Langston Hughes's "I Look at the World" features a Black speaker who observes themselves and the world around them with fresh eyes, railing against the "walls" that racial oppression builds and calling upon "comrades" to build a better, fairer future together. Though the poem was written in 1930, it wasn't published until 2009, when it was discovered penciled in the back of one of Hughes's books. It appeared that year in Poetry magazine.

• Read the full text of “I Look at the World”

• “I Look at the World” Summary

• “I Look at the World” Themes

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    Racism, Oppression, and Empowerment

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-16

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “I Look at the World”

  • Lines 1-5

    I look at ...
    ... Assigned to me.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 6-10

    I look then ...
    ... have to go!

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-16

    I look at ...
    ... road to find.

    

    

    

    

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• “I Look at the World” Symbols

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    Opening Eyes

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “I look at the world / From awakening eyes in a black face—”
    • Lines 6-7: “I look then at the silly walls / Through dark eyes in a dark face—”
    • Lines 11-12: “I look at my own body / With eyes no longer blind—”

• “I Look at the World” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “world / From”
    • Lines 4-5: “space / Assigned”
    • Lines 6-7: “walls / Through”
    • Lines 9-10: “builds / Will”
    • Lines 11-12: “body / With”
    • Lines 13-14: “make / The”

  • Metaphor

    

    

    

    

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    Where metaphor appears in the poem:

    • Line 4: “This fenced-off narrow space”
    • Line 6: “the silly walls”
    • Line 9: “all these walls oppression builds”
    • Line 12: “eyes no longer blind”
    • Line 16: “The road to find”

  • Anaphora

    

    

    

    

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    Where anaphora appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “I look”
    • Line 3: “And this is what I”
    • Line 6: “I look”
    • Line 8: “And this is what I”
    • Line 11: “I look”
    • Line 13: “And”

  • Diacope

    

    

    

    

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    Where diacope appears in the poem:

    • Line 7: “dark,” “dark”

• “I Look at the World” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Awakening
  • Fenced-off narrow space
  • Silly
  • Comrades
  • (Location in poem: Line 2: “From awakening eyes in a black face—”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “I Look at the World”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “I Look at the World” Speaker

• “I Look at the World” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “I Look at the World”

• More “I Look at the World” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a reading of "I Look at the World."

    • A Brief Biography — Read a short biography of Hughes and find links to more of his poems.

    • The Harlem Renaissance — Read an introduction to the literary movement with which Hughes is closely associated. 

    • The Poem's Discovery — Read about the discovery of this poem, which was only found many years after Hughes's death.  

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Langston Hughes

    • As I Grew Older

    • Aunt Sue's Stories

    • Cross

    • Daybreak in Alabama

    • Democracy

    • Dreams

    • Dream Variations

    • Harlem

    • Homecoming

    • I, Too

    • Let America Be America Again

    • Mother to Son

    • Night Funeral in Harlem

    • The Ballad of the Landlord

    • Theme for English B

    • The Negro Speaks of Rivers

    • The Weary Blues

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