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Mother to Son
Langston Hughes
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had racks 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,
l’se still climbin’
And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
Available Answers
- 1.
Mother says to her son "life has not been a crystal stair" for her. What does she mean?
- 2.
What is her advice to her son?
- 3.
Below is a brief summary of poem. fill in the blanks with appropriate words and phrases given.
hardships, ruthless, sacrifice, give up, determination, hurdles, continuing, dead ends
The mother says that life has been an uphill journey. She has climbed the ladder of life with many ________________ at every step. he had to face ________________ truths and ________________. She had to ________________ many a time but she did not ________________. She is still ________________ her journey with ________________ in spite of many ________________.
- 4.
The poet has used a few contractions in the poem which are not common. Can you expand them?
Example: climbin' - climbing
- ain't
- I'se
- goin'
- 'cause
- 5.
Make sentences using the following words from the poem.
- tracks
- splinters
- turning corners
- 6.
Metaphor is a figure of speech that is used in poetry to imply a comparison between two things that are unrelated, but which share some common characteristics. What is the metaphor used for life's journey in this poem? Describe in detail how the poet has built the metaphor in the course of his poem.