The weary blues by langston hughes theme. Analysis of The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes 2019-02-09

On Weary

He can't dance, He can't sing, But Lawdy, how he can play that thing! The Negro is sitting on an old, half broken stool. GradeSaver, 8 February 2014 Web. Help me to shatter this darkness, To smash this night, To break this shadow Into a thousand lights of sun, Into a thousand whirling dreams Of sun! DuBois, Hughes's work calls attention to his characters' strength, endurance, and the purity of their souls. Like the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, its significance has become i One of the great literary debuts of the 20th Century, The Weary Blues was first published in 1926. Here we can see another connection to Sonny's Blues. The stars and the moon go out. I have almost forgotten my dream.

The Weary Blues

His black hands press the ivory keys of a worn out piano. He already had many life experiences which he reflected in his poetry. Lenox Avenue: A Journal of Interarts Inquiry. Midnight, And the gods are laughing at us. The fifth line of the poem adds to the eerie feeling cultivated.

On Langston Hughes's The Weary Blues

Poetry uses very specific vocabulary and plays with sororities that are foreign to the reader. His song is worn out as his soul is by pain. Copyright © 1984 by Michael Cooke. On November 21, 1991, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1991. Music Music, particularly blues and jazz, permeates 's oeuvre. Introduction Thesis Langston Hughs viewed the music of the blues and poetry as kindred forces that propelled the downtrodden blacks of the 1920s and 1930s toward a better day. The Blues, a type of jazz, also follows this similar style.

Essay about The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

From Afro-American Literature in the Twentieth Century: The Achievement of Intimacy. Hughes embraced blues music because it expressed the worries of the common man in a simple and direct manner. As I have aged, I have found that I enjoy reading literature for both recreation and as a learning experience. This poem is about the strong will of the lower class African Americans. The poems were deeply musical and exquisitely sad.

On Weary

To the onlooker, he seemed like an musical fool. By invoking the musical traditions of slaves, Hughes connects himself to the painful history of African Americans. Here his identity is in conflict with the racist environment that prevails. The contrast of the 'm' and 'p' sounds highlights this very well. Democracy implies free and equal representation of people; in more concrete language, it implies free and equal right of every single soul to participate in a system of government, which was nonexistent to blacks at the juncture due to the Jim Crow laws. In these lines, the musical quality of the poem is already evident.

Analysis of The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

Moreover, there was also a rhyme scheme that was effective to the poem and is linked to the form of Blues as well. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, Knopf, 1930 won the Harmon gold medal for literature. Hughes attended Central High School in Cleveland, Ohio, but began writing poetry in the eighth grade, and was selected as Class Poet. Where his play is vivid, sure, superior, what he sings is all depression and defeat:. For many of Hughes's characters, the American Dream is completely unattainable.

The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

He comprehends that the reason he is disregarded is because he lacks something. Freedom and equality summarize the entire poem, for that is what Hughes wanted at the time - basic entitlement for one and for all. A third shows the transcendence through racial stereotype into lyrical style. During the 20s and 30s, writings by African-Americans about black identity and culture proliferated. In the poem Dreams by Langston Hughes, Hughes explores the ideathat without dreams, life is without meaning. Both genres of music express themes of deep pain, although blues songs often address a lost or wayward lover.

Essay about The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

The poem is a fitting opening not only to this volume, but to all of Hughes's volumes. With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody. These are big, messy human poems. Although the aforementioned poems use music as a theme, the poets both speak in first person to inform the reader who is telling the story. Hughes expresses the power of dreams in different ways throughout his work.