Tag: poeetry

Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son”

Comparing her life to a stairway in an extended metaphor in Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son,” a mother encourages her son to face life, despite its difficulties. 

Introduction with Text of “Mother to Son”

The speaker in Langston Hughes’ narrative poem “Mother to Son” is engaging the literary device known as the dramatic monologue, a poetic device employed with expertise by the English poet, Robert Browning. In Langton Hughes’ narrative, a ghetto mother is advising her son about his direction in life. 

She is employing a ghetto dialect, a device Langston Hughes has often used as he dramatizes his characters. This mother wishes to guide her son in the right direction in life and encourage him to face the challenges he will sure face.  

She thus employs the metaphor of climbing a difficult stairway which compares to her hard life struggles.  Her stairway was not made of “crystal,” and instead, it offered her a series of challenged that she had to face and overcome.

Mother to Son

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.

Commentary on “Mother to Son”

Comparing her life to a stairway in an extended metaphor, a mother in this poem encourages her son to face life, even though it can be full of difficulties with twists and turns.

First Movement:  A Stairway Metaphor

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,

Addressing her son with advice based on her own life, the mother in this poem begins by fashioning a metaphor of her life as a stairway.  She asserts that although it has not been easy to climb these step through life, she has never permitted herself the cowardly act of not striving to climb to the next higher step.   She then exclaims, “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. “

The “crystal stair” emphasizes an imaginary pathway with ease, comfort, and even beauty.  The “crystal” would likely render the climb smooth and clear, much less difficult.  Such stairway would with comfort and remain without the slog that she has had to suffer.  

The stairway that this mother has climbed has been full of difficulties, metaphorically rendered by “tacks and splinters.”  Often as she landed on certain steps, the step did not even feature the softness of carpet that would has also made the walk less arduous on the feet and legs. 

And as in life with its many tumultuous twists and turns,  the stairway the mother has has to negotiate has yielded its many drastic and difficult share of trials and tribulations.  However, she emphasizes the fact that she has never just thrown up her hand and quit climbing, regardless of how difficult and steep the climb was; instead, she insists, “I’se been a-climbin’ on.”  

And she has continued to make progress by being rewarded for her effort as she was “reachin’ landin’s / and turnin’ corners.” These features on the stairway—landings and corners—are parts of the extended metaphor as they are real features of a literal stairway.  Reaching each landing, thus, represents the real-life achievements that the mother has made as she vigilantly struggled. 

Second Movement:  The Mother’s Advice 

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.

The mother then counsels her son, admonishing him not to quit climbing his own stairway and not to just sit down and give up. 

She has experienced much darkness on her climb up the stairway; however, she recommends that her son now allow anything to dishearten him.  Even though life can be difficult, he must continue to struggle on.  He must never give up on life, despite all the trials and tribulations that might come his way.

The mother is striving to convince her son that he must continue to metaphorically climb that metaphoric stairway that is his life. The metaphorical  act of sitting down on a step means giving up and then failing to confront the hardships that he will be required to overpower.

Then three times, the mother reiterates that she has never permitted herself to give up on the fights to meet the challenges on her own life stairway.  She insists that she has kept on climbing, and she is still in the process of climbing that stairway.  She keeps on climbing. And she has no regrets that is continuing to climb.

The mother also repeats the line in which she first employed the stairway metaphor: “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair,” in the second and last lines.  

The mothers has used her own experience to try to instill in her son the important idea that despite all the difficult challenges that life might throw in one’s way, the continued effort to strive boldly and tenaciously offers the only pathway that will take an individual to victory. 

A Simple, Poignant Classic Poem

The simply poignancy of Langston Hughes’ “Mother to Son” has resulted in the poem’s becoming a classic.  Hughes’ employment of the ghetto dialect adds vitality and accuracy to the poem. The son never speaks in the poem so the audience cannot know what he might have said or done to motivate the advice given by his mother.  

Even whether the son understands and/or agrees with that advice cannot be known. But such facts are not germane to the wisdom of the advice.  Such advice would always be appropriate in spite of any problems that the mother and son might have been experiencing.  

Hypothetical issues such as gang-life, poverty, or drug abuse remain largely irrelevant when placed up against the traditional values of trying to behave well and become all that one can be despite one’s original circumstances in life.

The narrative’s actual function is to impart the very uncomplicated yet highly profound idea that no one should ever relinquish the struggle to better oneself and one’s lot in life.  In the struggle of life, each individual must soldier on to vanquish each challenge or hardship. 

The true winners, without fail, assert that they have gathered small achievements in life as they have completed each step of their journey. Continuing  to climb is always, at least, half the battle.

If life has not bestowed upon you a cushy “crystal stair,” you must climb it nevertheless, and even in spite of the “splinters and tacks.”  The act of climbing is far more vital to success than the physical reality of what the stairway is made of.