The Weary Blues free essay sample

The reader can feel the slow and steady beat of the music: â€Å"He did a lazy sway†¦/ He did a lazy sway†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (4-5). The flow of the two lines mimics the beat of the music. The reader can hear the pain in the voice of the musician: â€Å"In a deep voice with a melancholy tone† (17). By using the word ‘melancholy’ the reader can understand there is sadness in his bass voice. One can see his hands working the piano in the dim light: â€Å"By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light/†¦/With his ebony hands on each ivory key† (5, 9). Due to the detailed description the reader can see the musician’s dark hand in contrast to the pale keys of the piano. Through the use of imagery Hughes has allowed the reader to empathize with the musician’s pain and relate to his suffering. Hughes uses syntax as a language device in â€Å"The Weary Blues† to show the singer is not just singing about his feeling, but of Harlem as a whole: â€Å"Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, /Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, /I heard a Negro play,† (1-3). We will write a custom essay sample on The Weary Blues or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the opening lines Hughes places the subject and the verb of the sentence at the end. He uses this sentence structure show the relationship between the singer and his audience and the dual effect the music has on the performer and anyone listening. The singer is droning and swaying as he performs, but so is his audience as they listen, thus they become merged in the sentence because it describes their interaction. Hughes suggests that the blues is a shared experience and that it can express the feelings of not only the artist, but of Harlem as a whole. Hughes uses a somber tone in â€Å"The Weary Blues† to communicate his feelings about the situation of Harlem during the middle of the 1900’s. This is best seen within the song lyrics: Got the Weary Blues And cant be satisfied- I aint happy no mo And I wish that I had died. (27-30) The musician is singing about how he thinks he has no hope left and wishes for death. This same hopeless feeling can be translated as Hughes’ feelings as well, because he is the poet. Hughes’ hopeless feelings, expressed in the poem, could indicate his thoughts on oppression and the strict racial social codes in place in Harlem and all over the United States during the mid-1900’s. The somber tone of â€Å"The Weary Blues† primarily comes from the reader’s ability to empathize with the emotions that are expressed in the poem. The blues are a universal feeling and are something everyone has experienced at one point. The musician sing the lines: â€Å"Aint got nobody but ma self. / Is gwine to quit ma frownin/ And put ma troubles on the shelf. (20-22). Here, a reader can identify with his gloomy outlook and understand the need to continue. This ability to empathize makes the reader feel similarly depressed, hopeless and dismal. These feelings allow the reader to comprehend the suffering that is in the poem and in Harlem during the middle of the twentieth century. There are two characters in â€Å"The Weary Blues†, the unnamed narrator and the musician, but one shares a depressed voice within the poem. The voice of the unnamed narrator is neutral as he reminisces about that evening; except for when he cries aloud: I heard a Negro Play. Down on Lenox Avenue the other night †¦ O Blues! †¦ Sweet Blues! (3-4,11,14) When the narrator says this, it tells the reader that he has a strong attachment to this memory and may be empathizing with what the musician is singing. The rest of the poem is simply an account of the events that take place that evening. Due to the lack of emotion from the narrator, the reader must look towards the second character, the musician, for emotion that is behind the depressed voice. While the musician’s voice is only seen in the song lyrics, his voice plays the largest role communicating emotions to the reader: â€Å"I aint happy no mo/And I wish that I had died† (29-30). From this lyric the reader understands that the musician is sad and appears to be depressed. At the end of the poem the narrator describes what he believes the musician does: And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and so did the moon. The singer stopped playing and went to bed While the weary blues echoed through his head. (31-34) Due to the fact that the narrator could not actually know what the piano player is thinking, the reader can say that the narrator is actually describing his own actions after hearing the musician sing. Based on the lack of emotion given from the narrator and the blending of the narrator and the musician’s actions at the end of the poem, the speaker, has a common voice with the piano player, both of whom are depressed. Hughes uses imagery and syntax to allow the reader to empathize with the suffering that is seen in the poem through the musician and within the community of Harlem. Through empathy the reader can understand the somber tone and depressed voice of the characters Hughes uses to effectively communicate the suffering that occurs in Harlem during the mid-1900’s.