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228:"Mother to Son" is the first of several of Hughes's poems that present strong women. The mother in the poem uses a metaphor of a staircase to convey "the hardships of Black life" while also her progress and perseverance. As the woman is climbing the stairs, she becomes almost comparable to a religious figure ascending into the heavens, yet remains simply human. Her climb is also comparable to a
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of the stair ("But all the time/I'se been a-climbin' on"). She goes on to urge her son to not "turn back", but breaks the pattern established in the two previous sections by only repeating the concept three times, instead of four. Finally the poem ends where it started, describing the climbing of the stair case. R. Baxter Miller writes that the "individual lines skillfully blend
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The scholar
Michael Skansgaard divides "Mother to Son" into five "units". The first two lines introduce the poem. The speaker then goes on to describe how her life has not been a "crystal stair", and the struggles she has faced. A new section begins after "Bare", where she starts describing climbing
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persona", who could represent numerous
African-American mothers urging their children forward. The professor R. Baxter Miller considers "Mother to Son" to illustrate "how dialect can be used with dignity." The scholars Regennia N. Williams and Carmaletta M. Williams consider "Mother to Son" to most
95:. The poem follows a mother speaking to her son about her life, which she says "ain't been no crystal stair". She first describes the struggles she has faced and then urges him to continue moving forward. It was referenced by
126:– the African-American cultural revival that spanned the 1920s and 1930s – and he wrote poetry that focused on the Black experience in America. His poem "Mother to Son" was first published in 1922 in
264:, meaning that they have similar sounds but are not 'perfect' rhymes. The following line, line seven ("Bare"), is a perfect rhyme with "stair" and the only line in the whole poem that is
299:" speech. These references largely took the form of wording referring to pressing forward and not turning back. W. Jason Miller describes these references as "overt" and argues that
133:
260:(line 2: "Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair." and line 6: "And places with no carpet on the floor—"). In the first six lines, the words "stair" and "floor" are
508:
401:
Encyclopedia of
African-American writing: five centuries of contribution : trials & triumphs of writers, poets, publications and organizations
268:. One critic notes that "it seems as though the mother’s spartan accommodation, hardscrabble life, and unadorned language all converge on the word
295:, an American civil rights activist and leader, referenced "Mother to Son" at least 13 times in his public appearances, including during his "
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to be representative of "a convention of dialect writing rather than an accurate depiction of
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cadences". He considers the structure to provide "the folk diction and rhythm that make the woman real".
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Miller, R. Baxter (1987). "Langston Hughes". In M. Davis, Thadious; Harris-Lopez, Trudier (eds.).
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closely represent Hughes's relationship with his grandmother, Mary Leary
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The mother who is delivering the poem to her young son has been described as an "
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National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People
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Origins of the Dream: Hughes's Poetry and King's
Rhetoric
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Afro-American
Writers From the Harlem Renaissance to 1940
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Montage of a Dream: The Art and Life of
Langston Hughes
19:"No crystal stair" redirects here. For the book, see
357:. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 621.
91:" is a 1922 poem by American writer and activist
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190:And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
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563:. University of Missouri Press.
473:. University Press of Kentucky.
176:Where there ain’t been no light.
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798:Fine Clothes to the Jew
626:African American Review
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937:Carrie Langston Hughes
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107:Background
53:The Crisis
833:Mule Bone
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646:1062-4783
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939:(mother)
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922:(1939)
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