Poetry Race and racial inequality The beauty and hardships of the African American experience Music and rhythm as forms of expression Struggle and resilience
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.
#37 in Poetry (this month)
The The Weary Blues book is available for download in PDF, ePUB and Mobi:
Copyright info
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes is believed to be in the public domain in the United States only. It may still be copyrighted in other countries. If you are not in the United States, please check your local laws to ensure this eBook is in the public domain in your country before downloading The Weary Blues in PDF or ePub.
Hughes sets a keyboard in the poem and lets it sing. Night voices, street light, and a body’s rhythm make literature sound like life.
Black modernism remade the page. These poems translate pain into music and community into cadence—history you can hear.
Meter becomes movement.
Tradition bends, doesn’t break.
Many voices, one pulse.
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Jazz driven poetry and prose about hope, struggle, and the American voice.
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