HOME » WORKSHOPS » POETRY » LANGSTON HUGHES, "THE WEARY BLUES" » READING

Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues"

BIOGRAPHY

Reading » Re-Reading » Explorations

Reading Questions

Text on p. 1175 of the full Ninth Edition and p. 919 of the shorter Ninth Edition.

5

10

15

20

25

30

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.

Reading Questions

1. Read the poem aloud or, better yet, listen to it read by Langston Hughes himself (accompanied by the great jazz musician Charles Mingus). How does the rhythm of the poem make you feel? Find specific words or sounds that you think help create the rhythm.

2. In this poem and many others, Hughes refers to the musical form known as "the blues." Have you ever heard a recording of the blues, or a live performance such as the one described in this poem? If so, what are the ways in which this poem reminds you of "the blues"? What does it mean to "have the blues" as an emotional state? How might the term "the blues" in this sense relate to the poem?

3. Why do you think Hughes entitled this poem "The Weary Blues" rather than something like "Harlem Blues" or "Piano Man Blues"? What does it mean to be "weary," physically and mentally? In an era before the American Civil Rights Movement, what social and economic conditions might have contributed to the sense of weariness expressed by the musician?

4. The musician in the poem sings, "Ain't got nobody in all this world, Ain't got nobody but ma self." Are there any clues as to why he feels this way? Have you ever felt this way?

Icon Directory
In The Portable Intro to Literature
In The Seagull Reader
In Portable & The Seagull Reader