The Blues of Hughes
In “The Weary Blues” Langston Hughes gives a very detail description of a black musician in Harlem of Manhattan using imagery. The poem has a mournful tone and tempo of blues. Knowing that The Blues is a musical type invented and propagated by African Americans which relates to slave spirituals, we can imply this poem may maintain some type of racism. By looking deeper in the poem and analyzing the lexicon of the words we, the audience, will realize that the theme of this poem goes hand in hand between racism and deep pain.
The deep pain and the sad mood are present in the whole poem. In the second line the author states, “Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,” (Hughes 2) meaning that the musician is drunk and can barely stay. Knowing the story of black people during the Harlem Renaissance we can tell the musician is drunk because he does not have any purpose in life anymore. Hughes sets the setting of the poem and gives a better image of it when he writes, “Down on Lenox Avenue the other night/ By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light” (Hughes 4,5). This dark place with low lights not only gives a brief description of the poem’s setting, but also represents the musician’s soul, a gloomy and unhappy place. “Ain’t got nobody in this all world, / Ain’t got nobody but ma self,” (Hughes 19, 20) identifies the musician’s gloomy outlook and loneliness. Followed by lines 28 and 29, “And can’t be satisfied- /I ani’t happy no mo,’” it reflects the Negro’s depression, deep pain, and that he has lose his purpose of living. The use of simile, “He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead,” (Hughes 35) supports one of the themes of the poem, deep pain. By comparing the musician with a rock and a dead man, Hughes implies that the negro is a dead-living person. Even though his body is alive, his soul is dead and hopeless.
The poet expresses African-Americans’ struggles through songs and music, and we can see it since the first line, “Droning a drowsy syncopated tune” (Hughes 1). The music is not rhythmical and fluent. Throughout the poem we see several lines maintaining racism tone. “I heard a Negro play,” (Hughes 3) gives an underrating mood, and it makes sense now why the music is syncopated. “He made that poor piano moan with melody,” (Hughes 10) is another example of racism because it shows how the musician is making the piano’s amazing melody moan. This is best supported by Bolton on her essay, when she states, “Usually a piano makes a calming and beautiful sound, but the main character of the poem makes the piano have a dejected sound.” The poet also implies that the black musician is playing without rhythm and he is making the song sound like a “musical fool” (Hughes 13). Another evidence supporting the main idea of the poem, racism, is line 9, “With his ebony hands on each ivory key” (Hughes 9). The discrimination and separation between black and white during the Harlem Renaissance are made clear in this line because ivory keys are white, and the hands of the musician are dark.
Using imagery and lexicon, Hughes expresses the themes of “The Weary Blues,” racism and deep pain. The author shows the disappointments, difficulties, and the African- Americans’ way of living. Also, it shows how the musician changes his anger and sadness into his music and doesn’t choose violence by giving a universal message, no matter what you’re going through or how gloomy your life is, violence is never the right choice.
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