Langston Hughes’ “Cross” features three rimed stanzas of singsong verse. The poem, of course, is meant to garner sympathy for the mixed race individual.
First Stanza: “My old man's a white old man”
The speaker begins by telling his listener that his father was white, “My old man's a white old man.” He then follows with the information that his “old mother’s black.” Because he refers to the parents as “old,” the reader must assume that the speaker himself is an adult. It is not clear how old the speaker might be, but he is surely old enough to have left home and been on his own for some time.
The speaker then reports that he has “cursed [his] white old man,” but now he wants to “take [his] curses back.” For some reason, the speaker has changed his mind about hating his father.
Second Stanza: “If ever I cursed my black old mother”
In addition to cursing his father, the speaker has also cursed his mother, and he also “wished she were in hell.” But now again, he wants to apologize for that “evil wish,” and now he even wants to “wish her well.”
The speaker has changed his point of view regarding his parents; he used to curse them, now he wishes he could rescind those curses. Does that mean he feels kindly toward them? At least for the mother, he does wish “her well.” But for the father, he simply wants to stop cursing him and take back those that he earlier hurled.
Third Stanza: “My old man died in a fine big house”
In the third stanza, the listener learns that the speaker was probably not raised by both parents. His father died wealthy, symbolized by the “fine big house” in which he died, while his mother died poor, symbolized by the “shack” in which she died.
But the speaker’s true purpose in revealing his victim status is finally exposed when he asks, “I wonder were I'm going to die, / Being neither white nor black?” He reasons that white people die in fine big houses, and black people die in shacks, but he has the unique position of being both white and black, which leaves him only with confusion.
Commentary
Langston Hughes’ “Cross” does not represent the poet’s personal experience, since both of his parents were black. It offers a stereotype of the conflicted mixed-race male who bears the “cross” of being a “cross” between the Negroid and Caucasoid races.
The poem is, therefore, somewhat simplistic and contrived. The reader/listener learns nothing about the speaker except that he claims he is wondering where he will die. He offers no information about the life he has made for himself as an adult. The reader has no idea which parent raised him, even though he implies that the parents did not raise him together.
If, as is likely, the mother raised the child, then he would assume he would live and die as she did. If he were raised by the father, the same assumptions would hold true. But the stereotype of the conflicted mixed race child overshadows the possibilities that the speaker actually has. Because it attempts to air a grievance that has not been experienced, the poem merely offers a glance at a stereotype.
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