Mariano’s school stuff

Langston Hughes was born on February 1^st, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri. His full name is James Langston Hughes. His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico. He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen. He then moved to Lincoln, Illinois, to live with his mother and her husband. In Lincoln, Illinois Hughes began writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University. In November 1924, he moved to Washington, D.C. Hughes’s first book of poetry, “The Weary Blues,” was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.

The Weary Blues

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

     I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night

By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light

     He did a lazy sway . . .

     He did a lazy sway . . .

To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.

With his ebony hands on each ivory key

He made that poor piano moan with melody.

     O Blues!

Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool

He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.

     Sweet Blues!

Coming from a black man’s soul.

     O Blues!

In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone

I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan–

     “Ain’t got nobody in all this world,

       Ain’t got nobody but ma self.

       I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’

       And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.

He played a few chords then he sang some more–

     “I got the Weary Blues

       And I can’t be satisfied.

       Got the Weary Blues

       And can’t be satisfied–

       I ain’t happy no mo’

       And I wish that I had died.”

And far into the night he crooned that tune.

The stars went out and so did the moon.

The singer stopped playing and went to bed

While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.

He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.

International Polar Year (IPY) is a $1.5 billion collaborative effort to study the north and south poles. Thousands of researchers will be carrying out more than 200 projects which mainly center on climate change. Some countries, including the UK and US, showed their IPY programs earlier this week, but the event Paris will be the official start of the two-year study. This is the fourth IPY since 1882 but the first one in which the impact of global warming will be visible on both poles. Scientists say rising temperatures are warming the Polar Regions faster than the rest of the planet. One of the main questions that scientists will hope raise awareness on is the potential rise in sea level caused by melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. The ice sheets in the south contain 90% of the entire world’s fresh water and if it melted global sea levels would rise 200m.

site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6406735.stm