Hughes\' Poems. Don\'t Tell Us About Theme

¶ … Hughes' poems. Don't tell us about theme or how you relate to it. Tell us about the form of the poem. Name and define some of the elements of the form. Tell us about its attributes and history, what Hughes' influences were in this poem, and so on. Can you find Whitman's influence here, where and how?

Langston Hughes was one of the great artists of this period, and the themes of Black identity and frustration against slavery and discrimination can be seen in many of his poems as, for instance, the famous one of "Bound No'th Blues"

In the poem "Bound No'th Blues" (http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/bound-no-th-blues/), the rhythm supports the pome's theme of the woman's fatigue and loneliness. The poem reiterates: "Road, road, road, O!

Road, road…road…road, road!

Road, road, road, O!"

The road is ongoing and eternal; there is no end to this.

The words are truncated. The sentences are incomplete. This reflects the pedestrian's tiredness; she is too tired to even complete her sentences. The frequently repeated term 'Lawd' is her plea to God, and she speaks of her loneliness and need to have a friend to accompany her:

Says I hates to be lonely,

Hates to be lonely an' sad,

The need for the friend though is not so much for company but rather to help her with her heavy load:

Goin' down the road, Lawd,

Goin' down the road.

Down the road, Lawd,

Way, way down the road.

Got to find somebody

To help me carry this load.

And always there is this road in front of her, going on and on. And all the woman has to do is "Walk…an' walk…an' walk."

The metaphor of the road too may also point to the endless, tiring road that the Black individual has to travel. He is solitary and alone, rejected by the country that he lives in.

Hughes' lines are short and brisk; they seem to indicate the traveler's fatigue. She is so worm-out that she lacks energy even to finish her sentences.

The poem "Bound No'th Blues" was in fact written during the Harlem Renaissance was a period of time started in 1910 up until the 1930s where African-Americans protested against White racism by producing a cultural upsurge in music, arts, literature, and dancing. This was the 'New Black' and it focused on eliminating negative and primitive stereotypes of Blacks and replacing it was a Black pride. Common themes were outcry against institutionalization of slavery and emphasis on Black identity. All of this is evident in Hughes' poem (Bio.classroom; online). The voice in which it is articulated -- proud, confident, and upbeat - clearly points to Hughes's affirmation of his Black identity.

Other elements are the simple repetition and familiar diction of the words as well as typical expression of the Negro's 'soul world" (Wintz, p.84). The melancholy is typical of the Blues.