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The Weary Blues

The weary blues is a poem by Langston Hughes. It portrays the difficult times experienced by the black Americans and their inability to find joy and satisfaction within American society. Therefore, for this artist, the best way to express their emotions and what they feel is through music. It was a performance of blues music in Lenox avenue in Harlem. The poem uses free verse and mimics the tone of the blues music as well as its form. It is dated 1925 when the Harlem renaissance was in place. This was when black American and African American music was gaining popularity and acceptance in the United States to a great extent. Therefore this paper discusses this pome from an analytical point of view.

In its first line, the author states that the music is syncopated and drowsy. This means that the accents, the beat, and the poem’s rhyme do not follow each other intentionally. The lazy sway to and fro from his rickety stool creates a disturbing image for the reader because it displays and how disturbed the player was and how he wanted to express himself through the music. The first few lines establish a single speaker. The speaker is likely a member of the audience at this point. The pome also mentions the geographical location of the setting of the pome, which is a known haven for jazz music and blues. This means, therefore, the performer is in the right place, and he not only performs because it is blues but also performs to express his central theme in the poem, which is the fact that he is a black man and his worries and problems are very many (Davis, 279).

‘He did a lazy sway,’ this is a line which the author repeats twice, and it means that the performer was in performance at this particular point. Not just performance, the performer might have been overwhelmed by his black nature and how society was unfair to him. Therefore, instead of continuing with the music, he finds himself unable to sing as his mind is fixed on one thing only.’ In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone, this verse is used to portray the beauty of the music as the performer makes the piano moan in musical beats backing up his performance to a great deal. Therefore, the beauty of the piece is used to express the deep secrets and feelings of the performer as he states that he got nobody to tell his troubles. This, therefore, means that it is still the issue of segregation in society and that black Americans are not that much valued.

He clearly states that he puts his troubles on the shelf and saves his energy from telling people who do not care. He says that he only got himself, and he has got no one to share his problems and be a part of. This is very sad, and it shows how black Americans are treated and how society had become cruel by not listening to its own but at the same time listening to the musical performance and enjoying it.

‘Thump, thump, thump’ portrays how his performance goes along with his many vocals and instruments as he fits them together in the music perfectly and brings out a rhythm. This last part of the poem still stresses the person’s issue is not accepted and not even accepting himself due to the lack of appreciation by the rest of the world. Therefore the poem ends with bitterness and darkness. He states that he got nobody except the weary blues, and even with the weary blues, he cannot be satisfied. He even wishes he was dead, and in this, the reader realizes the depression which has been with the person represented in the poem.

The poem ends with the disappearance of the moon and the stars. The stars are the first to get lost while the moon follows. This, therefore this means that darkness is the whole story of this person. He is in the dark, whereby society does not understand him and has not accepted him as part of it. With the darkness and lack of vision as portrayed, the performer gets tired not only physically but also in his soul’s spirit and has to rest. The sleeping may signify death, as he mentioned earlier that he wishes to die. Therefore with society not accepting him and darkness roaming around him, he might stop singing and have a rest as he dies. However, this can also mean that it is a night of normal sound sleep.

Works Cited

Davis, Arthur P. “The Harlem of Langston Hughes’ Poetry.” Phylon (1940-1956) 13.4 (1952): 276-283.

Hughes, Langston. The weary blues. Knopf, 2015.