The Full Text of “Theme for English B”
The Full Text of “Theme for English B”
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“Theme for English B” Introduction
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“Theme for English B” was published the American poet Langston Hughes in 1951, toward the end of Hughes’s career. The poem is a dramatic monologue written in the voice of a twenty-two-year-old black college student at Columbia University in New York City. His professor gives an apparently simple assignment: to write one page that is “true” to himself. But for the speaker, this assignment raises complicated questions about race, identity, and belonging. As he puzzles through these difficult questions, the speaker arrives at a powerful argument against American racism: white people and black people are not (and should not be) separate or distinct. Instead, they are “part” of each other.
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“Theme for English B” Summary
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The teacher said:
Go home and write a one-page essay tonight. If you let your writing come from your heart, it will be true.
Okay, but is it really that easy? I’m 22 years old, black, and was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I went to school in Winston-Salem, then in Durham, North Carolina. Now I’m a student at Columbia University, on a hill above Harlem in New York City. I’m the only black student in the class. I walk home from class down the hill into Harlem, on the way crossing through a park, then crossing St. Nicholas avenue, Eighth Avenue, and Seventh Avenue. Finally, I get to the Harlem Branch of the YMCA. I take the elevator up to my room, sit down and write the poem you're reading right now:
It’s hard to say what’s true about me or you when you’re only 22 years old, like I am. If I had to guess, I’d say that I’m the sum of everything I feel, see, and hear. I hear Harlem. I hear Harlem and Harlem hears me, and together we're talking on this page. And I hear the rest of New York City as well. So who am I? Well, I enjoy eating, sleeping, drinking, and loving people. I like to work and read, to learn new things and to understand life. I like when I get a pipe for Christmas, or some music—a record by Bessie Smith, a be-bop record, or something by Bach. Even though I’m black, I still like all the same things that people of other races like. So will this essay that I'm writing also be black? If it really is me, then it won’t be white. But it will be part of you, teacher. You’re white, yet you’re also a part of me—just like I’m a part of you. That’s what being an American means. Sometimes you don’t want to be part of me—and sometimes I don’t want to be part of you, either. But we're still part of each other—really! And just as I learn from you, you also learn from me, even though you’re older, white, and also freer than I am.
This is my writing assignment for English B.
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“Theme for English B” Themes
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Race, Identity, and Belonging
“Theme for English B” is a poem about the complexities of identity in a racist society. Its speaker—a black student at Columbia University in the 1950s—receives an apparently straightforward assignment: to write one page about himself. But that raises complicated questions for the speaker about his identity, about the relationship between black and white people, and about what it means to be American. As he works through these questions, the speaker arrives at a powerful argument against racism—and for his own place in American life. Black and white are not truly separate, the speaker argues; instead, they are each “part” of the other.
The poem begins with a simple assignment: “Go home and write / a page tonight.” But the professor, who is white, places a restriction on the assignment: it has to be “true.” As a black man, the speaker is thus unsure of how to proceed; as he says in line 16, “It’s not easy to know what is true for you or me.” At the heart of the poem, then, is a question about the relationship between race and identity. The speaker wants to know whether race determines his identity, asking: “will my page be colored that I write?”
The answer that the speaker arrives at is complex. Race is obviously important to his identity. So, “being me,” the page that he writes “will not be white.” And yet the things that actually define him—his habits and passions and hobbies—have no particular relationship to his race. He likes “the same things other folks like who are other races.” To the speaker, race seems less like an intimate part of his identity, and more like an imposition, something used to classify him and to deny him opportunities.
Indeed, the speaker notes, race has created resentment and mistrust between himself and his professor. Sometimes, his professor doesn’t “want to be part of me” and, equally, the speaker doesn’t “often want to be a part of you.” Yet, the speaker insists, they cannot deny their connection, the way they are linked together: “you are […] a part of me, as I am a part of you.”
This is a bold assertion. The speaker is a black student in an overwhelmingly white institution. In fact, he’s the “only colored student” in the room. It would be easy for him to feel alienated and alone—and it seems that sometimes he does. But he refuses to let that alienation obscure the underlying connection between himself and his professor, a connection that crosses race, age, and privilege. Even though the professor enjoys a prestigious job and is “somewhat more free” than the speaker—simply because the professor is white—they still learn from each other: “As I learn from you, / I guess you learn from me.”
“Theme for English B” is thus honest and direct about racism and the way that it awards white people unfair privileges in American society. But it simultaneously refuses to believe that racism defines American society. Just the contrary is true: ultimately, the speaker argues, what makes both professor and student “American” is the way that they are related to each other—the way they are both “part” of each other. In order to recognize what’s truly American, both student and professor need to recognize the way that racism has obscured the deep connections between them. Written in the early 1950s as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining steam, “Theme for English B” thus makes a powerful case that being an American is about the connections that bind together communities and races—despite the very real prejudice that separates them.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-41
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Theme for English B”
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Lines 1-5
The instructor said, ...
... will be true.The first 5 lines of “Theme for English B” set up the problem at the heart of the poem. The poem begins with an assignment: the “instructor”—a college professor at Columbia University in the 1950s—wants his class to “write / a page tonight.” In other words, he wants a short paper. That seems straightforward enough. But then the professor introduces a crucial complication. He wants “that page” to “come out of you.” In other words, he wants his students to explain who they are. The paper should be “true”: it should reflect the students' identities honestly and fully.
This isn’t a particularly imaginative assignment, or a particularly deep one: the professor is simply looking for a short personal essay or perhaps a poem. But, as quickly becomes clear, the assignment raises a series of complicated questions about race, identity, and belonging for the speaker. The speaker is one of the students in the class—and he spends most of the poem trying to sort out these questions.
Because these lines are mostly in the professor’s voice—lines 2 to 5 are a direct quote from the professor—they don’t quite fit formally with the rest of the poem. Generally speaking, “Theme for English B” is written in free verse: it doesn’t have meter or a set rhyme scheme, though the speaker will occasionally use a rhyme. The poem's exploratory, open-ended form reflects the unsettled, searching character of the speaker’s thinking. The professor, however, doesn’t share the speaker’s uncertainty: for him, this is a simple assignment for an introductory course, English B. So it’s not entirely surprising to find that he uses rhyme in a much more steady way than the speaker does: lines 2 to 5 rhyme AABB. The rhymes are straightforward and direct, even a little trite ("write"/"tonight," "you"/"true"). They suggest that the professor’s thinking is not only settled; it’s also a little shallow. Like the rest of the poem, however, these lines are not in any meter; the length of the lines and their rhythm vary.
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Lines 6-10
I wonder if ...
... in my class. -
Lines 11-15
The steps from ...
... write this page: -
Lines 16-20
It’s not easy ...
... York, too.) Me—who? -
Lines 21-26
Well, I like ...
... are other races. -
Lines 27-30
So will my ...
... of you, instructor. -
Lines 31-33
You are white— ...
... That’s American. -
Lines 34-36
Sometimes perhaps you ...
... are, that’s true! -
Lines 37-41
As I learn ...
... for English B.
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“Theme for English B” Symbols
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The Hill
In line 9, the speaker notes that his college—Columbia University—sits on “the hill above Harlem.” Here, the speaker is describing the literal geography of New York City: Columbia is situated on a hill which rises above Harlem, a historical center of black culture. But the speaker also uses the “hill” as a symbol for the sense of superiority, entitlement, and white privilege that surrounds an Ivy League university like Columbia. After all, the hill puts Columbia above Harlem, so that the University literally looks down on it. The very positioning of the University conveys a sense of power and superiority.
More generally, the symbol of the “hill” has an important place in American life. In 1630, John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, described the colony as a “shining city on a hill”—a model of Christian piety and virtue that, he hoped, would inspire the rest of the world. Americans have often thought of their country in these terms: as a model for the rest of the world, above and separate from it. Using the “hill” as a symbol here, the speaker alludes to this tradition—and also implicitly criticizes it. After all, Columbia’s isolation on its “hill” is a result of segregation, a refusal to interface with the vibrant neighborhood just beyond its gates. As the speaker stresses, counting off the streets he crosses on his way home, it’s just a short walk from one seemingly separate world to the other. The speaker’s use of the symbol thus suggests that the myths about America’s exceptional status rely on segregation and racism.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 9: “hill”
- Line 11: “hil”
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“Theme for English B” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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End-Stopped Line
“Theme for English B” uses both end-stop and enjambment throughout the poem. However, the speaker doesn’t establish a pattern or a set of rules about when he uses one or the other. Instead, the speaker’s use of end-stop and enjambment tends to reflect his confidence and certainty (or lack thereof) as he works through difficult questions about race, identity, and belonging.
When the speaker is feeling confident about his ideas, he tends to employ end-stop. The reader can see this in lines 7 and 10:
I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem. (7)
I am the only colored student in my class. (10)
In both lines, the speaker is making factual statements, describing in direct, straightforward language his life and his circumstances as a black student at Columbia University in the 1950s. Though the speaker will eventually question whether these statements are enough—whether they really describe his identity—they start as points of certainty and strength, things the speaker can hang onto as he plumbs the complexities of identity. The end-stops reinforce this sense of strength and certainty: they make the lines feel definite and indisputable.
Notably, the speaker uses more end-stop toward the end of the poem. Most of the last 12 lines of the poem are end-stopped, including powerful and controversial statements like the ones the reader finds in lines 31-33:
You are white—
yet a part of me, as I am a part of you.
That's American.Here the speaker is challenging racism directly, arguing that American identity comes from the connections between different races—not the prejudice that divides them. Even as he makes this challenge, he remains confident and self-assured, and that sense of calm and strength is reflected in the end-stops. They make the lines feel definite, controlled, and unequivocal: the speaker has no doubts about what he's saying.
Where end-stopped line appears in the poem:- Line 1: “said,”
- Line 3: “tonight.”
- Line 4: “you—”
- Line 5: “true.”
- Line 6: “simple?”
- Line 7: “Winston-Salem.”
- Line 9: “Harlem.”
- Line 10: “class.”
- Line 11: “Harlem,”
- Line 12: “Nicholas,”
- Line 13: “Y,”
- Line 15: “page:”
- Line 18: “you:”
- Line 19: “page.”
- Line 20: “who?”
- Line 21: “love.”
- Line 22: “life.”
- Line 24: “Bach.”
- Line 26: “races.”
- Line 27: “write?”
- Line 28: “white.”
- Line 30: “instructor.”
- Line 31: “white—”
- Line 32: “you.”
- Line 33: “American.”
- Line 34: “me.”
- Line 35: “you.”
- Line 36: “true!”
- Line 37: “you,”
- Line 38: “me—”
- Line 39: “white—”
- Line 40: “free.”
- Line 41: “B.”
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Enjambment
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Caesura
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Alliteration
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Assonance
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Consonance
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Metaphor
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Anaphora
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Repetition
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"Theme for English B" 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.
- Page
- Colored
- Winston-Salem
- Durham
- This College
- Harlem
- St. Nicholas
- Eighth Avenue
- Seventh
- Y
- Records
- Bessie
- Bop
- Bach
- English B
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(Location in poem: Line 3: “page”; Line 4: “page”; Line 41: “page”)
One page. In other words, a short paper or essay for a college course.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Theme for English B”
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Form
“Theme for English B” is a dramatic monologue, written in the voice of a 22-year-old black college student. The poem has 41 lines, divided into five stanzas with very different lengths. Some stanzas, like the first and last, are just one line long; the fourth stanza, by contrast, is 25 lines long. Some of its lines are also short—as few as three syllables—and others are much longer, up to 13 syllables. The poem thus clearly doesn’t have a set form, and nor does it use a regular meter or rhyme scheme (although an occasional rhyme pops up here and there). Instead, it is written in free verse.
As a result, the poem feels very loose and unstructured. That’s intentional. The poem records the speaker’s musings as he attempts to puzzle through difficult questions about identity and belonging in a racist society. He doesn’t have all the answers; instead, he’s trying to work them out as he goes. The poem’s loose form, with all its variations and transformations, reflects the nature of the speaker’s thoughts: the poem shifts and changes alongside the speaker's evolving thinking.
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Meter
“Theme For English B” is written in free verse—so it doesn’t have a set meter. Indeed, the rhythm of the poem often shifts. Some of its lines are very short: as few as 3 syllables, like line 3 ("You are white—"). Others are much longer. Line 26, for instance, has 13 syllables ("the same things other folks like who are other races."). The speaker tends to use longer lines at the start of the poem, but switches to shorter lines around line 27 ("So will my page be colored that I write?"). In other words, the poem’s rhythm—and the length of its lines—shifts as the speaker’s thinking shifts. After all, the speaker is working things out, thinking through some difficult and complicated questions. The poem’s variable rhythms reflect the variations and changes in the speaker’s ideas as he slowly works toward answers.
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Rhyme Scheme
“Theme For English B” is written in free verse, so it doesn’t have a rhyme scheme. But the poem does occasionally use rhyme. For instance, “class” and “St. Nicholas” basically rhyme in lines 10 and 12; so do “you” and “who” in lines 18 and 20. These rhymes appear and disappear, highlighting individual moments instead of creating a solid, regular scheme.
Notably, however, the assignment from the professor (lines 2-5, "Go home and write [...] Then, it will be true.") is written in rhyming couplets:
AABB
Those rhymes contribute to the sense that there is something smug about the assignment and perhaps about the professor more generally: the rhymes feel too easy, too definite, given the complexity of the questions the professor is asking.
Because of the complexity of those questions—and the difficulty the speaker has answering them—a strong rhyme scheme would be inappropriate to the poem. After all, the speaker is working things out—asking big questions about race, identity, and belonging, and struggling to find the answers. Given this provisional and open-ended thinking, it wouldn't make sense to have a very strong, organized rhyme scheme; that would suggest a degree of control and planning that doesn’t fit with the exploratory character of the speaker’s thinking. But the occasional rhymes that pop up here and there in the poem do fit that thinking: like the speaker’s tentative answers to these big questions, the poem’s rhymes are themselves tentative, improvised, and partial.
However, the speaker does often use internal rhymes—as in the rhymes between “see,” “me,” and “we” that run through lines 18-20. These internal rhymes, which rely heavily on assonance, help give the poem a strong sense of rhythm, even in the absence of a traditional rhyme scheme. This underlying coherence hints that the speaker will arrive at some kind of answer to these confusing questions, even if he hasn't articular this answer just yet.
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“Theme for English B” Speaker
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The speaker of “Theme for English B” is a black, 22-year-old college student studying writing at Columbia University in New York. Since the poem doesn't specify the speaker's gender, the speaker could technically be either a Columbia student or a student at Barnard, the women's college affiliated with Columbia (Columbia itself didn't admit women until 1983). However, Hughes himself attended Columbia and this poem is often interpreted as autobiographical, so this guide uses male pronouns to refer to the speaker and assumes that he is attending Columbia.
The speaker also reveals that he is black and grew up in the South; he describes studying in Winston-Salem and Durham, cities in North Carolina, before he came to Columbia. He now lives in Harlem, a predominantly black neighborhood just to the north of Columbia. Throughout the poem, the speaker reflects on the difficulties of being a black student in a largely white university. He is the “only colored student” in the class; he struggles to define himself in the face of white racism. The apparently innocent assignment that the teacher offers—to write a page-long paper explaining who he is—thus occasions a searching inquiry into his own identity and his relationship to American life.
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“Theme for English B” Setting
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“Theme for English B” is set in New York City, most likely during the 1950s. The speaker is a student at Columbia University in Manhattan; he lives in Harlem, a predominantly black neighborhood located near the university.
As the speaker meditates on his identity and his place in American society, the setting of the poem offers some implicit commentary on the issues that he’s struggling with. Columbia University is one of the most prestigious universities in the country—it's an Ivy League institution, founded before the Revolutionary War. Yet, it is almost all white: the speaker is the “only colored student” in his class. And, to make matters worse, the university is right next door to Harlem—one of the historical centers of black culture in America. It’s just a few blocks away—a point the speaker makes by listing the handful of streets he has to cross to get back to his room at the Harlem Branch YMCA. There’s thus a sense that runs through the poem that both black people and black culture have been excluded from this powerful and prestigious university—and that the speaker himself is not entirely welcome within it.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Theme for English B”
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Literary Context
“Theme for English B” was first published in 1951 as part of Langston Hughes’s 13th book of poetry, Montage of a Dream Deferred. The poem thus came relatively late in Hughes’s career (he died in 1967). As a young man, though, Hughes was a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and cultural movement that championed black artistic and intellectual expression. As a result, Hughes became one of the most important poets of the 20th century, someone to whom younger poets often turned as a model.
The Harlem Renaissance spanned the 1920s and included other writers such as Zora Neale Hurston. The movement also saw the development of jazz music, the influences of which can be seen in other poems by Hughes (such as "The Weary Blues," which is also set in Harlem and focuses on the black experience in America).
Although it seems to be set in the 1950s, “Theme for English B” seems to reflect this earlier time in Hughes’s life. He was himself a student at Columbia University during the 1920s—an experience Hughes found deeply alienating and uncomfortable. The divisions that the poem draws between Columbia and nearby Harlem reflect Hughes' own experience moving between the two spaces: one hostile and racist, the other vibrant and full of energy. As the speaker wrestles with his own sense of belonging in a racist society, the poem may be said to do the same, asking whether and when universities like Columbia will acknowledge the accomplishments and cultural energy of the Harlem Renaissance and of people of color more generally.
Historical Context
“Theme for English B” was likely written in the late 1940s or early 1950s, a time of transformation in American society. Many African Americans had served bravely in World War II, giving their lives to their country. But they returned to a land where they were denied basic civil rights, including the right to vote. As the poem was written, frustration with this unjust situation was building and beginning to boil over. It would soon result in the American Civil Rights Movement, in which black Americans across the country demanded equal rights.
As the poem was being written, then, many of the questions the speaker asks—about his place as a black man in American society; about his relationship with white people like his professor—were urgent, pressing questions at both personal and national levels. People were actively rethinking these issues, interrogating the racist structures under which they lived. Though the poem doesn’t explicitly acknowledge this context, it should nonetheless be understood in relation to it—as an active contribution to the pressing questions of the day.
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More “Theme for English B” Resources
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External Resources
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"Theme for English B" Read Aloud — The playwright Jermaine Ross reads "Theme for English B" aloud.
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Hughes's Life Story — A detailed biography of Langston Hughes from the Poetry Foundation.
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Poetry and the Civil Rights Movement — A collection of poems and resources from the Poetry Foundation focused on the poetry of the Civil Rights Movement.
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An Introduction to the Harlem Renaissance — A detailed introduction to the African American literary movement, with links to important poems and poets.
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Early Black Students at Columbia University — An article by Paulina Fein on the way tha first black students to attend Columbia University were treated.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Langston Hughes
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