The Weary Blues: What Formal Qualities Does the Poem Share With
Contents
The Weary Blues is a poem by Langston Hughes that shares many formal qualities with the blues genre of music. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of those qualities and how they contribute to the poem’s overall effect.
Introduction
The Weary Blues is a poem by Langston Hughes. The poem was first published in 1926, in the magazine Crisis. It is written in free verse, with a Jazz AAB rhyme scheme. The speaker of the poem is a musician, who is playing the blues in a nightclub. The poem is about the feeling of sadness and loneliness that the blues can bring.
The poem has a number of formal qualities which are common to Jazz poetry. These include:
-A loose structure
-Simple language
-Rhyme and repetition
-A focus on emotions
The Weary Blues is a classic example of Jazz poetry, and its formal qualities help to create the feeling of sadness and loneliness that is central to the poem.
“The Weary Blues” is a poem by Langston Hughes. The poem was first published in 1926 in a collection of poems called The Weary Blues. The poem is written in free verse and has no set rhyme scheme. The poem is about a jazz musician who is playing the blues. The poem shares some formal qualities with the blues genre of music.
Themes
The Weary Blues addresses the theme of music as a form of expression and a tool for dealing with sadness and loneliness. The poem also touches on the topics of race and poverty.
The poem is written in the first person, and the speaker is a black man living in Harlem. He is feeling down and out, and he turns to music as a way to lifted up his spirits. He goes to a club, where he hears a blues singer performing. The singer’s voice and playing make the speaker feel better, and he is able to forget his troubles for a little while.
The poem is written in free verse, and it employs repetition, meter, and rhyme as formal elements. The poem also makes use of blues conventions such as the call-and-response format and the use of blue notes.
Imagery
Duke makes use of several images in “The Weary Blues.” The most prevalent image is that of the night, or more specifically, the moon. The first stanza contains the lines “It’s a lowdown blues / Makes me hang my head and moan.” These images effectively set the tone of the poem and establish the speaker’s mood.
In addition to the images of the night and the moon, Duke also employs the image of light in order to contrast the darkness of the poem’s tone. In the second stanza, he writes, “I got t’hold my pillow tight / So I won’t go flowin’ down.” This image provides a moment of hope in an otherwise bleak poem.
Symbolism
In the poem “The Weary Blues,” the formal qualities of symbolism, meter, and rhyme combine to create a musical atmosphere that reflects the mood of the poem. The weary blues of the title represent the speaker’s feelings of fatigue and despair, which are echoed in the poem’s heavy use of black imagery. The light blue of the opening line is a contrast to this, symbolizing hope or perhaps the memory of happier times. The repeated use of blue throughout the poem reinforces this contrast.
The poem is written in iambic pentameter, with each line containing five iambic feet. This creates a slow, steady rhythm that reinforces the sad and weary tone of the poem. The rhyme scheme of the poem also adds to its musical quality. Every other line rhymes, creating a kind of call-and-response effect that makes the poem sound like a blues song.
Figurative Language
The Weary Blues makes use of several examples of figurative language. One example is personification, which is when an inanimate object is given human qualities. An example of this can be found in the line “the piano moaned” (1). This creates a feeling of sadness and helps the reader to connect with the emotions that the speaker is experiencing.
Another form of figurative language present in the poem is simile. A simile is when two things that are not alike are compared using the words “like” or “as.” One example of a simile in The Weary Blues is “His eyes was closed and his head was bare” (4). This comparison between the man and a flower creates a vivid image for the reader.
The final form of figurative language present in The Weary Blues is metaphor. A metaphor is when two things that are not alike are compared without using the words “like” or “as.” One example of a metaphor in The Weary Blues is “And it hangs my head with a melody” (6). This comparison helps the reader to understand how the music makes the speaker feel.
Sound
Like many blues songs, “The Weary Blues” is written in a minor key and uses the characteristic blue note. The poem also employs repetition, another common feature of the blues. NAACP co-founder W. E. B. Du Bois once wrote that the blues is “sorrowful and tragic…and yet full of hard, defiance.” This feeling of defiance is present in “The Weary Blues,” as the speaker expresses his weariness with the world but refuses to give in to it.
Form and Structure
Langston Hughes’s “The Weary Blues” is a short poem, consisting of three stanzas of four lines each. The poem does not follow a regular rhyme scheme, but there is some half-rhymING throughout, especially in the first two stanzas. For example, “blues” and “lose,” “night” and “quite,” and “Droning” and “moaning.” The poem also employs repetition for effect, as seen in the repetition of the word “blues” in the first two lines of each stanza, and in the repeated use of the phrases “I got the weary blues” and “I got dem blues.”
Conclusion
The Weary Blues shares many formal qualities with traditional blues music, including its 3-line stanza structure, its focus on personal emotions, and its use of blue notes. Additionally, like many blues songs, The Weary Blues features a character who is weary from the burdens of life. This poem captures the feeling of blues music perfectly, and its ability to do so is due in large part to its adherence to traditional blues structure and themes.
