Mother to Son - Langston Hughes

In the world, the most romantic and beautiful love is the love of a mother to her child. Every mother expects to see her child succeed in life. This expectancy has led to mothers spending time parenting while encouraging their children to follow in their footsteps. This though is achieved through taking risks: by having strong will and conviction to succeed. To point out the love and the concern of a mother to her son, Langston Hughes wrote the poem “Mother to Son”. This poem recounts the ideal woman giving her son words of advice regarding life and its challenges that need be overcome. The mother in this poem charges herself with the duty to impart wisdom on her child by referring to her own successes and failures in life. She depicts life as a stairway that need to be climbed through and through.

Langston Hughes starts the poem with a figurative, life is compared to a crystal stair, or an easy and beautiful journey. The mother is telling her son that life has been difficult for her, and there have been barriers to her success. In lines 1-2 of the poem, he says "well, son, I'll tell you: life ain't been no crystal stair." This rich use of metaphor points out words of wisdom from a woman informing her child on the unsystematic encounters in living. This comparison bears the intent and theme of this poem. Life always hard and unclear, however we must soar up for greater heights. In line 3-6, the mother also instructs her son that it has some tacks in it which have splinters and boards that are tattered all over the place on the floor. This metaphor uses the tacks and splinters, picking out torn boards as things and tastes had to feel of the mother, Langston Hughes proceeds to exert highlights of challenges that this mother had gone experienced.

The author uses informal language and not in standard English, this helps characterize the mother, tell us more about her such as upbringing and education level; expressing imagery in supporting the theme “I'se been a-climbin' on, And reachin' landin's, And turnin' corners,”

In the lines 18-19, "For I'se still goin', honey/ I'se climbin'", the author is passing a message to the public through this woman of wisdom, she portrays the hardships of life that she has overcome, in her strong spirit she held on to hope and the struggled forwards. She relates life with the climbing of the stairs which must be achieved through hard work.

Although the poem “Mother to Son” lacks rhymes, it is rich with beat throughout the lines. The author applied the use of determination in a weary soul in basing his foundation of a stairway that requires climbing of one step at a time. Hughes serves the audience with a lovely scene of a devoted parent speaking to her child. Although the woman is impoverished in education, she disapproves of that as a hindrance to impart good quality and devotion to her son. The