"The Weary Blues" is a lyric poem with two voices. O Blues! For instance, in line 9 he talks of ebony hands that played the ivory keys because he is not ashamed of his color and brings it up in the poem. He made that poor piano moan with melody. The speaker matches his descriptive style with the style of the musician by shouting O Blues!, including the song lyrics in the poem, and by repeating the phrases of the musician. Explain.1) weary 2) syncopated, 3) drowsy, and 4) sweet. List two examples of personification. The musician was playing in a dim light coming from the old gas lamp. He also chose a lot of words that sound like what they describe. The poem does not provide any hint about the speaker. Complete the sentence in a way that shows you understand the meaning of the italicized vocabulary word. . (2022, June 7). June 7, 2022. https://studycorgi.com/the-weary-of-the-blues-by-langston-hughes/. And I Have You. Highlight the words or phrases describing sadness or defeat. She has transformed junk into animals and other recognizable forms. Like the lyrics of the Blues, Hughes poem tells a story. Hughes adjusts the syntax and spelling so as to represent the working-class African Americans speech. Langston Hughes beefs up the musicality by using a lot of internal and end rhyme, alliteration, consonance, and assonance. There are no words used in this piece that directly indicate sadness. Blues and jazz are all about expressing those complex emotions through sound and tone. D. There are many great reasons to adopt your dog from a local animal shelter or rescue group. All three words suggest lack of color and life. "The Weary Blues" W.E.B. "The Weary of the Blues by Langston Hughes." However, the poem deals with the pains and sufferings that the poet/singer experiences while making and playing this kind of painful music. What are the speakers asking of the reader in these lines from "In Flanders Fields"? (35) He slept like a rock or a man that's dead. The two different and contrasting voices in the poem represent the duality of the African American identity at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, black Americans moved to the North in search of freedom and economic opportunities. The duality of weariness and energy is confirmed in the closing lines of the poem. Line 5: "[P]ale dull pallor" continues the coded words. Hughes work represents African Americans condition using these words Coming from a black mans soul (Hughes 15). The singer stopped playing and went to bed. Hughes uses repetition to both create rhythm and to emphasize the bluesman's feeling of despair. This bluesman is swaying to and fro to the music, playing the piano like a "musical fool" and singing "from a black man's soul." The stanzas are repetitive, with lines resonating with each other. Read the excerpt from "The Weary Blues." He made that poor piano moan with melody. The blue singer lacks consolation. Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Tune | Course Hero SlidePlayer. He argues that while life is fleeting and impermanent, art is eternal and unchanging. (thirty thousand; $30,000). However, the irregularity in the poem is part of the poem as it aids the speaker to imitate the music and the improvisational feel of the blues. The mood of the poem is both downtrodden and energized. They will keep rising back up on the rickety stool and sing from their souls. It shows that the club does not have electricity. You might have come across poetry from back in the day that has lines that start "O Muse!" And then the music fades. The second decade of the twentieth century is a very tough time for black Americans. This pattern continues to form unpredictably throughout the poem. Hughes employed strong descriptive phrases and words throughout the poem. However, the music was still in his head. The Full Text of "The Weary Blues" 1 Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, 2 Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, 3 I heard a Negro play. The Weary Blues Poem Summary and Analysis | LitCharts . Poets are often seen as appealing to mon as it appears to be remote from their sufferings and struggles. The speaker is playing the piano in a pieces tone and makes it moan with melody.. Copyright 2016. assonance: This is the repetition of stressed vowel sounds in a series of words with different end consonants. Even though the poem and the lyrics are spoken from the perspective of the speaker, the voice of the blues singer is undoubtedly different. Both the lines Aint got nobody in all this world and Aint got nobody but myself express the loneliness of the singer. Coming from a black man's soul. Music is a metaphor for those abstract feelings that we just can't say straight out. "The Blues" style of music was invented and propagated by African Americans to show express their conditions through the arts. Langston Hughes employed these devices in the poem to effectively full the readers and listeners into the scene. In a nutshell, "The Weary Blues" is a poem about a musician that wears himself out by singing the blues. Our experts can deliver a The Weary of the Blues by Langston Hughes essay. Thus through the choice of words Hughes lets us hear the music that the musician was playing. Most of the poem has rhyming couplets. Thus, the poem passes the underlying message in Hughes work that exposes the plight of African Americans. Blues poetry draws inspiration from the call-and-response field songs of enslaved Africans and typically consists of a call line, repeat line, and response line. Hughes uses onomatopoeia and alliteration throughout the poem to fully express the impact that blues has had on the singer. Just like stars, the Moon is also a traditional symbol of beauty and hope. And can't be satisfied. Thus by telling us that the Negro was playing down the Lenox Avenue he shows us that he was playing in an area where the whites mainly lived that is downtown. What does life ain't been no crystal stair mean? Such creation of art drains and diminishes the artists who express and conduit such pains and sufferings. Langston Hughes used onomatopoeia in 'The Weary Blues' to imitate the sound of a tapping foot on the floor. . Because the musician represents the African American people, audiences know his mood means something bigger. Writers often use dialect to make their characters come alive. The black writers use art to express the injustices and racism prevailing in American communities. 1. Drag it to the empty box. Not long ago we were alive, but now we are dead and buried in Flanders fields. No matter how bad things get, they cannot be held back. The poem opens with a speaker who tells us about a singer, a black man who is playing a sleepy, ragged song. The simile suggests that the speaker is tired, and he sleeps very deeply. Poem analysis of Langston Hughes' The Weary Blues through the review of literary techniques, poem structure, themes, and the proper usage of quotes. The speaker feels the freedom to establish and then break the rhythm. Hughes, Langston. In this The Weary Blues analysis essay, you will find plenty of information about the poems literary devices, metaphors, and themes. LitPriest is a free resource of high-quality study guides and notes for students of English literature. The setting of this poem jumps around a bit without the reader knowing too much. How many credits do you need to graduate with a doctoral degree? Line 15: When many people think of a soul, they might think of heaven and white light and everything good, right? This bluesman is swaying to and fro to the music, playing the piano like a "musical fool" and singing . He is going to stop feeling sad and get out of the troubles he is facing. He started writing early in his life. Harlem is a black neighborhood in New York City. With the use of literary devices, texts become more appealing and meaningful. He fades away and sleeps like a dead. The speaker of the poem uses the symbol to show that the Blues singer is traveling in deep and unrelenting darkness, and he cannot find any way out. The Weary of the Blues by Langston Hughes. What are the names of the third leaders called? The title of the poem The Weary Blues captures the weariness that African Americans felt due to the struggles they had to go through in the society. In "In Flanders Fields," what does the poem's repetitive beat suggest? On the surface this seems like a particularly bleak closing imagebut it doesn't have to be. The tune is "melancholy" and speaks of the singer's loneliness and sadness with lines like, "Ain't got nobody but ma self" and "I ain't happy no mo'," yet the audience doesn't feel sorry for himit is energized. The Weary Blues. The blues reveal the singers life, which is also similar to the life of all the other African American. Even though the poem has irregularity and complexity, all of the varying rhyming schemes have the same purpose. a Study.com member to unlock this answer! They also wanted to affirm their humanity in the midst of racism. Therefore, the poem makes a strong, powerful, and implicit argument regarding blues being a cultural tradition. With all the hope and beauty that the moon symbolizes, it disappears from the life of the singer. For example, "great gaunt gut" and "crowd's" and "cut." . Blues, the form of music, developed in the South of America. Hughes also points out the injustices experienced by black people. It seems that Weary Blues is the name of the song the singer is singing. (2022) 'The Weary of the Blues by Langston Hughes'. What is the speaker doing in "The Weary Blues"? Do you get more time for selling weed it in your home or outside? It is the song that brings together the weariness of two strangers as they belong to the same race. These images help readers see how the blue singer moves. The opening words thump, thump, thump of the poem imitates the sound of the blues thing while he is pounding on the floor. The writer creates particular images in the poem through language. The speaker says that the musician repeatedly thumped on the floors; he played the chords on the piano and continued singing: I have the weary blues, and I cant be content. For instance, in the poem, the first two line repeats the same idea with a small difference. They all are lonely because of segregation, they are weary because of oppression, and they all are unsatisfied because of their position in society. Under the surface, the poem seems to say, all black people lament the shared exhaustion of generations of pain. However, the song does not have the same effect on the blues singer. Such creation of art drains and diminishes the artists who express and conduit such pains and sufferings. Definition. 1 / 27. playing sadly with feeling. The poem also documents the costs that black people pay for doing so. . The singer sleeps "like a rock or a man that's dead," meaning to the outside (white) world, he is suppressed. Other phrases that create sight and sound include "mellow croon" (line 2), "pale dull pallor" and "old gas light" (line 5), and "rickety stool" (line 12). However, the audience knows that the singer and the African American people cannot be written off. The blues musicians not only sing in a way as if they are in pain, but they also make their instruments sound melancholy and sad. Black writers, artists, and intellectuals, during the Harlem Renaissance, worked to express the complexities that black people experience while living in America. Hughes uses many allusions throughout the poem such as, Durham, Harlem, New York, Eighth Avenue, Bessie, and Bach. adopt, or should they shop? The speaker says that it was a lovely song that was coming from the black soul. However, the speaker says that the moon goes out (in line 32). He creates music that transports and transforms its listeners. (2022, June 7). if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'litpriest_com-large-mobile-banner-1','ezslot_10',113,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-litpriest_com-large-mobile-banner-1-0'); The poem is not only the description of the blues; the poem itself is written in the rhythm and form of blues music. O Blues! simile: Writers use this figure of speech to compare two unlike things using the words like or as. As you read "The Weary Blues," continue to cite text evidence. The poem implicitly rejects the Europeans or traditional white form of poetry and suggests that such forms are not necessary for the poems subject. Langston Hughes employs a number of poetic devices in "The Weary Blues" to create musicalityspecifically the feel and rhythm of blues musicand imagery in the poem. However, the song does not have the same effect on the blues singer. For example, in the line old piano moan: there is a repetition of o sound. The speaker also interrupts the praise phrases by saying, O Blues! and Sweet Blues.. They belonged to the manor at which they were born and could move or change jobs only if their lord gave permission. Similarly, the response to the call line Is gwine to quit ma frowning / And put ma troubles on the shelf also shows the loneliness of the singer. Rhyme. For instance, in line 21, Hughes drops the ending g in the word frownin. Attributing human qualities to non-living things is known as personification. In this quote, as well, Hughes expertly uses alliteration and assonance to help create his signature blues poetry style. The poem The Weary Blues is about the beauty and pain of black art. Alliteration is the repetition of a consonant sound. . The repetition of two or more words at the beginning of two or more lines in poetry is called anaphora. c. causing hunger to The music is lazy and relaxed, and the "dull pallor" of the lights suggests the vibrancy or vitality has been sucked from the roomthe mood becomes as "weary" as the singer himself. Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay. In the last five lines of the poem, the poet maintains the rhythm without any injection or interruption. Through singing blues, African Americans were expressing their identity. The poem expresses that like any of the European poetic traditions, blues is as sophisticated and expressive. He croons over his loneliness and resolves he will stop feeling sorry for himself. In The Weary Blues, Hughes reflects the elements of blues music in his poetic style. In the poem "Theme for English B" by Langston Hughes many Literary elements are being used and there is a meaning behind the poem. The Weary Blues, for the speaker provides a release from his troubles and the sufferings that he experiences as a black person living in a racist society. The poem was written by Langston Hughes in 1925 during the Harlem Renaissance, a period of time when African-American artists, musicians, and writers enjoyed appreciation and popular acceptance. . When they arrived in the cities like New York and Chicago, they were confined to segregated and overcrowded neighborhoods like Harlem in New York and Bronzeville in Chicago. Before getting a pet dog. This is suggestive of the cost that the singer pays because of his art. He mirrors the call-and-response songs sung by the enslaved Africans working or the fields in the South during the 19th century. With his ebony hands on each ivory key It was published in his collection, Love Poems, and Others, in 1913.The poem is about a man reminiscing about his childhood. First published in 1926, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the poem portrays American racism as experienced by a black man. anaphora: This technique repeats a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses to provide a rhetorical effect. Wordplay. It embodies blues as a metaphor and form. The speaker tries to share his experiences at a nightclub with the readers. is called a simile. The African Americans acknowledge the elasticity of putting their sufferings on the shelf and pushing it forward. Legacies. An Introduction to Langston Hughes. He says that his voice is very mournful that matches the tragic words. The Harlem Renaissance was the leading movement. Setting. The Weary Blues By Langston Hughes Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. He feels comfort to hear the sorrow transformed into a song. "The Weary Blues" is the title of a ragtime song that Artie Matthews wrote in 1915. A great many of the p "The Weary of the Blues by Langston Hughes." using sound devices to capture the music. Popularity of "Piano": "Piano" by David Herbert Lawrence, a great English poet and writer, is a lyrical poetic piece. In literature, alliteration, consonance, and assonance are creative techniques wherein a specific sound is repeated throughout a section of a text. By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light / He did a lazy sway. / He did a lazy sway. / To the tune o' those Weary Blues. However, the implication and the tone of the simile is a little darker. The poem is about a black piano player who performs a slow and sad blue song. He rather encourages and motivates the young black writer to adapt their own traditions and express [their] individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame just like he does in his poem The Weary Blues.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'litpriest_com-leader-2','ezslot_12',115,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-litpriest_com-leader-2-0'); The Weary Blues is about the performance of a black blues musician who is playing in a club in Harlem on Lenox Avenue. The blues singer speaks in the broken dialect of the working African Americans while the language of the speaker is polished, just like the voice of an educated man. Some parts of the poem have one rhyming scheme; some parts follow another rhyming scheme; while some parts of the poem do not have a rhyming scheme at all. They also bought their traditional work music with them. if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'litpriest_com-large-leaderboard-2','ezslot_8',111,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-litpriest_com-large-leaderboard-2-0'); The tension in the poem mirrors the creativity and oppression at the same time. The poem also documents the costs that black people pay for doing so. However, the speaker does not mention what he is communicating. 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. Which of these phrases from "Jazz Fantasia" contains an example of onomatopoeia? "The Weary Blues Study Guide." This pattern is repeated throughout the poem. White Lady. They developed a new language and new ways to make art that express the experiences of black people in a much better way. The reason why I felt that it was going to be intertwined with music and the . He tells the reader directly. Calling Card Writers are always supposed to write what they know. . Lines 23: "Thump, thump, thump" is an example of, Lines11 and 16: The speaker is calling out as if he was saying, "O Blues, why do you do this to me? Here are some examples of alliteration in literature: Example 1: The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. The Weary Blues Study Guide. In the first line of the poem The Weary Blues, the speaker says the music is syncopated and drowsy. Syncopated is a musical term that means that accents, beats, or rhythm of any work are intentionally misplaced. The poem The Weary Blues is directly part of Langstons project. 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