The First Person Account of a Blues Singer Observed in Harlem in The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes

The Harlem Renaissance was arguably one of the most important developments in African American history, outside of emancipation and the Civil Rights movement. The movement represented the literary and artistic height of this community, primarily located in New York City. Langston Hughes, an African American poet born at the turn of the century, was an unquestionable leader in this movement, while also offering a sort of critique of the movement itself. Hughes' poetry highlights the experiences of black artists and "literati" at the time, and commented on the development of black culture as a whole.

One of the best examples of Hughes' work as it relates to the Harlem Renaissance is "The Weary Blues", a short poem that both evokes and descries the meaning behind blues music and what it means for black culture. This short research paper presents a close reading of the poem, as well as a contextualization of the poem through Hughes' reflections in his autobiography, The Big Sea, written in 1945. Overall, this paper discusses not only how "The Weary Blues" is written, but also what it describes and why it was written in the first place. Placing the poem and Hughes' reflections in the historical and cultural context of the time provides further insight into the meaning of this unique piece of poetry.

Close Reading of "The Weary Blues" Langston Hughes' poem, written in 1923, is a first person account of a blues singer observed in Harlem. At face value, the poem simply describes the author as spending an evening listening to the musician sing and play his blues. The poem itself evokes the meaning and tempo of blues music, with a sort of syncopation throughout and repetition of the most important lines. Overall, "The Weary Blues" conveys both the personal experience of the speaker in Harlem, and ostensibly the more general experience of African Americans in Harlem (and throughout America). It conveys both despair and satisfaction - but the reader is left feeling unsettled at the closing. This section provides a close reading of this unique poem, which ought to provide more insight into its meaning.

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In the first two lines, the poem begins "Droning a drowsy syncopated tune / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon" (Hughes 959). At the outset, the setting or direction of the poem is not clear. However, these first two lines do set the mood of the poem by conveying a musical ambiance. Both the words and the rhythm of the poem work together to have the reader move through the rest of the poem in a musical fashion, similar to the blues depicted throughout.

The words seem carefully selected: the singer is "droning" and "crooning", setting the stage for the soulfulness of the narrative poem. It is not until the third line, "I heard a Negro play," that the narrator sets the context. At this point, it becomes clear that the speaker is listening to an African American musician play simple, pure blues music, which the words from the first two lines had already helped to establish. The opening of the poem is completed by lines four and five, "Down on Lenox Avenue the other night / By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light."

These lines fully communicate the context of the poem; Lenox Avenue is the main junction of Harlem in New York City, and essentially the center of the Harlem Renaissance. Furthermore, it is now clear that the speaker of the poem is African American as well, as he refers to being "down" on Lenox Avenue. This insinuates that Harlem is home for the speaker, and he his comfortable and at ease in the locale.

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