{ "id": "langston-hughes/america", "title": "America", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": null, "poet": "Langston Hughes", "poet_slug": "langston-hughes", "language": "en", "book": "Poetry", "book_slug": null, "book_kind": "compilation", "sequence": null, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1925, "venue": "Opportunity (June 1925)", "note": null, "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1925-06_3_30" ] }, "source": { "kind": "standard-ebooks", "repo": "standardebooks/langston-hughes_poetry", "file": "poetry.xhtml", "upstream": [ "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Weary_Blues", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001021002", "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/langston-hughes-fine-clothes-to-the-jew-1927-full-text.1", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003138045", "https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse", "http://childlit.unl.edu/topics/edi.brownies.html", "https://archive.org/details/the-brownies-book", "https://archive.org/details/crisis2324dubo", "https://archive.org/details/crisis2526dubo", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000502434", "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1926-10_32_6", "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-06_34_4", "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-07_34_5", "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-10_34_8", "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1927-11_34_9", "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_1928-06_35_6", "https://archive.org/details/sim_crisis_the-crisis_1930-07_37_7", "https://archive.org/details/hughes_ny_amsterdam_1923-04-25", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008956003", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006784879", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1925-03_3_27", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1925-06_3_30", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1926-05_4_41", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1926-10_4_46", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1927-03_5_3", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1927-06_5_6", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1927-12_5_12", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1930-06_8_6", "https://archive.org/details/sim_opportunity-a-journal-of-negro-life_1930-12_8_12", "https://archive.org/details/sim_political-affairs_1925-03_4_5", "https://archive.org/details/sim_political-affairs_1925-04_4_6", "https://archive.org/details/sim_political-affairs_1925-07_4_9", "https://archive.org/details/langston_hughes_new_york_herald_tribune-1926-02-14", "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1926-03-01-001-single", "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1926-11-01-001-single", "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1927-02-01-001-single", "https://archive.org/details/014-lnn-1928-10-01-001-single", "https://archive.org/details/lincoln-university-yearbook-1928", "https://archive.org/details/sim_vanity-fair_1926-05_26_3", "https://books.google.com/books?id=2dsqAQAAIAAJ", "https://archive.org/details/palms_october_1926", "https://archive.org/details/langston_hughes_palms_november_1926", "https://archive.org/details/sim_poetry_1926-11_29_2", "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v02n02-dec-1926-New-Masses", "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v03n10-feb-1928-New-Masses", "https://archive.org/details/v01n05-sep-1926-New-Masses/v06n07-dec-1930-New-Masses", "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000520354", "https://archive.org/details/ebonytopazcollec00unse", "https://archive.org/details/carolinamagazine19261927", "https://archive.org/details/harlem-1928-11", "https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes", "https://www.poetrynook.com/poet/langston-hughes", "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/langston-hughes-poems-published-in-the-crisis-1921-1926" ], "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)" }, "verification": { "level": "structural-only", "last_checked": "2026-08-12" }, "stats": { "n_lines": 62, "n_stanzas": 1, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 84, "max_indent": 0 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "Little dark baby,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Little Jew baby,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Little outcast,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "America is seeking the stars,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "America is seeking tomorrow.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You are America.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am America", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "America⁠—the dream,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "America⁠—the vision.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "America⁠—the star-seeking I.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out of yesterday", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The chains of slavery;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out of yesterday,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The ghettos of Europe;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Out of yesterday,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The poverty and pain of the old, old world,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The building and struggle of this new one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "We come", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You and I,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Seeking the stars.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You and I,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You of the blue eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the blond hair,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I of the dark eyes", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the crinkly hair.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You and I", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Offering hands", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Being brothers,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Being one,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Being America.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You and I.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And I?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who am I?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You know me:", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am Crispus Attucks at the Boston Tea Party;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Jimmy Jones in the ranks of the last black troops marching for democracy.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am Sojourner Truth preaching and praying for the goodness of this wide, wide land;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Today’s black mother bearing tomorrow’s America.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who am I?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "You know me,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Dream of my dreams,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am America.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am America seeking the stars.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "America⁠—", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Hoping, praying", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Fighting, dreaming.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Knowing", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There are stains", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "On the beauty of my democracy,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I want to be clean.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I want to grovel", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "No longer in the mire.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I want to reach always", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "After stars.", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Who am I?", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am the ghetto child,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am the dark baby,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am you", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And the blond tomorrow", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And yet", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I am my one sole self,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "America seeking the stars.", "indent": 0 } ] ] }