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Critical Review of Langston Hughes' Poetry Bethany Tabb |
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The Harlem Renaissance was a time of great innovation in all forms of art. African American artists were the driving forces behind this change. Among these artists is Langston Hughes, one of the most famous and influential writers of that time period. He wrote the popular poems “ The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and “I, Too” as well as several plays, novels, and other works of literature. Hughes’s work was influential in the American Civil Rights movement as well as the Negritude movement overseas, which emphasized cultural unity among blacks. Hughes loved Harlem and the culture of the lower class blacks. This love was evident in the great majority of his poetry. He believed in writing uniquely African American poetry and refused to conform to white art, even when facing criticism. All things African American were embraced by Hughes and incorporated into his poetry. Jazz is one of the purely African American art forms to come out of that era. Hughes loved it for that very reason. “[It is] one of the inherent expressions of Negro life in America: the eternal tom-tom beating in the Negro soul- the tom-tom of revolt against weariness in a white world… the tom-tom of joy and laughter, and pain swallowed with a smile” (Barksdale 24). Jazz, Hughes said, belonged to lower-class Negroes, and for that reason he used jazz as an influence on much of his poetry. Blues was also a great influence on his writing. He believed blues was a true expression of heartache that was distinctly African American. His first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, contained many poems influenced by jazz and blues. Hughes was one of the first to write the jazz poem. Many criticized these poems, saying they excluded the black middle class and were too racial to be acceptable in white culture. Despite the criticism, Hughes continued to write jazz poetry, paving the way for other black writers. Though there are certainly many poems written about jazz, they are not necessarily all jazz poems. Jazz poetry typically has a musical, swing-like rhythm. There is “a good deal of allusiveness, of suggestiveness, of free association, together with frequent thematic variation” (Davidas 268). These poems usually contain jazz characteristics such as scat, repetition, onomatopoeia, and choruses. They also include audience participation, typically done through call and response patterns. Written structures, such as irregular lines, can also add to the jazzy feel of a poem. Jazz poems are often puns and contain humor. They can also be set to music, a trend started by Langston Hughes. Blues poems are very much the same as jazz poems in their use of choruses, call and response patterns, musical rhythm, and onomatopoeia. Blues poems usually have a slow rhythm typical of blues songs. This is done through words with long vowel sounds that slow down the tempo. The lyrics are usually understatements, called “blue notes,” which are key to blues songs (Davidas 270). Hughes uses these characteristics in many of his poems. Each contains issues that are understated through the use of jazz poetry. I will analyze this form in the poems “Dream Boogie,” “Harlem Night Club,” “The Weary Blues,” and “Blues Fantasy.” “Dream Boogie” was published in Montage of a Dream Deferred, a collection in which most of the poems are about the idea of the American dream that is denied to African Americans. Though most of the poems contain similar subject matter, this particular poem is different from the others.
At first glance it is very plain this is a jazz poem. The lines are irregular, and there are italicized lines that are audience responses. Common urban language is used, and the boogie-woogie is referenced in the first stanza. The rhythm of the lines moves quickly, giving this poem a song-like feel to it. It is easy to see how this poem could be set to music. The words “listen closely” are repeated in a chorus-like refrain, and a scat solo ends the poem. Suppressed beneath a seemingly happy rhythm, however, is an unhappy message. An entire race of people is being denied the dream that was promised to them. They continue to dance through life and spectators think they are happy, but this poem makes it clear that under the surface is bitter disappointment and unhappiness. People of that time believed the stereotype of the happy Negro who remains joyful despite the situation. After reading this poem, however, they could no longer believe that. The jazz form of this poem makes the issue very powerful. Instead of saying “You think we’re happy but we’re really sad,” Hughes uses a song-like form to illustrate his point. The fact that the narrator is singing about it makes it all the more heartbreaking. Hughes uses a cabaret setting in “Harlem Night Club.” At first it seems to be about a jazz band playing for a group of dancers, but it isn’t long before we see a much more sinister message.
Immediately we get the sense of a jazz band playing a fast song with a beat perfect for dancing. There are also several instances of repetition, including the phrases “jazz-band” and “play.” Questions about tomorrow are repeated in three stanzas, two of which seem to be a sort of refrain. These elements make it feel very much like a song. At the heart of the poem is the issue that the black community did not know what would happen to them in the future. African Americans, especially in the south, could not always be sure of tomorrow. Instead of sitting around and worrying about it, however, this poem tells them to dance today. What might appear to be joyous dancing is actually, as in the previous poem, a frantic, sad dance of necessity. Also mentioned in this poem are biracial relationships. It says that white girls dance with the black boys while dark brown girls dance with blond men. These relationships would not have been at all acceptable at the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Perhaps that was the reason they could not be sure of tomorrow. They didn’t know if their controversial relationships would be enough to spark violence. Similarly to “Dream Boogie,” the jazz form of this poem makes it appear a happy poem when in fact it is not. Serious topics are all the more tragic when they are masked behind what might normally be joyful. Just as its title sounds, “The Weary Blues” is not an upbeat-sounding poem. Its influence is blues more than jazz. It still retains a musical form, however, that makes its message more powerful.
“Oh” and “ooo” sounds in “droning” and “tune” immediately give the poem a slow rhythm typical of a blues song. The reader can almost hear a singer crooning the words while playing the piano. Audience participation might also be included in the repeated phrases “O Blues!” “Sweet Blues!” We can hear the Negro stomping his feet on the floor through the onomatopoeia in “thump.” An old blues song is also quoted twice. This song is not easily recognizable to modern audiences, but the readers during the Harlem Renaissance might have known the song. This poem is more overtly sad than the other two, but again it is a blues poem more than it is a jazz poem. The point of a blues song is to express heartache, and that feeling is adequately expressed in this poem. At the same time, Hughes never actually says the Negro is sad. Instead he has the Negro sing a well-known blues song to express that sadness. I can’t imagine feeling such despair that I would sing “I ain’t happy no mo’/ And I wish that I had died.” This feeling expressed well in song-like form because blues drags out the words, forcing the reader to stop and listen to them. “Blues Fantasy” is another blues song like “The Weary Blues,” but its rhythm is not quite as slow. Its jazzy rhythm does not distract the readers from the serious subject matter.
Though the words of the poem are more typical of a blues song, the repetition of “hey!” makes the rhythm more upbeat and jazzy. “Hey!” might be a kind of refrain, but it could also be an audience response along with “Sing ‘em sister!” The railroad ticket also becomes a sort of refrain. The concept of this poem is so interesting. A speaker has been abandoned by a lover and is haunted by the blues. She makes the optimistic statement that somewhere the sun will shine again, but instead of waiting for that to happen she gets on a train to find a place where she can leave her blues behind. This idea might not be at all feasible if it were not a part of a song. In reality her problems would follow her no matter what location she chose. Because she is singing the blues, however, we can believe anything. This song does not sound exclusive to the problems of African Americans. It might apply to all races. Works Cited Barksdale, Richard K. Langston Hughes: The Poet and His Critics. American Library Davidas, Lionel. “ ‘I, Too, Sing America’: Jazz and Blues Techniques and Effects in Some of Giovanni, Nikki. Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy Like My Sister Kate: Looking at the Harlem “Jazz Age Culture.” http://faculty.pittstate.edu/~knichols/jazzage3.html. 8 January 2006. “Poets.Org.” http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15612. 8 January 2006. |
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