I enjoyed reading all the poems by Langston Hughes. I am going to discuss three of the poems that I liked best. The first poem that I enjoyed was “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” This poem is the most reflective about culture and strength. This poem was written when Hughes was only 17 years old. The poem is a loud suggestion of great principles as ancient as it appears timeless, preceding human existence, longer than human memory. The rivers are part of God’s body that participates in his immortality. There are earthly correspondents of eternity such as deep, endless, and mysterious. All of which are named in the order of their association with black history. The black man has drunk of their life-giving substances and therefore he has borrowed their immortality. He and the rivers have become one. The mysterious change of the Mississippi River from mud to gold by the sun’s brightness is reflected in the change of slaves into free men by Lincoln’s Proclamation. As the rivers deepen with time, so does the black man’s soul. As the waters in the river constantly flow, so will the black soul endure. The black man in the poem has seen the rise and fall of civilizations from the earliest times. He has seen the beauty and death-changes of the world over the thousands of years and he will survive even this America. This poem is a magnificent reminder of the strength and fullness of history in a time and place where black life is held cheap and the days of black men appear to be numbered. The next poem that I enjoyed was “The Weary Blues.” It seems as though all the singer has in this poem is his moaning blues, the disclosure of “a black man’s soul,” and those blues are what helps to keep him alive. The blues obviously helps him keep his identity. Even though he sings of the blues, he is singing about his life and about the way that he and other blacks have to deal with the white society. The accepted Western sound of the piano and the form of Western music are changed as his black hands touch the white keys of the piano. The piano comes to life as an addition of the singer, and moans, changed by the black tradition to a mirror of black sorrow that also reflects the changing of power and beauty of the black tradition. This is the tradition that helps keeps the singer alive and gives him his identity. When he is done singing the blues, he goes to bed and sleeps like a deceased object. The blues are echoing beyond his playing, beyond his daily cycles, and through both his conscious and unconscious states. The last poem that I liked was “Harlem.” This poem is asking questions throughout of what happens to people and society when millions of individuals’ dreams get deferred, or put off indefinitely. This poem explores the risks and consequences of African Americans losing sight of dreams and hope. The language in this poem is very truthful and down-to earth. The narrator is asking if a dream becomes a dried-up fruit, a running sore, rotten meat, or a sweet that crusts and sugars over. He also asks if a dream sags or explodes. All of these questions enable the reader to see and smell the frustration of American blacks. The theme of this poem is frustration. Frustration characterized the mood of American blacks. Even though, the Civil War in the previous century had freed them from slavery and federal laws had granted them the right to vote, the right to own property, and so on. There were continuing prejudice against blacks as well as laws had been passed since the Civil War that relegated them to second-class citizenship. Therefore, blacks had to attend poorly furnished segregated schools and settle for tedious jobs such as janitors, ditch-diggers, servants, shoeshine boys, and so on. In several states, the blacks couldn’t use the same public facilities as whites, including restrooms, restaurants, theaters, and parks. Access to other facilities such as taking the buses, the blacks was required to take a back seat, literally, to the white people. By the mid-Twentieth Century, their frustration with substandard status became a powder keg, and the fuse was burning. Hughes understood completely what the future held, as he indicated in the last line of the poem – “Or does it explode?”
Cummings, Michael J. "Harlem: Analysis of the Langston Hughes Poem." Free Study Guides for Shakespeare and Other Authors. 2007. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
Cummings, Michael J. "The Negro Speaks of Rivers: a Study Guide." Free Study Guides for Shakespeare and Other Authors. 2010. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
"On "The Weary Blues"" Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. Web. 23 Mar. 2011.
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