Hughes and music: cultural significance and influence

Langston Hughes & Billie Holiday

African-American Life in the Poetry of Langston Hughes and Songs of Billie Holiday: A Comparative Analysis

Mid-twentieth century American society is marked as a pivotal point in history, where the roots of what would be the movement for civil rights will gradually develop and emerge as a strong civil force that would aid legislation for equality rights in the 1960s. During this time, the 'stage' from which the core of the civil rights movement will develop is gradually being set, mainly through cultural depictions and expressions of the African-American life. Through literature (prose and poetry), music, and dance, African-Americans expressed their hopes and frustrations, dreams and disappointments, as they continually experience racial discrimination and oppression in the strongly dominant white American society.

Langston Hughes and Billie Holiday are African-American artists who became well-known because of their compelling works of (cultural) art. Hughes is well-known for writing thought-provoking and sometimes, socially radical poems about the African-American struggle for equal opportunities in American society. Holiday, meanwhile, has written and sang songs that evoked emotions that characterized the jazz and blues music genres, which became a distinct mark of African-American influence in the history of not only American, but also world music.

In this paper, a comparative analysis of Hughes' and Holiday's works will be discussed. Although Hughes focused on poetry and Holiday on song-writing and singing, both created written works that are poetry delivered only through different media. The comparative analysis shows that Hughes and Holiday created poetry and songs, respectively, that mirror the lifestyle, beliefs, and values of African-Americans during their time. However, despite this similarity in their works, the two artists also differ in the form of their 'attack' in bringing to life the African-American life: Hughes, while retaining an emotional component in his works, actually depict his and his fellow African-American experiences within a specific context, making his poetry dependent thematically. Holiday, meanwhile, used her role as a singer/performer to fully evoke her emotions to her singing, 'losing' herself in the poetry that is her song -- songs that are actually universal in their themes and can be understood by anyone.

The poem, "Dream Deferred" is an emotionally-charged poem that spoke not only of the suffering of the 'Negro,' but also reflected the potential for social radicalism among African-Americans. "Dream" is a powerful poem because it is able to effectively evoke emotions of pain, anger and frustration in simple, few words -- that is, within a short poem. Hughes allowed his audience to contemplate the future of the brewing civil rights movement that African-Americans are pushing at the time: will it lead to futility ("Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun"), further prolonged without any resolution ("Maybe it just sags / like a heavy load."), or revolution/civic action ("Or does it explode?")? These are the possibilities that the poem presented, subtly implied through Hughes' usage of symbolism and metaphors.

Similar to Hughes' usage of strong emotions to effectively convey his message in the poem, "Dream Deferred," Billie Holiday's songs focus mainly on the emotional, using the themes of love, pain, and loneliness as the anchors through which Holiday expressed her emotions as she sang these songs. "Gloomy Sunday" is an example of a song that expressed love and loneliness. The lyrics of the song are straightforward, and the longing and loving expressed in the song is applicable to anyone and not only exclusive to the experience of African-Americans.

Indeed, the writing style and exclusivity or universality of the themes become the point of departure of the similarities between Hughes' and Holiday's poetry and songs, respectively. Looking at Hughes' poetry, it is evident that his writing style is creatively developed through the usage of symbolism and metaphors, not to mention the exclusivity or context-dependent themes and issues depicted in his poems. "Dream Deferred," in fact, is an example of the 'African-American experience' during his time, it was found that "[t]he spiritual aspects of dreaming and dream interpretation most familiar to Hughes would have come from the community he was brought up with" (Wei, 2007:128). The seemingly futile protest of African-Americans for equality became the root of these poems, and Hughes depicted this struggle and subtly incited people to action through symbolism and metaphors: "What happens to a dream deferred / Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun… or does it explode?"