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

Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues"

BIOGRAPHY

Reading » Re-Reading » Explorations » Links

Re-reading Questions

Text on p. 1175 of the full Ninth Edition

5 10 15 20 25 30

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, [1] Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,      I heard a Negro play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night[2] 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. [3]      O Blues![4] 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. [5] 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.

Re-Reading Questions

Note: Some of these questions require extensive answers to explore them fully. Therefore, you may either use them as brief prompts for your own thinking about the poem after reading the study materials or explore them in a paper.

1. Re-read the poem slowly and pay particular attention to the highlighted words. Identify specific words that contribute to the musical quality of the poem. Notice the rhyme and repetition and consider how they help create the rhythm of the poem. Look for patterns of alliteration and assonance . How do these patterns contribute to the overall effect of the poem?

2. Identify which lines belong to the singer and which belong to the speaker of the poem. How does the language of the speaker compare to that of the singer? Might the speaker be imitating the tone and rhythm of the “blues”?

3. The last line of the poem is a simile . Why do you think Hughes chose to use the only simile of the poem here? Does the word “dead” recall any other words or images earlier in the poem? What effect does playing the blues have on the singer at the end of the night?

4. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Hughes wrote: “Jazz to me is one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America; the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul ¾ the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world, a world of subway trains, and work, work, work; the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed in a smile.” Both “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain” and “The Weary Blues” were written in 1926.

Does this statement relate to any themes you see in the poem? How might the social, political, and economic conditions of 1926 be relevant to the poem?

To better understand what Hughes meant, read the full version of his essay “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain.”

5. In “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Hughes also expressed his surprise at the questions readers asked about the subjects of his poetry. Do you have any questions that you wish you could ask Hughes? What expectations did you have about the subject matter of this poem that might have influenced how you read it? How would your expectations be different than those of a reader in 1926?

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