Read "Summer Night" by Langston Hughes online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The sounds / Of the Harlem night / Drop one by one into stillness.
The last player-piano is closed.
The last victrola ceases with the / "Jazz Boy Blues."
The last crying baby sleeps / And the night becomes / Still as a whispering heartbeat.
I toss / Without rest in the darkness, / Weary as the tired night, / My soul / Empty as the silence, / Empty with a vague, / Aching emptiness, / Desiring, / Needing someone, / Something.
I toss without rest / In the darkness / Until the new dawn, / Wan and pale, / Descends like a white mist / Into the court-yard.