Summary
The speaker begins both the first and second lines with Aunt Sue’s name, thus introducing the subject of the poem. Aunt Sue is described as having a “head” and “heart” full of stories (lines 1 and 2). The third line establishes “Summer nights on the front porch” as the setting of the poem. This is the place where Aunt Sue tells the stories from her past to the “brown-faced child” (line 4).
The second stanza shifts the perspective to the brown-faced child, who reveals the contents of the stories that Aunt Sue tells him. The phrase “Black slaves” is repeated in almost every other line to reinforce the harrowing images that Aunt Sue creates. The second stanza reveals the sorrow of slavery, as the speaker describes the enslaved “in the hot sun” and “Walking in the dewy night” (lines 7 and 9). Aside from sorrow, the speaker also describes how the enslaved used song to comfort themselves and preserve their heritage. The speaker then imagines a sense of community among the enslaved, a sense of community that is embodied in Aunt Sue’s storytelling.
In the penultimate stanza, the speaker returns to the image of a listening child. However, this child is “dark-faced” instead of “brown-faced,” indicating the passage of time from dusk to night. The child asserts that Aunt Sue’s stories must be real due to her sincere tone. In the final stanza, the same language of a summer night that is used in the first stanza returns as the cycle of storytelling continues.
Analysis
The repetition of "Aunt Sue" in the first two lines of the poem establishes her as the central character in the poem. The alliteration of the “h” sound in the second line then emphasizes her extraordinary ability to tell stories. The stories come from her head and her heart, meaning they come from her memory and her emotions. Summer is presented as a motif that represents the time for family gatherings and heritage to be passed down. This poem is thought to be inspired by Hughes's grandmother, Mary Leary Hughes, who helped raise the aspiring artist. For this reason, the child in the first stanza could allude to Langston Hughes himself. However, this character is never explicitly revealed to be Hughes.
This poem pays homage to the passing down of Hughes's family history and to the labor of women in preserving this history. At the same time, the poem is generalized enough such that most African American families can relate to its message about the heritage of slavery and the importance of storytelling in preserving cultural history. The poem also pays homage to the role of women in preserving family history and raising children. The fourth line of the poem, “Aunt Sue cuddles a brown-faced child to her bosom,” reveals the dual role of historian and caretaker in African American women of this time. Aunt Sue’s vivid imagery and solemn tone in the second stanza bring her stories to life for the child. The references to “Working in the hot sun” and “Walking in the dewy night” gives the child a sense of the constant exhaustion involved in slavery.
On the other hand, the speaker mentions singing by a “mighty river” (line 11). Rivers are a motif in many of Hughes’s poems, often symbolizing the might of Black people and the constant flow of heritage and power through generations of African American history. This act of singing counteracts the sorrow of slavery. Her stories contain anecdotes about the days before emancipation, when the enslaved could only tell stories at night, away from their master’s eye. While Aunt Sue describes a sorrowful past, she does so in a setting that is safe and comfortable for the child. This stanza is told in polysyndeton or a continuous sequence of phrases joined by conjunctions. This polysyndeton mirrors the way in which a story would be told without frequent pauses or strict syntax.
The penultimate stanza opens with another description of the child, this time as a “dark-faced child” (line 17). This change of complexion reveals that Aunt Sue and the child have been on the porch long enough for the child’s features to appear darker as the night falls. This dark-faced child understands that Aunt Sue’s stories are derived from her life experiences because of the compelling way in which she recounts them. At his young age, the child distinguishes family history from fiction. The present progressive tense of the last line indicates that Aunt Sue’s stories are ongoing and transcend time.
“The dark-faced child is quiet
Of a summer night
Listening to Aunt Sue’s stories.” (Lines 23-25)
