Casperson 1

Greg Casperson

Instructor Reynolds

English 102

3 May 2004

Langston Hughes: Master of Blues and Jazz

It is not at all ironic that a poet who loved his people the way Langston Hughes did should choose to pattern his poetry on the rhythms of blues and jazz which are “at the heart of the black American experience” (Magill 1433). The blues, taking their roots during slavery, developed as a way to heal the souls of the singers and have since come to symbolize the ability to survive through the unendurable by singing. Similar to the blues, jazz shares a black origin and also emerged as a key form of African American expression during the height of the Harlem Renaissance (Barksdale 20). By structurally patterning his poetry after blues and jazz, Hughes not only illuminates the African-American race, but also fully captures their suffering and joys. Hughes’s techniques have prompted many to call his poetry “the songs of their [African American’s] experience” (Winslow 249). The poem’s simple patterns and repetitive reinforcements provide, like no other literary form, an effective way to sing the songs of African-American life. These songs are informed by Hughes’s rough childhood and his exposure to the Harlem Renaissance, which motivated him to employ a unique form of writing that praised and explained the condition of his race.

Throughout Hughes’s childhood, he felt empty as a result of the lack of love and acceptance he received from his parents. At a young age, Hughes witnessed his father’s prejudice against not only Mexicans and Native Americans, but also African Americans (Jemie xxiv). His mother’s continual absence and frequent tendency to blame Hughes for her failures further instilled Hughes’s desire for acceptance. Through periodically living with his “Uncle” and “Auntie” Reed, Hughes developed a love for the African-American race and its dreams and aspirations. As a direct result of his painful childhood and love for his race, Hughes began to identify and later depend on the acceptance of African Americans (Bloom 9-10). This is most poignantly seen in Arnold Rampersad’s observation that Hughes “would need the race and would need to appease the race to an extent felt by no other important black writer” (11). Due to the depth of Hughes’s love and dependence on the African-American race, he made it his literary goal to promote the continual “explication of the black experience” (Barksdale 11).

Hughes’s fascination with the explosion of black culture in Harlem serves as both the theme and motivation for his poetry. Occurring during the 1920s, the Harlem Renaissance marked the beginning of “Negro life seizing upon its first chances for group expression and self-determination” (PBS Par. 4). Moreover, African American artists and writers used culture as a means to achieve their goals of civil rights and equality (PBS). Hughes believed that only through employing distinctive black themes and styles would the African American race become a valued member of American society. These beliefs propel Hughes to use the African American’s most profoundly unique cultural expression, forms of blues and jazz (Jemie 10-12).

Hughes strove to replicate authentic musical styles in his poetry. The blues in Hughes’s poetry often serve to reflect the sense of loneliness, despair, frustration, and longing, found not only in Hughes’s life, but also in the life of his race. One of Hughes’s first and most successful poems, “The Weary Blues,” captures the essence of these feelings. In addition to the depressing nature of the title itself, this poem details the life of a poor, dissatisfied pianist in Harlem. The “melancholy” and “drowsy” cabaret atmosphere is set by the dullness of the old gas lamp, the old piano, and the rickety stool (Jemie 38). By employing poignant descriptions of simple objects, the poem portrays the complex notions of depression and solitude also found in blues music. Furthermore, the structure of “The Weary Blues” serves to emphasize this despondency that Hughes considers characteristic of the black experience (Bloom 17). The traditional repetition found in the phrases “can’t be satisfied” and “got the weary blues,” reinforces the singer’s sense of unhappiness. Similar non-repeating phrases, such as “ain’t got nobody in all the world” and “ain’t got nobody but myself,” evoke the same tone of loneliness. However, Hughes does not end with a message of despair and depression for African Americans. Instead, he displays how the blues provide an escape from the routine and turmoil of everyday life. The mere act of singing the blues causes the singer to temporarily forget about his depression enough to motivate him to continue living and struggling in America as a black person (Jemie 28). Hughes vows to preserve this important aspect of black culture by reproducing it in his poetry.

Another form Hughes employs has been called “Harlem’s heartbeat,” jazz music (Barksdale 34). Throughout his jazz poems, Hughes attempts to interpret the complexities of black life, including both its despondency and excitement. The portrayal of these central themes is often twofold, but is masked by jazz. Reflecting on his personal involvement in Harlem, Hughes’s jazz poems show how, on the surface, Harlem appears glittery and carefree. But, in reality, lurking underneath all the shininess, is depression, loneliness, and despair. In his early career, Hughes wrote “Jazzonia,” in which he describes Harlem as a place of “frantic drum beat, hip-shaking dancers, and hazy cabarets” (Barksdale 13). Moreover, his complete awe over Harlem is best expressed through such exclamatory fragments as “Oh, silver tree! / Oh shining rivers of the soul!” (1; 1-2) Over time, however, Hughes gradually began to perceive Harlem as the “gray pit of deprivation” and thus represented it more complexly in his poetic work (Barksdale 104). The underlying themes of sadness and depression surface in poems such as “Lenox Avenue: Midnight.” Even in Harlem’s euphoric cabaret world, pain and loneliness will eventually be experienced. Beneath the upbeat “jazz rhythm,” one cannot permanently escape even “The broken heart of love / The weary, weary heart of pain” (2; 5-6).

Hughes, by structurally patterning his poetry after blues and jazz, preserves a part of the African-American race by exploring their souls and singing their songs. The blues and jazz poems serve as the both the spirit and the voice of the conditions of the African-American race.

Works Cited

Barksdale, Richard K. Langston Hughes: The Poet and His Critics. Chicago: American Library Association, 1977.

Bloom, Harold. Langston Hughes. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002.

Harlem Renaissance. Public Broadcasting Service. 5 May 2004. <

february98/harlem_2-20.html>.

Hughes, Langston. “The Weary Blues.” The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Knopf, 1994.

---. “Jazzonia.” The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Knopf, 1994.

---. “Lenox Avenue: Midnight.” The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Jemie, Onwuchekwa. Langston Hughes: An Introduction to the Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.

Magill, Frank N., ed. “Langston Hughes.” Critical Survey of Poetry. Vol. 4. English Language Series. Englewood Cliffs: Salen Press, 1982. 1433.

Winslow, Henry F. “Enduring Exuberance.” Poetry Criticism. Ed. Robyn V. Young. Vol 1. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. 239.