I LOOK AT THE WORLD

Langston Hughes 1902-67

I look at the world 

From awakening eyes in a black face -

And this is what I see: 

This fenced-off narrow space   

Assigned to me. 

I look then at the silly walls 

Through dark eyes in a dark face - 

And this is what I know: 

That all these walls oppression builds 

Will have to go! 

I look at my own body   

With eyes no longer blind - 

And I see that my own hands can make 

The world that's in my mind. 

Then let us hurry, comrades, 

The road to find.

From the New York Herald Tribune in 1926: "Langston Hughes, although only twenty-four years old, is already conspicuous in the group of Negro intellectuals who are dignifying Harlem with a genuine art life.

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