19 pages • 38-minute read
High to Low
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“The Chimney Sweeper” by William Blake (1789)
William Blake is an 18th-century English poet who helped create the Romantic movement in England. Like Hughes, Blake used his poems to give the historically marginalized a voice. “The Chimney Sweeper” symbolizes the speaker’s occupation, putting them in the same socioeconomic class—though not racial category—as the “you” in “High to Low.” As with the “you,” the chimney sweeper comes across as undesirable and abject. They’re covered in dirt and they can only wait for death and an entrance into heaven. Arguably, the “you” in “High to Low” could become like the speaker, but there’s no such hope for Blake’s speaker.
“Children’s Rhymes” by Langston Hughes (1926)
In “Children’s Rhymes,” the speaker isn’t a classist adult but a child. Their central concern is the inequality between Black kids and “the white kids” (Line 2). The child speaker bluntly declares, “I know I can’t / be President” (Lines 4-5). The reference to “President” symbolizes status. Due to the toxic racism in the United States, the child speaker already perceives that he’ll never be able to climb to the top of US social hierarchy and become the most powerful person in the country. The speaker in “High to Low” likely wouldn’t think of becoming president, but they don’t blame the vast network of bigoted laws and policies. Rather, they blame other Black people. Comparing the two speakers, the young speaker in “Children’s Rhymes” comes across as more knowledgeable and insightful. They don’t reduce the intricate situation to a single person.
“Tired” by Langston Hughes (1931)
“Tired,” too, contrasts “High to Low.” While the speaker in “High to Low” simplifies the issue of race in the United States, the speaker in “Tired” takes an extensive approach. They don’t want to blame a group of people. They want to open up the word and “see what worms are eating / At the rind” (Lines 7-8). Arguably, the speaker in “Tired” might conclude that people like the “High to Low” speaker are contributing to the problems. “Tired” wants to see the world become “good / And beautiful and kind” (Lines 3-4), and the speaker in “High to Low” doesn’t overtly display such positive traits.
Further Literary Resources
The People Could Fly: American Black Folktales by Virginia Hamilton (1985)
In this book, Hamilton retells Black folktales so that they’re accessible for children, but the stories are accessible to anyone who wants to learn more about Black culture and history. The stories speak to the diversity and humanity within the Black community. Like people from any race or demographic, Black people aren’t an amorphous mass but separate individuals. Thus, in “Two Johns,” Little John continually outwits Big John. In “The People Could Fly,” some of the enslaved Black people manage to fly away from their heinous conditions, while others lack figurative wings.
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (2015)
Beatty’s contemporary takes Hughes’s idea of the supercilious “high”-class Black person to the extreme, presenting an array of Black people who exploit their race to further their careers. As with the “High to Low” speaker, Beatty’s affluent Black people lecture and condescend. Beatty ridicules their identities by referring to them as the Dum Dum Donut Intellectuals. As the Black main character, Me, becomes a hero for bringing back racist policies, the book suggests that overt racism is preferable to following the dictums of self-serving Black leaders.
My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich by Ibi Zoboi (2019)
As with “High to Low,” Zoboi’s novel mainly takes place in Harlem. Yet before the 12-year-old narrator Ebony-Grace goes to spend a summer with her father in Harlem, she lives in Alabama. The novel subverts the dynamic created by Hughes’s poem. Ebony-Grace’s part of Alabama is pleasant and pristine, while New York City—Harlem included—comes across as dangerous and dirty. The differences in class and character make it hard for Ebony-Grace to form friendships, but unlike the speaker in “High to Low,” Ebony-Grace eventually finds belonging with the group of young people she meets in Harlem.
Listen to Poem
Zoey Russell reads “High to Low” by Langston Hughes
Listen to the student Zoey Russell read Hughes’s class satire, and notice how her body language reinforces the poem’s rhythm and the speaker’s hyperbolic tone.
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