-Langton Hughes
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Langston Hughes’ Dates: born 1902., died 1967
He was met with racial discrimination in
college after being enrolled in Colombia
University and denied a dormitory room at in
1921.
Left Columbia after his first year due to
boredom which led to depression
Moved to Harlem where he became involved
in the Harlem Renaissance
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The Harlem Renaissance was a period during
the early twentieth century when black culture
thrived across the country.
The Harlem District of New York City,
predominantly African American, was the
“capital” of the movement.
Hughes’ poetry during this movement earned
him recognition as “The Poet Laureate of Black
America”.
Droning a drowsy (Alliteration) 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 (Imagery)
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 (Imagery)
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
(Personification)
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical
fool. (Enjambment)
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man's soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song (Allusion) 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, (Onomatopoeia) 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 BluesAnd 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.
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune
Sets up the overall melancholy mood of the poem
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
Imagery adds to the mood
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
Imagery and irony express the racial tensions of
the time
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
- “Deep Song” is probably an allusion to Hughes’
early poem “The Negro Speaks Rivers”
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Expresses feelings of marginalization that
many African Americans shared during the
20’s
An attempt to urge African Americans to
remember the richness of their culture by
alluding to “The Negro Speaks Rivers”
Hughes posits that while African Americans
are marginalized they can be lonely together
and form a community.
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“The alienation and despair offer a bitter
critique of black life in white America” (Wall
3).
“The poem depicts a black musician who plays
his song ironically on the piano’s white keys,
creating a heightened moment that purges him,
as well as the listener and reader from human
suffering” (Miller 7).
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Hughes, Langston. 1926. The Weary Blues. New
York: Knopf.
Miller, R. Baxter. “(James) Langston Hughes.”
American Poets, 1880-1945: Second Series. Ed. Peter
Quartermain. Detroit: Gale Research, 1986.
Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 48. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 16 Apr. 2013.
Wall, Cheryl A. “A Note on ‘The Weary Blues’”.
Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry Vol. 3.
Chicago: Center for Black Music Research –
Columbia College Chicago, 1997. JSTOR. Web. 24
Apr. 2013.