The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
Analysis: The title of the poem "The Weary Blues" includes the word weary, which may lead readers to the conclusion that the poem may be about music expressing someone that may be physically or mentally exhausted. In the poem," The Weary Blues" by Langston Hughes he uses music, diction, repetition and imagery to form his poem. The use of music in the poem explains to readers and others how music can represent or guide the way someone may feel or even describe things that happen in ones life. "Droning a drowsy syncopated tun, Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, I heard a Negro play." In the quote Hughes uses the word syncopated to describe the tune, which means to displace beats or accents in music or a rhythm so that strong beats become weak and vice versa. In the poem the musician is using his emotions to express the way he feels at the time, "In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan--- Aint got nobody in all this world, Aint got nobody but ma self." In the last line of the poem it states "he slept like a rock or a man that's dead" which may imply that the musician may have died because earlier in the poem he states, "I aint happy no mo' And wished that I had died." Therefore he can no longer suffer the pain or depression he has suffered, which shows throughout his music.
Literary Devices: Allusion: " I heard a Negro play". The word negro refers to historical times when blacks were referred to as negro, nigger and colored.
Repetition: " He did a lazy sway... He did a lazy sway..." The following sentence is repeated twice in the poem and refers to the musician when he plays his music while being mournful and drowsy.
Simile: "He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool." Hughes compares the musicians sad music to a musical fool.
Idiom: The word "Raggy" is used in the poem. This word has no actual meaning but could be the use of the word raggedy in slang.
- "I's gwine to quit ma frownin' And put ma troubles on the shelf." This quote is also slang talk, therefore it is an idiom.
Onomatopoeia: "Thump, thump, thump" These words are used to sound like the musicians footsteps as he walks.
Personification: "He made that poor piano moan with melody." The music from a piano cannot actually moan, nor will a note sound or be mistaken for one, therefore the piano has been given the human characteristic of moaning.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15612
Literary Devices: Allusion: " I heard a Negro play". The word negro refers to historical times when blacks were referred to as negro, nigger and colored.
Repetition: " He did a lazy sway... He did a lazy sway..." The following sentence is repeated twice in the poem and refers to the musician when he plays his music while being mournful and drowsy.
Simile: "He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool." Hughes compares the musicians sad music to a musical fool.
Idiom: The word "Raggy" is used in the poem. This word has no actual meaning but could be the use of the word raggedy in slang.
- "I's gwine to quit ma frownin' And put ma troubles on the shelf." This quote is also slang talk, therefore it is an idiom.
Onomatopoeia: "Thump, thump, thump" These words are used to sound like the musicians footsteps as he walks.
Personification: "He made that poor piano moan with melody." The music from a piano cannot actually moan, nor will a note sound or be mistaken for one, therefore the piano has been given the human characteristic of moaning.
http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15612