{ "id": "langston-hughes/mister-sandman", "title": "Mister Sandman", "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": 1921, "venue": "The Brownies’ Book (August 1921)", "note": "Located in the bound run of The Brownies’ Book on disk (Archive.org the-brownies-book): printed in the issue whose masthead reads Vol. 2 No. 8, August 1921, Whole No. 20, and listed by title and byline on that issue’s contents page.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://archive.org/details/the-brownies-book" ] }, "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": 32, "n_stanzas": 16, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 56, "max_indent": 1 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "The Sandman walks abroad tonight,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "With his canvas sack o’ dreams filled tight.", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "Over the roofs of the little town,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The golden face of the moon looks down.", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "Each Mary and Willy and Cora and Ned", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is sound asleep in some cozy bed,", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "When the Sandman opens his magic sack", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To select the dreams from his wonder pack.", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "“Ah,” says the Sandman, “To this little girl", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "I’ll send a dream like a precious pearl.”", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "So to Mary Jane, who’s been good all day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "A fairy comes in her sleep to play;", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "But for Corinne Ann, who teased the cat,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "There’s a horrid dream of a horrid rat,", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "And the greedy boy, with his stomach too full,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has a bad, bad dream of a raging bull;", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "While for tiny babes, a few days old,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Come misty dreams, all rose and gold.", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "And for every girl and every boy", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "The Sandman has dreams that can please or annoy.", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "When at pink-white dawn, with his night’s work done,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "He takes the road toward the rising sun,", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "He goes straight on without a pause", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To his house in the land of Santa Claus.", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "But at purple night-fall he’s back again", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "To distribute his dreams, be it moon light or rain;", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "And good little children get lovely sleep toys;", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "But woe to the bad little girls and boys!", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "For those who’d have dreams that are charming and sweet,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Must be good in the day and not stuff when they eat,", "indent": 1 } ], [ { "text": "’Cause old Mister Sandman, abroad each night,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Has a dream in his sack to fit each child just right.", "indent": 1 } ] ] }