The Weary Blues

The final line of Langston Hughes’s famous poem “The Weary Blues” describes the sleep of the bluesman depicted throughout the rest of the poem: He slept like a rock or a man that's dead. (35)...

This is an excellent question, since it suggests (correctly) that changing even one word in a work can significantly alter the impact of that work. Langston Hughes’ decision to give his poem the...

Let's begin by reviewing a few of the features of modernism as they apply to poetry. First, modern poets experiment with forms and styles. They break out of older modes, like the sonnet for...

Langston Hughes was an African-American poet who played an important role in the Harlem Renaissance. Much of Hughes' poetry is about the difficulties faced by African-Americans in that time period...

I think that Hughes employs a variety of images in the poem to show the complex nature of freedom. The piano player, in his own right, is shown to have freedom. Yet, this freedom is not entirely...

In Langston Hughes's "The Weary Blues," the speaker describes a blues singer who sings a song about how he "Ain’t got nobody in all this world, / Ain’t got nobody but ma self." While the speaker's...

Langston Hughes is the greatest poet of the Harlem Renaissance. His poems, especially "Dreams" and "Harlem," are often anthologized in high school literature textbooks. At the time Hughes was...

This complex poem equates the narrator's personal experience with the blues singer's experience and universalizes their mutual experience to generalize to that of African Americans collectively....

Blues poetry typically is comprised of a stylized representation of blues music, meaning it echoes some traits of musical forms and themes while also introducing particularly literary elements....

For writing to be viewed as poetry, it must include a variety of characteristics such as rhyming. Aware of poetic characteristics, Hughes uses a variety of literary devices in his poem "The Weary...

Langston Hughes believed in creating black art. In his famous essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" he argued it's impossible to separate the artist from his or her art, so literature,...

Blues music has its roots in African American music of the South and was greatly influenced by slave work songs and spirituals. Beginning around the end of slavery, Blues lyrics often tell of...

Published in 1926, Langston Hughes 's first book of poetry was entitled The Weary Blues. Blues music is directly related to the African-American experience as the blues burgeoned from the work...

First, he chooses descriptive words and phrases that provide a melancholy and tedious tone to represent his somber and often pessimistic view of the America he has experienced. In the first 12...

Langston Hughes' poem “The Weary Blues” is about the emotional anguish of an old blues singer/piano player. To look at why he uses the term “moan” in connection with the singer's piano, we have to...

Diction is the way an author or poet uses words. In “The Weary Blues” hues uses the words to create the impression of blues music. In the beginning of the poem, the rhythm seems to match the croon...

This poem, written in 1923, is about an African American jazz musician who is playing and singing in a nightclub. The speaker of the poem is observing the singer, noting how physically tired or...

The narrative voice of "The Weary Blues" is in the first person. The narrator describes the events s/he experiences, but does not give us any detailed self-description. There are a few possible...

There are some clues in "The Weary Blues." One set tells how the narrator relates to the singer/musician and the song "Weary Blues." Another set tells facts about the singer/musician's life. While...

The musician in Langston Hughes’ poem “The Weary Blues” seems to feel lonely and isolated. Several clues suggest why he may feel this way. Among those clues are the following: In line 3, the...

Truthfully, the only way to know why Langston Hughes titled his famous poem "The Weary Blues" would be to ask him. Given that we no longer have that option, your opinion is as good as mine....

Langston Hughes’ poem “The Weary Blues,” which is set in an era before the Civil Rights Movement, implies a number of reasons for the weariness of the musician. Those reasons include the...

In his poem, "The Weary Blues," Langston Hughes places his piano player on Lennox Avenue (which is now named Malcolm X Boulevard). Lennox Avenue is considered by Hughes in his poem as the heartbeat...