Monday, March 31, 2008

"Hope" by Langston Hughes


I'm currently reading Bridge of Sighs by Richard Russo (I love me some Richard Russo) and he uses the poem "Hope" by Langston Hughes in the book. I didn't know this poem so I thought I would look it up and see if, in fact, the short passage quoted in the book was the whole poem. From what I can find, it is. And here it is.
Hope

He rose up on his dying bed
and asked for fish.
His wife looked it up in her dream book
and played it.

(Langston Hughes)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm reading "Bridge of Sighs" too. This is a poem in which the title tells you what the poem is about, even though it's not obvious in the poem itself what it's about.

TJH said...

Just finished Bridge of Sighs. Russo is great. Nobody's Fool was the first novel of his that I read, and I still love it. I often wish that I lived in that novel. And the last time I reread Straight Man I still laughed out loud. "Who's our first poet? Somebody remind me."

Anonymous said...

Listening to audio book of Bridge of Sighs and was grateful to find this posting.