Student Question
What features of modernism can be identified in "The Weary Blues"?
Quick answer:
Langston Hughes's poem "The Weary Blues" exhibits the modernist features of experimentation with forms and styles, a focus on the individual, incorporation of imagery and symbolism, and an exploration of the theme of alienation.
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 instance, to create their own forms, and they play with words and phrases. Second, modern poets often focus on the individual and his or her personal thoughts. Third, modern poets tend to delve deeply into imagery and symbolism. Fourth, modern poets often explore the theme of alienation, how people are cut off from each other and the world. These are only a few of the features of modernism, but they are characteristics we see in Langston Hughes' poem “The Weary Blues.”
Hughes certainly experiments with forms and styles in this poem. Look at its form. It contains only two stanzas with uneven line lengths, some of only two syllables (like “Sweet Blues!” or...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
“O Blues!” in lines 11, 14, and 16). Hughes repeats phrases: “He did a lazy sway.” (lines 6–7). He incorporates a song within his song, quoting two sections of the musician's song in it originaldialect, which adds a variation in style that captures the scene better than a mere description.
Notice, too, how Hughes focuses on an individual, the musician playing his heart out. The poet describes him and his music in great detail, how he rocks back and forth in a “lazy sway” (lines 2 and 6), how he “made that poor piano moan with melody” (line 10), how he sang in a deep voice, how his song came all the way from the depths of his soul, even how he went home to bed. Yes, the poem concentrates strictly on this one man and his music.
Hughes also incorporates imagery and symbolism into his poem. Look at line 10: “He made that poor piano moan with melody.” The piano is personified here, and we get the idea that the musician is hurting it somehow, or at least stretching it, so that it moans with melody. The musician himself seems to moan like the piano, for his voice has a “melancholy tone” (line 17). Could Hughes be suggesting that the moan of the piano and the melancholy of the musician symbolize the trials of Black people?
Finally, Hughes explores the theme of alienation in this poem. The musician is by himself. We know that the speaker is in the audience, but no one else is mentioned. We get the idea that the musician isn't even aware of the audience, only of his music. He seems cut off from everyone else, caught up in his melancholy, singing from his soul, expressing himself rather than entertaining others. Then, at the end of the night, he goes home to bed and sleeps “like a rock or a man that's dead” (line 35). His alienation is complete, for he separated even from his consciousness and his music.
References