Mother to Son
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 timeI’se been a-cimbin’ on,And reachin’ landin’s,And turnin’ corners,And sometimes goin’ in the darkWhere 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,I’se still climbin’,And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.
About this text
Mother to Son is in the public domain. This text is taken from The weary blues, Project Gutenberg ebook #74745; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Langston Hughes, Mother to Son, in The Weary Blues (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #74745, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/hughes-weary-blues/mother-to-son.html, id L01552.
Form and metre
Mother to Son is 20 lines in a single stanza. The metre is iambic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%). 98% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 5.8 syllables. 4 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 15% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in iambic trimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A----A------------A you · stairA · it · splinters · up · floor · bareA · time · on · landin's · corners · dark · light · back · steps · hard · now · honey · climbin · stairA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Well, son, I’ll tell you: | 5 | ····· |
| Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| It’s had tacks in it, | 5 | ····· |
| And splinters, | 3 | ·/˘ |
| And boards torn up, | 4 | ···· |
| And places with no carpet on the floor— | 10 | ·/˘··/˘··· |
| Bare. | 1 | · |
| But all the time | 4 | ···· |
| I’se been a-cimbin’ on, | 6 | ······ |
| And reachin’ landin’s, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And turnin’ corners, | 5 | ···/˘ |
| And sometimes goin’ in the dark | 8 | ·˘//˘··· |
| Where there ain’t been no light. | 6 | ······ |
| So boy, don’t you turn back. | 6 | ······ |
| Don’t you set down on the steps | 7 | ······· |
| ’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Don’t you fall now— | 4 | ···· |
| For I’se still goin’, honey, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| I’se still climbin’, | 4 | ···· |
| And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.