Mother to Son by Lanston Hughes

the son

the mother

the grandmother

the poet Langston Hughes

her son

African Americans

her daughter

all children

the Civil Rights movement

the entrance to any building

getting enough exercise

Life's struggles

Repairs that must be made

obstacles and hardships, setbacks, and difficulties in life.

a staircase that is old and delapidated

Life is messy.

That all rich people have them.

Some people have an easier time living their lives with fewer struggles, fewer obstacles.

Sometimes life is like a Cinderella story.

It easily cracks and must be replaced with wood.

an elegant crystal staircase

a rickety, shoddy, splintery wooden staircase with many obstacles

a steep staircase made of glass

a staircase that is beautiful

One must give up because there's no reason to keep struggling.

She has never accomplished anything.

One must keep trying, no matter what the obstacles or difficulties.

That she is a failure at life.

She is highly educated.

The language is a dialect of English.

She is sad.

it is a foreign language.

a goal to be reached

an obstacle

that which is impossible to reach

a failure

The mother has finally given up.

That he must keep climbing, keep going, never give up.

No one has it as hard as he will have it.

Life is easy if you just keep trying.

It's difficult to make it up the stairs.

Sometimes you must stop and rest.

Just give up when it becomes too hard.

Don't ever give up on life because you find it difficult.

Sometimes you won't be able to pay your light bill.

The dark is a symbol of ignorance, the unknown.

In poor neighborhoods, there are no lights at night.

Life is very dangerous.

Life is still a struggle for her, but she hasn't given up. It never gets easier.

One always has to climb stairs in buildings.

She is physically fit even though she is elderly.

She still finds work to do.

The staircase had no carpet.

Life has been a struggle and she has had few resources to help her.

Those are the only two rhyming words needed in the poem.

Life is cruel to poor people.