I actually read that as a Poem in HS. We had to recite a sonnet (I think) for some State-wide competition. And I read America by Claude McKay for my class when they had the qualifers. I may hate PatSoc personally personally but I love that poem. It’s about how evil and cruel America was to Black people but Claude McKay still wanted to hold out for a better future and love America. Keep in mind I was a lib back then and under a Trump presidency I felt that. I loved the USA and was very patriotic despite my hatred of Truml. When I won best in class, I was told to choose a similar but different poem. I chose this Lenin poem, and I had to perform it in front of some stuffy assholes and of course they didn’t want a poem about Lenin. So for a few months I was a bit sad that I did my best in the recital and didn’t even qualify for State, but over time I realized it was less about my recital and a LOT more about the content of the poem. It’s a shame that they do that to people who are clearly interested in poetry in an age where that’s far from commonplace smh
Lenin
Lenin walks around the world.
Frontiers cannot bar him.
Neither barracks nor barricades impede.
Nor does barbed wire scar him.
Lenin walks around the world.
Black, brown, and white receive him.
Language is no barrier.
The strangest tongues believe him.
Lenin walks around the world.
The sun sets like a scar.
Between the darkness and the dawn
There rises a red star.
-Langston Hughes
I actually read that as a Poem in HS. We had to recite a sonnet (I think) for some State-wide competition. And I read America by Claude McKay for my class when they had the qualifers. I may hate PatSoc personally personally but I love that poem. It’s about how evil and cruel America was to Black people but Claude McKay still wanted to hold out for a better future and love America. Keep in mind I was a lib back then and under a Trump presidency I felt that. I loved the USA and was very patriotic despite my hatred of Truml. When I won best in class, I was told to choose a similar but different poem. I chose this Lenin poem, and I had to perform it in front of some stuffy assholes and of course they didn’t want a poem about Lenin. So for a few months I was a bit sad that I did my best in the recital and didn’t even qualify for State, but over time I realized it was less about my recital and a LOT more about the content of the poem. It’s a shame that they do that to people who are clearly interested in poetry in an age where that’s far from commonplace smh