Full Description
A celebration of music from beginning to end, The Weary Blues is the debut poetry collection by the foremost Harlem Renaissance poet, Langston Hughes.
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, / Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, / I heard a Negro play. / Down on Lenox Avenue the other night / By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light / He did a lazy sway. . .
With these first lines, Hughes invites the reader into an experimental playground that tells the story of a Black man's life in America. Featuring poems such as, "Dream Variations," "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," and "Our Land," Hughes weaves in and out of verse, highlighting the lows of struggle in the face of segregation and racism, but also the highs of creation from the time when, "the Negroes were in vogue."
Now considered to be an American classic, The Weary Blues embodies the feel of the rhythm, improvisation, and soul of Black classical music, pioneered the genre of "jazz poetry," and left an irreplaceable mark in the African-American literary canon.
Professionally typeset with a beautifully designed cover, this edition of The Weary Blues is a sensational reimagining of a Harlem Renaissance staple for the modern reader.
Contents
Introducing Langston Hughes to the Reader
Proem
The Weary Blues
The Weary Blues
Jazzonia
Negro Dancers
The Cat and the Saxophone
Young Singer
Cabaret
To Midnight Nan at Leroy's
To a Little Lover-Lass, Dead
Harlem Night Club
Nude Young Dancer
Young Prostitute
To a Black Dancer
Song for a Banjo Dance
Blues Fantasy
Lenox Avenue: Midnight
Dream Variations
Dream Variation
Winter Moon
Poème d'Automne
Fantasy in Purple
March Moon
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Cross
The Jester
The South
As I Grew Older
Aunt Sue's Stories
Poem
Black Pierrot
A Black Pierrot
Harlem Night Song
Songs to the Dark Virgin
Ardella
Poem—To the Black Beloved
When Sue Wears Red
Pierrot
Water-Front Streets
Water-Front Streets
A Farewell
Long Trip
Port Town
Sea Calm
Caribbean Sunset
Young Sailor
Seascape
Natcha
Sea Charm
Death of an Old Seaman
Shadows in the Sun
Beggar Boy
Troubled Woman
Suicide's Note
Sick Room
Soledad
To the Dark Mercedes
Mexican Market Woman
After Many Springs
Young Bride
The Dream Keeper
Poem (To F.S.)
Our Land
Our Land
Lament for Dark Peoples
Afraid
Poem—For the Portrait of an African Boy
Summer Night
Disillusion
Danse Africaine
The White Ones
Mother to Son
Poem
Epilogue
