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Langston Hughes: Morning After

            
             This poem by Langston Hughes is a good example of the type of in your face, real life poetry that this poet uses. Hughes wrote poems that could be easily understood by the readers even if he/she wasn't experienced with poetry. He once said that "poetry should be direct, comprehensible and the epitome of simplicity." This poem in particular uses these literary guidelines very well. .
             In this poem Hughes explains what it felt like to wake up from a night in which he "drunk some bad licker". This portrayal of him self as a drunk helps him to relate with his readers more. It lowers him from the pedestal of the poet, to that of a more common man. The feeling of this poem is one of dullness and of confusion. I believe that this is remarkable because as you read this poem it almost gives you the feeling that you too are hung-over. Hughes use of strange language gives you a confused feeling. Lines like "Woke up and looked around me- Babe, your mouth was open like a well." leaves the reader to wonder what the poet is feeling in his head. The continued usage of the exclamation mark almost gives you a headache, and the fact that he repeats the line "Please don't snore so loud" emphasizes the almost pounding noise that Hughes must hear in his ears. It almost gives the reader a taste of what the noise was like. .
             In the middle of the poem Hughes describes a dream that he has. "Had a dream last night, I thought I was in hell." This is a disturbing look into the poet's unconscious that reveals a very real part of his life. Through this dream we see that religion is very real to him even if it is only dealt with in his subconscious. His fear of going to hell is so strong that he repeats the line again "I drempt last night I thought I was in hell." For Hughes, who is usually very concise with words, repeating the same two lines is very important. We must realize that whenever he does this that he means to emphasize it as an important theme in the poem.


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