# Quote — Langston Hughes, The Big Sea

> For poems are like rainbows; they escape you quickly.

- Author: [Langston Hughes](https://www.leafyquotes.com/langston-hughes.md)
- Book: [The Big Sea](https://www.leafyquotes.com/langston-hughes/the-big-sea.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Langston_Hughes#The_Big_Sea_(1940)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/langston-hughes/the-big-sea/for-poems-are

## More from this book

> You see, unfortunately, I am not black. There are lots of different kinds of blood in our family. But here in the United States, the word “Negro” is used to mean anyone who has any Negro blood at all in his veins. In Africa, the word is more pure. It means all Negro, therefore black. I am brown. My father was a darker brown. My mother an olive-yellow.

p. 36 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/langston-hughes/the-big-sea/you-see-unfortunately.md)