“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman (1860)

Whitman’s poem served as an inspiration for Hughes. Whitman’s poem celebrates both the individualism and the group identity of Americans. Throughout the poem, Whitman describes people singing as they work autonomously, owning their labor and their profit. But at the end of the poem, everyone comes together, and collectively, everyone’s work and contribution to the song forms the broader American song. Whitman focuses on blue collar workers, but he does not include the voices of slaves.

“The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes (1921)

Hughes’s most famous poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” is a celebration of the legacy of African American art and culture. Hughes gives power and agency to historical societies of Black people, from Africa to America. Hughes inverts the White and western historical trope that whiteness represents progress and civilization while blackness represents primitiveness. The poem creates a link between the heritage of African Americans and their present-day situation in America.

“Harlem” by Langston Hughes (1951)

“Harlem” is both about the legacy and promise of the Harlem Renaissance as well as the consequences of denying people their dreams. The most famous line of the poem comes at the end when Hughes asks if a dream deferred will eventually explode.