{ "id": "langston-hughes/our-land", "title": "Our Land", "ordinal": null, "subtitle": "Poem for a Decorative Panel", "poet": "Langston Hughes", "poet_slug": "langston-hughes", "language": "en", "book": "The Weary Blues", "book_slug": "the-weary-blues", "book_kind": "volume", "sequence": 51, "container": null, "epigraph": null, "first_published": { "year": 1926, "venue": "The Weary Blues (1926)", "note": "First located printing of this text is the volume. An earlier and shorter printing exists and is not what this record dates: The New Negro (1925), ed. Alain Locke, page 144 of the scan on disk, ends at “And not this land where joy is wrong.” and lacks the closing “Oh, sweet, away! / Ah, my beloved one, away!”. Whether any periodical printed the longer text earlier has not been established.", "uncertain": false, "sources": [ "https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015003918763", "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74745", "https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse" ] }, "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": 17, "n_stanzas": 4, "n_parts": 0, "longest_line_chars": 39, "max_indent": 0 }, "site_ready": true, "parts": [], "stanzas": [ [ { "text": "We should have a land of sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of gorgeous sun,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And a land of fragrant water", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Where the twilight", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Is a soft bandana handkerchief", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of rose and gold,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not this land where life is cold.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "We should have a land of trees,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of tall thick trees", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Bowed down with chattering parrots", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Brilliant as the day,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not this land where birds are grey.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Ah, we should have a land of joy,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Of love and joy and wine and song,", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "And not this land where joy is wrong.", "indent": 0 } ], [ { "text": "Oh, sweet, away!", "indent": 0 }, { "text": "Ah, my beloved one, away!", "indent": 0 } ] ] }