Harlem Renaissance Poem ,by: Langston Hughes

Harlem Sweeties

by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes

Have you dug the spill   

Of Sugar Hill?

Cast your gims

On this sepia thrill:   

Brown sugar lassie,   

Caramel treat,   

Honey-gold baby   

Sweet enough to eat.   

Peach-skinned girlie,   

Coffee and cream,   

Chocolate darling   

Out of a dream.   

Walnut tinted

Or cocoa brown,   

Pomegranate-lipped   

Pride of the town.   

Rich cream-colored   

To plum-tinted black,   

Feminine sweetness   

In Harlem’s no lack.   

Glow of the quince   

To blush of the rose.   

Persimmon bronze   

To cinnamon toes.   

Blackberry cordial,   

Virginia Dare wine—

All those sweet colors   

Flavor Harlem of mine!   

Walnut or cocoa,   

Let me repeat:

Caramel, brown sugar,   

A chocolate treat.   

Molasses taffy,

Coffee and cream,   

Licorice, clove, cinnamon   

To a honey-brown dream.   

Ginger, wine-gold,   

Persimmon, blackberry,

All through the spectrum

Harlem girls vary—

So if you want to know beauty’s   

Rainbow-sweet thrill,

Stroll down luscious,

Delicious, fine Sugar Hill.

Langston Hughes, “Harlem Sweeties” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 1994 by The Estate of Langston Hughes. Reprinted with the permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.




      The Harlem Renaissance also known as the black literary Renaissance was a revolutionary time for the literary world. It was a time when poets like Langston Hughes, Alain LeRoy Locke, Countee Cullen , Claude McKay, Sterling Brown, Robert Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks and many others became established. Some say that the first stage of the Harlem Renaissance started in 1910. This was said because at this time "Negro Literary" began to get published. This gave wonderful poets like Langston Hughes to blossom and show the world what he is made of.

      " Harlem Sweeties" a poem written by Langston Hughes in 1921 is a poem about black skin and it tells how amazing black skin is. In this poem Langston Hughes describes all the woman as if they were food. For example, "brown sugar lassie, caramel treat, honey-gold baby, sweet enough to eat". He embraces and celebrates the tones of black skin  "Molasses taffy/ Coffee and cream/ Licorice, clove, cinnamon/ To a honey-brown dream." In this poem he is making it very clear that not only is he cherishing woman but black women in all shades to be exact.
 
    I chose this poem to read because i love poems that are meant for black women and are made for black women. Because some black women are insecure and its nice to have poems dedicated to them and showing them that there beautiful know matter what shade there in. I like the poem because he describes black skin as if it was a food, and not just any food. He described the different shades of blacks as the same color of something that is good and flawless. I definitely recommend it to any one.