keys I am still trying to open the door when I finally did, I will not hesitate.