The Weary Blues Poem Explication

Blues is one of the most captivating genres of music. The genre was originated in the late 1800’s as a method used by African American slaves to express the circumstances as well as to put emphasis on their feelings and emotions. In order to create these feelings in this music, blues artists incorporate many of the same techniques used to write poetry. One of the most easily identifiable songs in which it is easy to see the relation between poetic elements and blues music is the song “Empty Bed Blues” by Bessie Smith.

The well known poet Langston Hughes was an inspiring character during the Harlem Renaissance to provide a push for the black communities to fight for the rights they deserved. Hughes wrote his poetry to deliver important messages and provide support to the movements. When he was at a young age a teacher introduced him to poets Carl Sandburg and Walt Whitman, and they inspired him to start his own. Being a “darker brother,” as he called blacks, he experienced and wanted his rights, and that inspired him. Although literary critics felt that Langston Hughes portrayed an unattractive view of black life, the poems demonstrate reality. Hughes used the Blues and Jazz to add effect to his work as well as his extravagant word use and literary

Langston Hughes was the leading voice of African American people in his time, speaking through his poetry to represent blacks. His Influence through his poems are seen widely not just by blacks but by those who enjoy poetry in other races and social classes. Hughes poems, Harlem, The Negro speaks of rivers, Theme for English B, and Negro are great examples of his output for the racial inequality between the blacks and whites. The relationship between whites and blacks are rooted in America's history for the good and the bad. Hughes poems bring the history at large and present them in a proud manner. The injustice that blacks face because of their history of once being in bondage is something they are constantly reminded and ridiculed for but must overcome and bring to light that the thoughts of slavery and inequality will be a lesson and something to remember for a different future where that kind of prejudice is not found so widely.

Langston Hughes was one of the great writers of his time. He was named the “most renowned African American poet of the 20th century” (McLaren). Through his writing he made many contributions to following generations by writing about African American issues in creative ways including the use of blues and jazz. Langston Hughes captured the scene of Harlem life in the early 20th century significantly influencing American Literature. He once explained that his writing was an attempt to “explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America” (Daniel 760). To fulfill this task, he wrote 15 volumes of poetry, six novels, three books, 11 plays, and a variety of non-fiction work (Daniel 760). He also edited over 50 books in his time (McKay).

The Harlem Renaissance was a time of revival and awakening in which the African American community produced a new form of cultural identity. After years of oppression and slavery, African Americans struggled to discover their own distinctive culture. It was through the literature and artistry of the Harlem Renaissance that the African American community began to express the suffering and resentment they truly experienced. In addition, the movement allowed them to find a way to escape their hardships. James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” and Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” address the addiction, poverty, and violence that surrounded African Americans and the triumph of life that was captured in their attempt to escape the suffering.

The Weary Blues, written by Langston Hughes and published in 1926, won Hughes his first poetry prize. Hughes is a well-known African American poet who often wrote about the struggles for African Americans during the Harlem Renaissance, he uses figurative language in the poem to describe loneliness and despair, and the relationship between the speaker and performer, in order to make the reader better understand the blues.

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.

Writing during the emergence of the “New Negro” movement, Claude McKay and Langston Hughes work to reconcile black life in white America. The trope used by the two poets within “The Harlem Dancer” and “The Weary Blues” is that of a performance and a single speaker’s recollection of it. While both depict an African-American performer presumably consumed by the isolation and oppression of their condition, the intensity of the performances prove to be vastly disparate. Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” features a much more transcendent performance than that of McKay’s “The Harlem Dancer” not only because of the relationship between the audience and the performer, but the degree of ubiquity in descriptions of the performer and the poetic form through

Many writers and artist feel fold art would be the best to show racial pride. James Weldon Johnson used the seven Negro Sermons a Bible turns it into a poem. By the oral tradition this author shows the tradition, plus the culture of belief of what makes them African American. (Doc C) Another way of showing racial pride is through poems by Langston Hughes, he wrote “Home Sick Blues” and “Po’ Boy Blues”. Both of these poems have blues in common in the title. Blues is a musical form created by African American. The readers can feel a negative atmosphere in both of these poems “A terrible thing to have to keep from cryin’ “from “Home Sick Blues” and “I wish I’d never been born” from “PO’ Boy Blues”. It expresses racial pride by what they

For many Blacks, writing was a way to escape the realities of life when life was weary. The blues, for instance, were an open way to express feelings about sadness, hard times, and all the things that can happen when humans are unkind to another. The blues, like much of the Harlem Renaissance poetry, was filled with strong images of hatred, sexuality, and yet tenderness and a longing for a better time and better place. Perhaps better than any other music in history, the blues speaks about poverty and making ends meet, merging poetry with music to convey even more universal sadness (Wintz, 2007).

Langston Hughes is one the most renowned and respected authors of twentieth century America not simply one of the most respected African-American authors, though he is certainly this as well, but one of the most respected authors of the period overall. A large part of the respect and admiration that the man and his work have garnered is due to the richness an complexity of Hughes' writing, both his poetry and his prose and even his non-fictions. In almost all of his texts, Hughes manages at once to develop and explore the many intricacies and interactions of the human condition and specifically of the experience growing up and living as a black individual in a white-dominated and explicitly anti-Black society while at the same time, while at the same time rendering his human characters and their emotions in a simple, straightforward, and immensely accessible fashion. Reading the complexity behind the surface simplicity of his works is at once enjoyable and edifying.

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.

Johnson was not the only author of this period to portray the harsh realities of African American Life. Langston Hughes also contributed pessimistic literature. The Weary Blues and Who But The Lord? were both sorrowful poems that expressed the despair of the African American people. The Weary Blues told the story of a depressed African American who was singing the blues and playing the piano.

“The Weary Blues" is a poem by American poet Langston Hughes, written in 1926 which was during the Jazz age. The poem is a poet telling us about a piano player that is “the Negro”, he heard some time ago. This musician is singing about how, even though he's depressed, he's going to put his worries aside. But then as the poem evolves we gradually see that he loses hope and wishes that he was dead.

James Mercer Langston Hughes is one of the most prominent African American poets whose life history has influenced their works of art a great deal. That is, Hughes’ works of art are a reflection of his relationship with people since his childhood. The poet was raised in an environment where all people, regardless of their race, would associate as a family; therefore, Hughes’ articles empower the black race, but they do not make the whites appear bad (Hamilton; Langston Hughes 19). In fact, the artist stresses on racial unity through his poems and short stories, which is contrary to what some African American authors say about the relationship between the blacks and the whites (Hamilton). Henceforth, and analysis of Hughes’ social life would explain why the artist is quite unbiased about race.