Analyzing Langston Hughes 'The Weary Blues'

My background as a tenacious student and a minority has allowed me to connect to the poem in ways that I could very much relate to. I have personally lived through the motions of life that he refers to in “Theme for English b”.Langston Hughes’s poem is more about the differences he knows other people see in him or rather on him, and what they are missing. By doing this, Hughes make it clear that the color of his skin plays a crucial role in the way that people think he is like. He finishes by boldly stating what he had been

Langston Hughes clearly connects with a wide range of audiences through the simplicity that surrounds his poetry. The beauty of this manner in which he wrote his poetry, is that it grasp people by illustrating his narratives of the common lifestyles experienced by the current American generation. His art form expresses certain questionable ideologies of life and exposes to the audience what it takes to fully comprehend what being an American truly means. Each individual poem describes and illustrates the strength and hardships the African American community was experiencing. Through his literature art form of poetry, Hughes was able to convey the common assertions of

In Hurston’s first piece of work, “Spunk”, won second place in an Opportunity magazine’s literary contest used a woman’s love triangle. Subsequently, in 1925, Hughes also won first place in the same Opportunity magazine’s contest for “Weary Blues”, a musical poem (blues) about a man playing his piano sullenly. The authors’ perceptions about the world around them greatly influenced their work. Hurston grew up with a free spirit and open heart whereas Hughes’ perspective is bleak because of his identity as a black man. Although Hughes identified as a black man, it is clear in his subject matter was an internal struggle with himself. Hughes’ dismal display of Negro life was a very controversial aspect of his writings, while Hurston suffered for her subject matter, focusing on a more uplifting view of Black life.

The poem “The Weary Blues,” by Langston Hughes, focuses on all but the following elements of modernism:

The short but inspirational poem "Harlem" by Langston Hughes addresses what happens to aspirations that are postponed or lost. The brief, mind provoking questions posed throughout the poem allow the readers to reflect--on the effects of delaying our dreams. In addition, the questions give indications about Hughes' views on deferred dreams.

Hughes was greatly influenced by the culturally prominent jazz music in Harlem He was drawn to places with live music to brainstorm and write. In his uniquely written poem “The Weary Blues”, Hughes combined black vernacular and blues rhythms, branching out and creating literature that broke the norm.

writing era. His poetry was inspired by his family’s history, a history full of abandonment,

Right after the World War I, the majority of African Americans moved from South to the North of the United States. New economic and artistic opportunities led them to create and identify themselves in their own culture and heritage. This movement is well-known as the Harlem renaissance. It was accompanied by new lifestyle, music styles, and plenty of talented writers. This paper discusses two poems from this period: Heritage, written by Countee Cullen, and The Weary Blues, written by Langston Hughes.

Perhaps the most popular piece of Blues poetry that incorporates the technical devices of the genre is Hughes’ Weary Blues. The poem highlights how Jazz affected everyday life through its exaggerated musicality. This is created through internal rhymes, alliteration and consonance which creates a similar rhythm to a Blue song. The Blues influence can further be seen by the twelve bar stanzas and repeated use of rhyming couplets which create a musical atmosphere. Hughes often refers to music in his poetry and it seems to pose as a metaphor for feelings that can’t be spoken, and these disenfranchised feelings often dominated Blues songs. It showed where language failed, music could take over. We can see that Hughes used music to inspire a generation and give them a

In several cultures, music is said to be a universal language. Music can portray emotion that anyone can understand and relate to, transcending any singular tongue. In "Sonny's Blues" by James Baldwin, and "The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes, music is portrayed as being a connection to the happenings of character's lives, a way of channeling and expressing their emotions as something physical.

     Jazz music is often associated with long, lazy melodies and ornate rhythmical patterns. The Blues, a type of jazz, also follows this similar style. Langston Hughes' poem, "The Weary Blues," is no exception. The sound qualities that make up Hughes' work are intricate, yet quite apparent. Hughes' use of consonance, assonance, onomatopoeia, and rhyme in "The Weary Blues" gives the poem a deep feeling of sorrow while, at the same time, allows the reader to feel as if he or she is actually listening to the blues sung by the poem's character.

Yolande Cornelia “Nikki” Giovanni Jr is an well-known African-American poet, writer, commentator, activist, and educator. Today we will look at “A poem for Langston Hughes” from her collection and do a literary analysis on it. The author took the time to adopt a certain sound throughout her work. You can shape sound within a poem through accent, alliteration, assonance, consonance, internal rhyme, meter, onomatopoeia, rhyme and rhythm. She uses a combination of these sound devices used in poetry. Punctuation and form of the poem sets the timing to add emphasis or make the audience pay closer attention. Other things derive from sound such as the overall feeling. Honestly, in “A poem for Langston Hughes” her sound is serious and

Langston Hughes was truly able to make a name for himself through the reaction he gained from creating the revolutionary collection of poems “The Weary Blues” in 1926 where this poem with the same title can be found. During this time, the world was in turmoil and Hughes had just immersed himself in the Harlem renaissance scene. All the rules were changing around him so, why not in poems too. He decided to take an entirely new approach to poetry by breaking standard rules of poems and adopting the jazz and urban blues rules which were more like a recommendation of rules rather than graved in stone. Hughes had a basic rhythm and varied it to fit the words or change the mood of his poems. Sometimes he spelled words to match the way that real people talk. It was refreshing compared to the stuffy, rigid poetry that had been seen before, written in free verse with an irregular rhyme scheme, mimicking the natural patterns of speech and music.

According to Biography, James Mercer Langston Hughes is considered to be an African American poet who is college educated and comes from a middle-class family (Langston Hughes Biography). He attended college in New York City and became influential during the Harlem Renaissance (Langston Hughes Biography). Although Hughes was a talented writer, he faced some challenges early on and it was stated that his “early work was roundly criticized by many black intellectuals for portraying what they thought to be an unattractive view of black life” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). They believed that his work helps the spread the stereotypes of African Americans. “Hughes, more than any other black poet or writer, recorded faithfully the nuances of black life and its frustrations” (Langston Hughes. American Poet). Langston Hughes’s poems “The Negro Mother”, “Let America be America Again” and “The Weary Blues” were influenced by his life during the Harlem Renaissance and the racial inequality experienced in the late 1920s through the 1960s.

Nevertheless, Hughes through his literary works embraced the spirit of the Afro American community through his attempts to capture everyday life. Using his poetic works, he could give a platform to the powerless and provide the marginalized people a voice, along with his willingness to depict the realities of life by popularising the blue theme genre. One of his earliest poetic works The Weary Blues captures the inner tensions of the Harlem experience during this period, by portraying a sadness within the oppressed black community, although beginning to find relief through the power of music. Hugh’s had adopted a jazz styled form of rhythm within his poems as he drew inspiration from the Harlem streets and black music. Johnston and Farrell praised Hugh’s innovations in evolving the idioms of blues and jazz into poetic verse and reinvigorating the genre all together. Music had now functioned as an expressive medium within this movement as the Afro American communities were beginning to redefine themselves and the music created a common bond amongst them. This recognition had ventured beyond the realms of the Afro-American community as it encapsulated the attention of all sections of mainstream society. Hughes recognized the power of music in uniting the different races, but called for this cultural respect to go far beyond simple interracial meetings during the night. Davies explores Hughes admiration for the region of Harlem as it became a new world filled with energy and excitement comparing it to a “never land of Jazzonia”. However, Harlem’s exuberance was restricted to the night life, as during the rise of dawn it fell back in upon itself exhibiting the bland and bleak nature of area, full of its tensions within social and economic problems. Hugh’s offers an insight into this characterisation of Harlem, describing the phenomenon of the Renaissance as “When Negro was in Vogue”, drawing attention to the importance of night live entertainment for the majority of Afro-Americans as means of gaining agency over their lives. Hence, Hughes through his writing explored how the development and growth of nightlife had played a profound role in the shaping of the Harlem experience, where this music and dance gave