Suffering in Hughes's the Weary

Suffering in Hughes's "The Weary Blues" Langston Hughes understood the power of understanding the human condition through experience. He understood experiences shape people and their realties and his poetry seek to express not only those experiences but also delve into a deeper understanding about humanity. Through poetry, Hughes provides a slice of prejudicial life and suffering for the world. His experiences lead him to Harlem, where he saw firsthand what prejudice was and what it did to people.

Seeing it firsthand made it important for him to expose and attempt to eradicate oppression. We see this in his poem "The Weary Blues." Prejudice was certainly a part of his life but it did not mean it had to destroy it. Hughes took the pain and shaped it into poetry that would bless millions. Prejudice shaped Hughes' personality and life because it opened his eyes to the fact that others suffer. Many believe the Harlem experience was critical to Hughes' development as a poet.

He was a significant aspect of the Harlem Renaissance and the notion of human suffering allowed poetry to materialize. Paul Lauder writes Hughes was "steadfast in his devotion to human rights" (Lauter 1487). Michael Schmidt aggress with this assertion and adds Hughes' influence earned him the title, "bard of Harlem" (Schmidt 707).

Schmidt states Hughes technique of combining art and experience was like a man writing in "two modes, one drawing rhythms from jazz and the blues, a poetry with ironies and radical reversals generally avoids staginess; and poems of racial protest and definition" (Schmidt 708). We see this in "The Weary Blues," with its rhythmic dance. We read: 'Ain't got nobody in all this world, Ain't got nobody but ma self.

I's gwine to quit ma frownin' And put ma troubles on the shelf'" (Hughes Weary Blues 17-22) The tone expressed in the poem is one of desperation and determination. The poem reads like a song and yet it is about nothing to sing about. Here, Hughes touches on the spirit of the African-American people. They are strong and they withstand. They endure and do the best they can with their lot in life. It is not an easy task but it is one that is embraced.

Singing was a form of escape and a means of coping for African-Americans and this poem captures both aspects of those experiences brilliantly. Art is the vehicle that allows people to chase away the blues. Hughes' poetry is unique in that it often finds itself merged with music, another form of expression. Blues and jazz emerge in "the Weary Blues" through a light and simple rhythm and a colloquial dialect.

In the poem he writes, "In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone / I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan" (Hughes Weary Blues). We also get an idea of the beat of the poem with the "Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor" (22). The man is singing about the pain of.