Which Hughes poem includes the lines "to eat in the kitchen / when company comes"?

Which Hughes poem includes the lines "to eat in the kitchen / when company comes"?

• A. The Weary Blues
• B. Harlem
• C. I, Too
• D. Mother to Son

Answer: (C)

This line highlights a tension between exclusion and the promise of inclusion. In Langston Hughes’s I, Too, the speaker is sent to eat in the kitchen when company comes, a stark metaphor for racial segregation and social separation. Yet the poem follows with a confident assertion that this will change—“I, too, sing America”—and that the speaker will one day sit at the table with everyone. The line thus signals not just the experience of being marginalized, but the resolve and hope that equality will arrive. That hopeful, defiant voice is a hallmark of I, Too. By contrast, the other poems mentioned focus on different moods or themes—The Weary Blues centers on performance and sorrow, Harlem contemplates what happens to a dream deferred, and Mother to Son offers a mother’s practical, persistent advice. The line about eating in the kitchen directly aligns with I, Too, underscoring dignity and the future inclusion Hughes envisions.

This line highlights a tension between exclusion and the promise of inclusion. In Langston Hughes’s I, Too, the speaker is sent to eat in the kitchen when company comes, a stark metaphor for racial segregation and social separation. Yet the poem follows with a confident assertion that this will change—“I, too, sing America”—and that the speaker will one day sit at the table with everyone. The line thus signals not just the experience of being marginalized, but the resolve and hope that equality will arrive.

That hopeful, defiant voice is a hallmark of I, Too. By contrast, the other poems mentioned focus on different moods or themes—The Weary Blues centers on performance and sorrow, Harlem contemplates what happens to a dream deferred, and Mother to Son offers a mother’s practical, persistent advice. The line about eating in the kitchen directly aligns with I, Too, underscoring dignity and the future inclusion Hughes envisions.