Reading to Learn

A good way to learn to write is to read good writing. I've been on a mission to read as much children's literature as I can. I am shocked at how much I missed growing up.

I like to write poetry, normally children's rhymes about bugs and animals. But Langston Hughes inspires me. Written in 1949, I Dream a World, is a dream of peace which we should all aspire to.

I Dream a World,

by Langston Hughes

I dream a world where man
No other man will scorn,
Where love will bless the earth
And peace its paths adorn.
I dream a world where all
Will know sweet freedom's way,
Where greed no longer saps the soul
Nor avarice blights our day.
A world I dream where black or white,
Whatever race you be,
Will share the bounties of the earth
And every man is free,
Where wretchedness will hang its head
And joy, like a pearl,
Attends the needs of all mankind--
Of such I dream, my world!

Besides poetry, Hughes also was interested in drama and wrote several plays. This poem comes from his only opera, TROUBLED ISLAND, which he wrote with the composer William Grant Still. (copied from Poetry for Young People, Edited by D Roessel and A Rampersad. Illustrated by B Andrews)