9/15/22, 10:44 PM Mother to Son by Langston Hughes | Poetry Foundation

Mother to Son

BY L A N G S TO N H U G H E S

Well, son, I’ll tell you:

Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

It’s had tacks in it,

And splinters,

And boards torn up,

And places with no carpet on the floor—

Bare.

But all the time

I’se been a-climbin’ on,

And reachin’ landin’s,

And turnin’ corners,

And sometimes goin’ in the dark

Where there ain’t been no light.

So boy, don’t you turn back.

Don’t you set down on the steps

’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.

Don’t you fall now—

For I’se still goin’, honey,

I’se still climbin’,

And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" from The Collected Works of Langston Hughes . Copyright © 2002 by

Langston Hughes. Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates, Inc.

Source:
The Collected Works of Langston Hughes
(University of Missouri Press (BkMk Press), 2002)

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9/15/22, 10:44 PM Mother to Son by Langston Hughes | Poetry Foundation
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