The Weary Blues

I really enjoyed Langston Hughes' poem, "The Weary Blues". I immediately associated it with music not just because of the content, but also because of the rhythm- even reading it only in my head, I could tell that it would sound very lyrical out loud. Beyond the beautiful flow of the poem, I was intrigued by the message, too. It was very melancholic in tone, not at all hopeful or even critical like Hughes' other poems. In particular, the lyrics that the pianist sings depict him as being very depressed.

When considering the message of the poem, I thought immediately of Audre Lorde's essays. Both authors deal with the issue of oppression because of race, and the feelings of invalidity and perhaps even worthlessness because of it. While Lorde's response to the prejudices ingrained in our society is a call for action to change our basic cultural infrastructure, Hughes' response is to accept defeat. The final line in particular implies that the singer has lost this societal battle; "He slept like a rock or a man that's dead," possibly meaning that there is no distinction between someone who has given up and someone who is dead.