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The Weary Blues
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“Dreams” by Langston Hughes (1923)
Like the blues singer’s lyrics in “The Weary Blues,” “Dreams” has an identifiable rhyme scheme in which every other line rhymes. Unlike the form of “The Weary Blues,” “Dreams” has an even shape, with the lines held together by two quatrains (four-line stanzas). Additionally, “Dreams” contains broken, forlorn imagery like a “broken-winged bird” and “a barren field.” According to the speaker, such desolation is what happens when “dreams die.” Paired with “The Weary Blues,” “Dreams” helps explain the anguished state of the blues musician. When the blues musician sleeps, he has no dreams. Instead, he’s like a rock or a man that’s dead.
“Lenox Avenue: Midnight” by Langston Hughes (1926)
“Lenox Avenue: Midnight” is another poem featured in The Weary Blues. Like the poem “The Weary Blues,” this poem, as the title indicates, takes place on Lenox Avenue and tries to replicate the sound of music—this time, the focus is on jazz. The speaker connects the “rhythm of life” to “jazz rhythm.” This poem and “The Weary Blues” use atmosphere, with Hughes building the environment of Lenox Avenue with lines like “the rumble of street cars” and “the swish of rain.” As with “The Weary Blues,” the poem speaks of weariness. Here, the suffering is a product of love and heartbreak. Although, it’s possible to argue the blues musician in “The Weary Blues” is upset over love. Perhaps that’s why the musician feels all alone.
“So This Is Nebraska” by Ted Kooser (1980)
Ted Kooser is a white poet who lives in Nebraska and worked most of his life as an insurance agent. His poems don’t sound like blues or jazz, yet “So This Is Nebraska,” one of his best-known poems, has much in common with Hughes’ “The Weary Blues.” Like Hughes, Kooser creates a dilapidated and frayed atmosphere. Instead of a rickety stool or a poor piano, Kooser portrays obsolete barns and a useless truck. While the speaker’s tone and melody make them fit in with the environment of “The Weary Blues,” the speaker in “So This Is Nebraska” feels alienated from their rundown surroundings, which leaves Kooser’s speaker wishing they could be as purposeless as their setting. In “The Weary Blues,” neither the speaker nor the blues musician presents their ramshackle space as particularly enviable.
Further Literary Resources
“Cora Unashamed” by Langston Hughes (1934)
“Cora Unashamed” is the first short story in Hughes’ short story collection, The Ways of White Folks (1934). It’s one of Hughes’ most famous stories, and it even became a TV movie in 2000. With this story, Hughes extends the theme of weariness to a Black woman and a white woman. The Black woman, Cora, is weary due to years of racism and domestic labor. The white woman, Jamie, suffers for different reasons. The two form a bond, so, unlike the blues musician in “The Weary Blues,” Cora and Jamie aren't entirely lonely or isolated.
“Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin (1957)
“Sonny’s Blues” is one of James Baldwin’s most famous short stories. The story focuses on two brothers—one of whom, Sonny, aims to be a blues and jazz musician. As the title implies, this story focuses on the theme of music. Similar to “The Weary Blues,” Baldwin creates a captivating atmosphere—especially at the end when the brother finally sees Sonny perform. Baldwin, too, stresses the power of blues and jazz, as the narrator writes about his brother’s performance, “Freedom lurked around us, and I understood, at last, that he could help us be free if we would listen.”
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker (2017)
Morgan Parker’s collection of poems brings the theme of weariness into the 21st century and shifts the stress from blues and jazz to R&B and pop—the kind of music made by Beyoncé. Like the blues musician, the speakers in Parker’s poems find themselves beset by an array of intense feelings brought upon by their environment—an atmosphere defined by screens, desire, and conflicting messages. The abundance leaves Parker’s speakers as unfulfilled as the blues singer in "The Weary Blues." “I was born this way: unsatisfied,” declares the speaker in the poem “Rebirth of Slick.”
Listen to Poem
Listen to Langston Hughes read his own poem, and notice how he uses his voice to emphasize the assonance and rhythm of the words.
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By Langston Hughes
