Mother to Son

Langston Hughes · 1922; collected 1926

Catalog grade guidance: 4–12 — Plain words in a mother's dialect; the staircase metaphor is easy to follow.

20 content lines · 113 words · Est. recitation about 1 min 4 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: The Crisis, vol. 25, no. 2 (New York: NAACP, December 1922), p. 87 (Internet Archive page images of the University of Illinois copy, leaf n92).Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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 sit 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.