Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Weary Blues
    The Weary Blues
    The Weary Blues
    Ebook92 pages32 minutes

    The Weary Blues

    By Langston Hughes

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    The first published poetry collection from the acclaimed Harlem Renaissance poet behind such works as “Montage of a Dream Deferred” and “Life is Fine.”

    Originally published in 1926, The Weary Blues is Langston Hughes’s first collection of poetry. Broken into seven thematic sections, the sixty-eight poems capture the heart of a young budding artist and the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance. The title poem, “The Weary Blues,” tells the story of a musician performing in a bar and uses a very lyrical style that flows throughout the collection. Other poems include, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” “Danse Africaine,” “Dream Variation,” “Mother to Son,” “Suicide’s Note,” and “Winter Moon.” The work touches on subjects like art, identity, race, class, urban life, music, and the Black experience in 1920s America.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJan 1, 2022
    ISBN9781504073738
    Author

    Langston Hughes

    Best known for his vivid and astute portrayals of Black life across the written page, Langston Hughes—born James Mercer Langston Hughes—(1901—1967) was a poet, playwright, writer and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance who founded jazz poetry. Raised mostly by his grandmother, Hughes was instilled with a lasting sense of racial pride and a love of books from a young age and though not supported by his father in his pursuit of writing, Hughes would attend Columbia with his father’s aid in 1921, before leaving the very next year due to racial prejudice and a desire to focus on his poetry. Hughes first introduced his voice to the world in a 1921 issue of The Crisis where he published, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers.” The poem would come to be known as his signature piece and five years later was included in his debut poetry collection, The Weary Blues. Establishing himself as a key player of the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes would be one of a small group of Black intellectuals and artists of the movement who called themselves the Niggerati. Going on to write their manifesto, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” Hughes’ use of the literary medium differed heavily from the artistic aspirations of the Black middle class in that he desired to focus on highlighting the lives of working-class Black people and addressing divisions and prejudices that existed within the Black community itself. In a career spanning over four decades, Hughes would publish an award-winning novel (Not Without Laughter), multiple plays—some in collaboration with Zora Neale Hurston—(Mule Bone and Black Nativity), children’s literature (Popo and Fifina) and even an autobiography (The Big Sea); among others in a large volume of work. In his personal life, Hughes maintained lifetime friendships with members of the movement and also is believed to have had private romantic and sexual relationships with men. While Hughes’ emphasis on racial pride had begun to fall out of favor with new and coming movements of the younger generation, his contributions to the African-American literary canon and American literature at all could not be denied and as such at the time of his death was—and continues to be—one of the most talented and respected voices of a generation.

    Read more from Langston Hughes

    Related to The Weary Blues

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      Three Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      The afterlife is an infinity of custom shelving, where everything you have ever loved has a perfect place, including things that don’t fit on shelves, like the weeping willow from your parents’ backyard, or an old boyfriend, exactly as he was in your

      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Facing Racism

      Jun 26, 2020

      Facing Racism
      10 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      The painting is of a door, its wood so warpedwith moisture it cannot close. It stays ajar leaving a sliver of light—enough to suggestsomething sweet and almost unreachable behind the door—and you sit in yourroom working on the bills or those comforti

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Two Poems by Jennifer Barber

      Jun 8, 2021

      At first puzzlement, then joy. My baby in the making—surely my last—would, like a ferry heading for a wharf,know what to do along the way. The multiplying cells, the chemistryof contentment spreading through my blood: I was as ready for her birthas I

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      I have an endless appetite for starfruit,for biting my teeth into the universe and spitting outthe space junk, for licking the rings of my favorite planetsand never slicing my tongue. There’s a story I shareabout my birth where angels circle my dead

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Poet’s Craft

      Jan 1, 2020

      To begin with a definition: A poem is a text structurally constrained by the repetition of any language element(s). The continuum of poetic constraint is extensive, stretching from operations that a reader will find completely imperceptible to overwh

      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Two Poems

      Nov 1, 2021

      I spent all my avocado moneyby the light of Saint Martin de PorresI often think about bank robberyWhat wig I would wear, what fun it would beto harm no one and dump a million dollarsover the hills that belong to everyonefrom an airplane that I teach

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      An Anti-Racist Poetry Reading List

      Jun 8, 2020

      These recent poetry collections offer poignant narratives and snapshots of racial injustice in America. The post An Anti-Racist Poetry Reading List appeared first on The Millions.

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Kingdom Of Souls

      Oct 9, 2019

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 442 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Rena Barron Publisher HarperVoyager There’s something comforting about epic fantasy. You know the broad strokes you’re likely to get: protagonist with a destiny, dark lord, invented land w

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Five Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Sung Land

      Aug 22, 2024

      The Sung Land
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Sung Land

      Aug 22, 2024

      The Sung Land
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      An Appreciation Of Julia De Burgos, “Farewell In Welfare Island”

      Jan 1, 2022

      It has to be from here,right this instance,my cry into the world. Life was somewhere forgottenand sought refuge in depths of tearsand sorrowsover this vast empire of solitudeand darkness. Where is the voice of freedom,freedom to laugh,to movewithout

      11 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Stop Hating on Adjectives!

      Jun 12, 2019

      A common admonition in creative writing pedagogy is, “Cut as many adjectives as possible.” I propose that this rule springs from mere prejudice. The post Stop Hating on Adjectives! appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Foreign Affairs

      Dec 1, 2022

      Foreign Affairs
      24 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Commonplace Book

      Jun 1, 2022

      Try to praise the mutilated world. Remember June’s long days, and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine. The nettles that methodically overgrow the abandoned homesteads of exiles. —Adam Zagajewski, “Try to Praise the Mutilated World,” tr. by Clare C

      4 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Herd word

      Jan 7, 2020

      The Herd word
      17 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Florida Man

      Dec 1, 2023

      Florida Man
      17 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Body Language

      Aug 14, 2019

      Body Language
      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Weary Blues

    4.5/5

    48 ratings4 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      An absolutely gorgeous edition of Langston Hughes' debut poetry collection. Printed as first published in 1926, it contains not only his wonderful poetry but a closing essay by him expressing his thoughts on the politics of poetry for the Black man during the Harlem Renaissance. A fascinating collection for anyone who loves poetry or history.
    • 5/5
      4.5 stars for Langston Hughes' poems. 3.0 stars for the books production. The date given for the book is the original date of 1926. Nowhere is there any reference to when Mint Editions published the book. It is also interesting that the "introduction" that I mention below is signed 1925. That leads one to believe the introduction was written as Hughes was writing and was meant to accompany the original poems. If that is the case, it would have been nice to have it explained. There is also no indication of where Mint Editions is located. I suspect that this production is being done by younger people who feel that as long as you have an electronic address (an email, website, facebook, etc) that is all that is necessary. It isn't the proper way to publish, even though the book itself is lovely. It's a sweet edition even if it is in paperback. I appreciate Mint Editions efforts to put out classics in a new format, but I feel that classics especially should be offered, when possible, in hardcover. Paperbacks don't hold up over the years. This edition is nicely laid out with one poem per page. It would have been nice to have the font perhaps one point higher for older eyes. Included is a two-part introduction to Hughes. The first part being biographical and appreciated. The second part, however, begins to be interpretive which I dislike, believing the reader should be the interpreter. The introduction is short, so it wasn't a big issue. As an aside, it is easy to see Langston Hughes' influence in the poems by Frederick Ward such as the collection in Riverlisp.
    • 4/5
      I am a great fan of Langston Hughes' poetry, and this compilation did not disappoint. Divided into 7 sections by "narrative" (The Weary Blues, Dream Variation, The Negro Speaks of Rivers, Black Pierrot, Water-Front Streets, Shadows in the Sun, and Our Land), the poems in each section match to the titles. Hughes' poetry has such a rhythm to it that I found myself reading most of them out loud!
    • 5/5
      I love that the preserved the original cover, and the forward by Kevin Young is helpful providing context for Mr Hughes. 'I, too, sing America', indeed.

    Book preview

    The Weary Blues - Langston Hughes

    Introducing Langston Hughes to the Reader

    I

    At the moment I cannot recall the name of any other person whatever who, at the age of twenty-three, has enjoyed so picturesque and rambling an existence as Langston Hughes. Indeed, a complete account of his disorderly and delightfully fantastic career would make a fascinating picaresque romance which I hope this young Negro will write before so much more befalls him that he may find it difficult to capture all the salient episodes within the limits of a single volume.

    Born on February 1, 1902, in Joplin, Missouri, he had lived, before his twelfth year, in the City of Mexico, Topeka, Kansas, Colorado Springs, Charlestown, Indiana, Kansas City, and Buffalo. He attended Central High School, from which he graduated, at Cleveland, Ohio, while in the summer, there and in Chicago, he worked as delivery- and dummy-boy in hat-stores. In his senior year he was elected class poet and editor of the Year Book.

    After four years in Cleveland, he once more joined his father in Mexico, only to migrate to New York where he entered Columbia University. There, finding the environment distasteful, or worse, he remained till spring, when he quit, broke with his father and, with thirteen dollars in cash, went on his own. First, he worked for a truck-farmer on Staten Island; next, he delivered flowers for Thorley; at length he partially satisfied an insatiable craving to go to sea by signing up with an old ship anchored in the Hudson for the winter. His first real cruise as a sailor carried him to the Canary Islands, the Azores, and the West Coast of Africa, of which voyage he has written: "Oh, the sun in Dakar! Oh, the little black

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1