The Weary Blues

The Weary Blues is a collection of poems written by Langston Hughes first published in 1926. The poem that gave the book its name was originally published in 1925 in the Urban League magazine, Opportunity, winning that magazine's award for best poem of the year.

The central theme of these poems is the resilience of the archetypal person who has moments of dejection or despair. The poems define music as a tool to alleviate said anxiety or pain. Music is above race, as it is a universal medium for all humans and is capable of cheering anyone up in bad times.

In the book The Weary Blues we can see how Hughes began to address the concerns and themes he delved into in his later works. The poems have a lyrical rhythm, in part because Hughes expected them to be performed to musical accompaniment in Harlem clubs at the time.

I am a Negro:
Black as the night is black,
Black like the depths of my Africa.
I've been a slave:
Cæsar told me to keep his door-steps clean.
I brushed the boots of Washington.