Youtube Mother to Son Poem by Langston Hughes Reading
| The Weary Blues | |
|---|---|
| by Langston Hughes | |
| Showtime published in | 1925 |
| State | United States |
| Linguistic communication | English |
| Genre(s) | African-American poetry Jazz poetry |
| Publisher | Urban League magazine |
| Read online | The Weary Blues at Wikisource |
"The Weary Dejection" is a verse form past American poet Langston Hughes. Written in 1925,[one] "The Weary Blues" was first published in the Urban League magazine, Opportunity. It was awarded the magazine's prize for all-time poem of the yr. The poem was included in Hughes'southward commencement book, a drove of poems, also entitled The Weary Dejection.[2] (4 poems from the volume, although not the title poem, inspired the musical settings "Four Songs from The Weary Dejection" past Florence Price).[3]
The Weary Blues
Droning a drowsy syncopated melody,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Downward on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale irksome pallor of an one-time gas calorie-free
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 fabricated that poor pianoforte 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'south soul.
O Blues!
In a deep vocal voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
"Own't got nobody in all this globe,
Ain't got nobody but ma cocky.
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 so 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 nighttime he crooned that melody.
The stars went out and and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept similar a rock or a man that'south dead.[iv]
Background [edit]
Langston Hughes was known as 1 of the most prominent and influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance, a rebirth move of African Americans in the arts during the 1920s. He wrote near the world around him, giving a voice to African Americans during a time of segregation. Hughes was both a contributor and supporter of his fellow African-American writers. Collectively, they inverse the way the world viewed African Americans because of their talents and ability to capture existent life and turn information technology into art.
Hughes wrote of inequality ("I, Too"), of resilience ("Mother to Son" and "The Negro Speaks of Rivers"), of pride ("My People"), of promise ("Freedom's Plow"), and of music ("The Trumpet Player" and "Juke Box Honey Song"). He was the writer of several novels, a memoir, song lyrics, children'south books, plays, countless songs and more than 20 books.
"The Weary Dejection" takes place at an one-time Harlem bar on Lenox Avenue. There is a pianoforte player playing the dejection. Every bit he plays, the speaker observes his body movement and the tone of his vocalization. Throughout the poem, several literary devices are used to guide the reader through the mixture of emotions the blues player is feeling. The vivid imagery and utilise of language gives the reader a more personal glimpse into the life of the man playing the blues.[ citation needed ]
Theme and literary devices [edit]
Langston Hughes wrote "The Weary Blues" in 1925 during Prohibition and the Harlem Renaissance. The setting of the poem is really unclear, at offset. However, as it goes on information technology is obvious the speaker is in a bar, or was. The speaker is telling a story. He starts past setting the mood with an alliteration, "droning a drowsy syncopated tune / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon". The narrator wants his listener and reader to get a feel for the story he is near to tell. He wants people to know that he enjoyed the experience. However, his tone is unhurried and nonchalant, similar he merely happened to stumble across "the tune o' those Weary Dejection." He was in a bar that provided amusement. In one case the speaker finishes his rendition of the musician's song, the setting changes. At the cease of the poem, the reader ends up in the musician's home.
"The Weary Dejection" is written in free verse; notwithstanding, all the lines that are not lyrics to the Weary Blues are rhyming couplets: "Downwardly on Lenox Avenue the other dark / Past the pale dull pallor of an old gas lite." Night and light rhyme simply like melody-croon, key-tune, stool-fool and all the other couplets. The rhymes are non perfect, merely when read out loud the rhyme scheme is pleasing to the ear. It is also worth noting that the poem ends with three rhyming lines: "the singer stopped playing and went to bed / While the Weary Blues echoed through his head / He slept like a stone or a man that'southward dead." The last three lines are a finite decision. The residual of the verse form builds and builds until its end.
The music in "The Weary Dejection" is a metaphor for life as a black man. The color in the verse form is symbolic of the black struggle. It starts with slave spirituals in which "slaves calculatingly created songs of double-entendre as an intellectual strategy"[v] as Hughes does in his verse form. When he says, "I heard a Negro play" he is making the musician incomparably black. The lines "with his ebony hands on each ivory key / He fabricated that poor piano moan with melody" continues the reference to color, and decidedly differentiates blackness from white. Hughes personifies the pianoforte with a humanly moan, but the moan also indicates his abuse of the "ivory key" and the "melancholy tone" of the music.
However, the poem is a celebration of blues. In lines eleven, fourteen and xvi there are apostrophes to the blues. "O Dejection!" and "Sweet Blues" are the speaker'southward exclamations of delight. He only cannot contain himself when information technology comes to the blues. He even notices the musician enjoying the music and adds the onomatopoeia of a "thump, thump, thump." The Weary Blues is an enjoyable poem and song, yet its message is one of sadness.
Reception [edit]
"The Weary Blues" is one of Hughes's virtually famous poems. Critics have claimed that the verse form is a combination of blues and jazz with personal experiences.[6] It embodies blues as a metaphor and form. It has also been coined as one of the kickoff works of dejection performance in literature.[6] Throughout the poem, music is seen as non only a course of art and entertainment, but as well as a manner of life: people living the blues. Hughes'due south power to comprise poetry with music and history with art has given him the reputation as i of the leading black artists of the 20th century.[7] "The Weary Blues" allows the reader to seek to unlock the mystery of the blues, for both the musician and themselves.
Langston Hughes boring jams "The Weary Blues" (1925) to jazz accompaniment with the Doug Parker Ring on the CBUT (CBC Vancouver) programme "The 7 O'Clock Prove" in 1958. Host, Bob Quintrell introduces the operation.[viii]
References [edit]
- ^ Hughes, Langston. "(James) Langston Hughes." Gale Database Gimmicky Authors (2003): Web. November 13, 2010.
- ^ Knapp, James F. "Langston Hughes." The Norton Anthology of Poesy. www.wwnorton.com, n.d. Web. Nov fifteen, 2010.
- ^ John Michael Cooper. "Four Songs from The Weary Blues". wisemusicclassical.com . Retrieved 10 March 2021.
- ^ Langston Hughes (May 1925). "The Weary Blues". Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life. p. 143.
- ^ McInnis, C Liegh. Review of Goose egg only Beloved in God'southward Waters: Volume ane: Black Sacred Music from the Civil War to the Ceremonious Rights Movement, by Robert Darden. Southern Quarterly, vol. 52, no. ii, 2015, pp. 192–195.
- ^ a b Wall, Cheryl A. (1997). "A Note On 'The Weary Blues'". Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry. 3: ii–6.
- ^ I, Too, Sing America. Langston Hughes. Vol. 1 (1902-1941). Magill Volume Reviews. 1990.
- ^ "Langston Hughes - "The Weary Blues" on CBUT, 1958" – via www.youtube.com.
External links [edit]
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The full text of The Weary Blues at Wikisource - Rebecca Gross, "Jazz Poetry & Langston Hughes", Fine art Works Blog, April xi, 2014, with 1958 clip of Langston Hughes reading "The Weary Blues"
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weary_Blues
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