He's trying to write like people talk.

He's just wailing on the piano like Jimi Hendrix played guitar at Woodstock.

The indent, or enjambment, makes you take time to pause as your eye moves from the end of the line above to this one.

We still don't know where we are, and we don't know what instrument the musician is playing.

"The Weary Blues" is the name of the song that the musician is playing.

This musician was playing a slow blues song with all his body and soul. "The Weary Blues" is the name of the song that the musician is playing. "Ebony" means a few different things.

JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. Lines 9-11. 26 And I can’t be satisfied. So the speaker is listening to some laid back music and his poetry is laid back to help us feel it too.

This is similar to the refrain in a poem, but not exactly.

For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. The musician is a pianist and he's playing all up and down the piano keyboard here.

Droning is that rumbling, low sound of a big engine.

Also, we just got a big tip into where speaker was that night: Lenox Avenue.

It suggests that the poor lighting of the scene is sucking some of the life out of the crowd. 27 Got the Weary Blues. 32 The stars went out and so did the moon. OK, we just jumped ahead in time.

Although this "O Blues!" In line 10, the musician makes the piano moan, just like it was alive with the music. Who is he? He did a lazy sway....He did a lazy sway....To the tune o' those Weary Blues. JavaScript seems to be disabled in your browser. The Weary Blues Summary.

The poem begins with a speaker telling someone about a piano player he heard a couple nights ago.

It kind of means that the beat shifts the rhythm and creates a rocking back and forth feeling. Sometimes the second line in repetition is slightly changed and sometimes, but very seldom, it is omitted.

28 And can’t be satisfied— 29 I ain’t happy no mo’ 30 And I wish that I had died.” 31 And far into the night he crooned that tune.

In Note on the Blues (1927), Hughes states that the Blues, unlike the Spirituals, have a strict poetic pattern: one long line repeated and a third line to rhyme with the first two. This musician was playing a slow blues song with all his body and soul.

It's not clear who is saying "O Blues!"

25 “I got the Weary Blues.

"Pallor" isn't too different from "pale" or "dull."

Starting at line 19, we get the first verse to the song. Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, Down on Lenox Avenue the other nightBy the pale dull pallor of an old gas light, © 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal.

The speaker is leaving us in the dark here. Also, this part is like a line that repeats in a blues song. Line 5 brings the reader back in by setting the mood with some soft lighting: gas lamps.

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doesn't carry the thought from the previous line. "Syncopated" is a musical term.

The speaker starts to really get into the sad music. Crooning is this laid back and soulful style of singing. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. The speaker is listening to an African American musician. Take a note here: "N****" was the politically correct term back in the 1920s. It might be the speaker shouting out during the song, or the musician while performing for his audiences.

The musician is a pianist and he's playing all up and down the piano keyboard here.

In the first three lines, we think we're there listening to the musician, but that was actually a couple of nights ago. Take these lines slow and lazy. Lenox Avenue shoots through the heart of Harlem in Manhattan, and it had the best bars and dance halls in the country around this time. Writing blues poetry can be inherently difficult and Hughes was among one of … Likewise, ivory (elephant's tusk) was used to make the white keys on the piano. We've got those indents again. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. The poem begins with a speaker telling someone about a piano player he heard a couple nights ago.

Music is all there is, so far. Another word you might be new to is "croon." Something or someone is "droning" music. Either the speaker or the singer is rocking "back and forth" now.

Where is he? Starting at line 19, we get the first verse to the song. The poem utilizes the traditional musical structure of the blues and incorporates actual blues lyrics. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. With his ebony hands on each ivory keyHe made that poor piano moan with melody.O Blues! O Blues!

Hughes supposedly wrote "The Weary Blues," which is about a singer performing on Lenox Avenue, after visiting a cabaret in Harlem. Hughes wrote "The Weary Blues" in free verse with an irregular rhyme scheme, mimicking the natural patterns of speech and music.

is indented, it is not enjambment, because "O Blues!"

He's just wailing on the piano like Jimi Hendrix played guitar at Woodstock. And wouldn't you know it?

© 2020 Shmoop University Inc | All Rights Reserved | Privacy | Legal. Repeating the lines gives a back and forth feeling, just like the singer is swaying back and forth. In a nutshell, "The Weary Blues" is a poem about a musician that wears himself out by singing the blues.

It's almost like the piano player is melting into his instrument. "The Weary Blues" is the title of a ragtime song that Artie Matthews wrote in 1915. Notice how Hughes dropped the "f" from the end of the word "of."

The poet's blues poetry was influenced by the music he heard during his childhood. The Weary Blues Breakdown Analysis Lines 1-3 The first line of The Weary Blues begins by describing the music as “drowsy” and “syncopated.” The former is musical term that means that the beats, accents or rhythm of a piece are intentionally misplaced. Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, and Frank Sinatra were all crooners back in the day. The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes: Summary and Analysis The Weary Blues is one of the Blues poems written by Langston Hughes, one of the most imminent poets of Harlem Renaissance.

The speaker starts to really get into the sad music. 33 The singer stopped playing and went to bed With his ebony hands on each ivory key He made that poor piano moan with melody.

Here it is describing the dark, lustrous color of the piano player's hands, but it also brings to mind the ebony wood that was used to make the black keys on a piano. The repeated line adds emphasis to the intensity of a thought or feeling: