Dear Rebecca:
It is with pleasure that I respond to your request for my favorite poem for the book that your class is compiling to raise money for refugee children. May I applaud you and your classmates on having chosen to devote yourselves to so worthwhile a project.
In my life, of course, I have read many lovely and moving poems. The one I am sending you seems particularly apt for a book intended to benefit children. “Stars” by the great American poet Langston Hughes is a poem that works on the psyche on several levels at the same time. On one level, it is simply about the beauty of a moment in space and time. On another, it is about the Village of Harlem, a special place with a unique history. On a third level, “Stars” is about having a dream and striving to realize that dream. Finally, the poem evokes the presence and danger of obstacles to achieving our dreams. Moreover, “Stars,” like all great works, is one in which new meaning can be uncovered with each reading.
The text of the poem is printed below. Please accept my warm wishes for the success of your humanitarian enterprise.
Sincerely,
STARS
O, sweep of stars over Harlem streets,
O, little breath of oblivion that is night.
A city building
To a mother’s song.
A city dreaming
To a lullaby.
Reach up your hand, dark boy, and take a star.
Out of the little breath of oblivion
That is night,
Take just
One star.
— Langston Hughes
