Langston Hughes, "Poem for Youth" (1927)
By Langston Hughes
Raindrops
On the crumbling walls
Of tradition,
Sunlight
Across mouldy pits
Of yesterday.
Oh,
Wise old men,
What do you say
About the fiddles
And the jazz
And the loud Hey ! Hey !
About the dancing girls,
And the laughing boys,
And the Brilliant lights,
And the blaring joys,
The firecracker days
And the nights,–
Love-toys?
Staid old men,
What do you say
About sun-filled rain
Drowning yesterday?
Published in The Messenger, June 1927