Mother to Son
by Langston Hughes
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
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
Hughes’s Mother to Son tells
the reader about a mother that advices her son to struggle in his life. The
mother has gone through the hard life, and she is able to survive, so she
ensures her son to keep trying hard in his life.
The words in the poem are metaphor
which the author tries to portray how the mother’s hard life with a hard
road. “Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair” express that life is as not as easy we can imagine. “It’s had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up,
and places with no carpet on the floor—Bare”. They
imply that there are many obstacles in the life. She tells her son about how
hard the life is because she has experienced it. She thinks that her son maybe
will experience it. She wants her son to be ready to face the life. “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”. The mother keeps trying, so she is able to pass the obstacle. “So, boy, don’t you turn back. Don’t you set down on the steps. .
. . Don’t you fall now—For I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’,” She wants her son not to give up. ‘Cause you finds it’s kinder hard” According to
the mother, the son’s life is better than hers.
Through this poem, the author wants
the readers to understand that every mother always cares about her children.
Mother always advices her children about many things. Maybe it sounds bored for
the children, but above all, the mother really cares for her children’s future.
In this poem, the author wants
to portray the journey of the mother’s life. Thus, the author uses
connotation to give the poem a realistic meaning. The author uses ‘crystal
stair’ to say that the mother life has not been beautiful. Then, the author
uses ‘tacks’, ‘splinters’ which means something that can cause pain. To
represent the damage in life, the author uses ‘The torn up boards’. The author
then uses ‘no carpet on the floor’ and ‘Bare’ to imply coldness and loneliness.
To represent struggle in life, the author uses ‘I’se been a-climbin’ on’.
‘reachin’ landin’s’ means achieving the goals in life; ‘turnin’ corners’ means
trying something new; ‘dark’ can represent obstacles; ‘no light’ represents
unexplored; ‘don’t you turn back’ means not to run away from life; and ‘set
down on the steps’ to state not to give up.
The poem, definitely, uses imagery.
There are three imageries in the poem: kinesthetic, visual, and tactile.
‘tell’, ‘climbin’’, ‘reachin’’, ‘landin’’, ‘goin’’ are kinesthetic imagery
which include sense of movement. ‘dark’, ‘no light’, and ‘crystal stair’ are
visual imagery. ‘tacks’, ‘splinters’, and ‘boards’ are tactile imagery.
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