"Hold fast to dreams. for when dreams go,life is a barren field frozen with snow."
Langston Hughes
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night 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. With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody. O Blues! Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. Sweet Blues! Coming from a black man’s soul. O Blues! In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan— “Ain’t got nobody in all this world, Ain’t got nobody but ma self. I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’ And put ma troubles on the shelf.” Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor. He played a few chords then he sang some more— “I got the Weary Blues And I can’t be satisfied. Got the Weary Blues And can’t be satisfied— I ain’t happy no mo’ And I wish that I had died.” And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed While the Weary Blues echoed through his head. He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead. In the poem entitled The Weary Blues, Hughes utilizes free verse; however, the “music” of the poem comes from how the rhythm can fall in and out of patterns. For instance, in the longer parts of the poem, the lines seem to have pauses in the middle.The rhyme scheme that Hughes utilizes in the poem, reminds me of blues songs.In the poem, Hughes has two lines rhyme and then then third is sometimes repeated, which is the typical blues form. Also, the rhythm is also in Blues form. This helps the poem to feel like a real Blues song.Moreover, the poem does not follow a steady pattern.Many of the lines are not song lyrics. Lastly, the last three rhyming lines build up to the conclusion, which was “He did a lazy sway.” This allows the poem to have a sense of closure and for the reader to get the idea of what a man would do if he was singing the blues.
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October 2014
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