When I get to be a composer I'm gonna write me some music about Daybreak
in Alabama And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist And falling out
of heaven like soft dew. I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it And the scent of pine needles And the smell of
red clay after rain And long red necks And poppy colored faces And big brown arms And the field daisy eyes Of
black and white black white black people And I'm gonna put white hands And black hands and brown and yellow hands And
red clay earth hands in it Touching everybody with kind fingers And touching each other natural as dew In that dawn
of music when I Get to be a composer And write about daybreak In Alabama.
An interesting interpretation
Melissa thinks this poem is about peace and freedom. Hughes says "When I get to
be a composer" but really she thinks he is talking about just being an influential person, enough so that people really listen
to him and so that he can credibly tell them about things. He talks about really being able to use the senses to their full
extent with things that are very simple. Hearing the "purtiest songs," feeling the "swamp mist," and smelling the "pine needles"
and the "red clay after the rain." Then he starts talking of body parts and a lot about hands, and he talks about how he wants
to put hands of all different colors together "touching each other natural as dew." This is Hughes' way of saying he wants
to help put an end to segregation, and for everyone to happily live together in peace. Daybreak in Alabama is Hughes' idea
of perfection.
I, Tracy, think this poem is about how Langston Hughes was anti-segragation. Daybreak in Alabama to me means that
the "daybreak" is a new begining for state of Alabama, when at the time it was one of the most segregated and mean spirited
states in the union. If Hughes was a composer of humanity he would create beauty from making all of the different intruments
of people work together. I think this poem is about how Hughes was looking to the future when we are all together
as Americans. He was hoping for a time when people can celebrate their culture and ethnicity without being ashamed
or hated for who they are. I think we have come very far since this poem was written, and perhaps Hughes would be happy
of all of the progress Americans have made toward accepting one another.
