Daybreak in Alabama

When I get to be a colored composer

I'm gonna write me some music about
Daybreak in Alabama
And I'm gonna put the purtiest songs in it
Rising out of the ground like a swamp mist
And falling out of heaven like soft dew
I'm gonna put some tall tall trees in it
And the scent of pine needles
And the smell of red clay after rain
And long red necks
And poppy colored faces
And big brown arms
And the field daisy eyes
Of black and white black white black people
And I'm gonna put white hands
And black hands and brown and yellow hands
And red clay earth hands in it
Touching everybody with kind fingers
Touching each other natural as dew
In that dawn of music when I
Get to be a colored composer
And write about daybreak
In Alabama.

Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes’s ‘Daybreak in Alabama’  is about harmony in music. It has the
power to untangle the problems and solve all the difficulties that burden the
mind. Hughes’ speaker of this piece particularly talks about this idea. He tries to
compose a verse that gives shelter to people of all colors. Not only colored
people are there, but there is also a place for even the whites. The lyricist seeks a
single quality from his characters. They have to be kind to one another in order to
see the new daybreak of humanity.
This poem begins with a simple wish of Hughes’ speaker. He wants to create a piece
that is metaphorically about the daybreak in Alabama. In the first few lines, Hughes
describes this song as a representation of nature itself. The song rises out like
swamp mist and falls from heaven like dew. It contains the faces and hands of
colored people. Not only that, the white people have a place in the poet’s song. He
wishes everyone to be kind to others. In this way, it will eventuate the new dawn in
Alabama.

“Daybreak in Alabama” Summary

The speaker envisions one day becoming a songwriter of color and writing
some music about the sunrise in Alabama. The speaker's music will include
beautiful songs that rise out of the ground like mist rises from a swamp and
that fall from the sky like gentle droplets of water. The speaker lists the diverse
things that this music will contain: very tall trees, the smell of pine, the scent of
red clay that's wet from the rain, long red necks, faces that are bright red like
poppy flowers, brown arms, and the eyes of black and white people looking
 like field daisies. The speaker will also sing about white, black, brown, and
yellow hands, and hands the color of red clay. The hands that the speaker
plans to sing about will be touching all people with kindness and also
touching each other as naturally as the dew falls in that early morning
music, when the speaker finally gets to be a songwriter of color and write
music about sunrise in Alabama.

Meaning
The title of this piece ‘Daybreak in Alabama’  has significance in respect to the overall
idea of the poem. The “daybreak” is a stock symbol of a new beginning or hope.
Whereas Alabama is considered as the place where Civil Rights Movements
flourished. The poet tries to emphasize the importance of this American state in the
future development of civil rights movements all over the world. The place brought
hope to those who were either oppressed due to their hue or tortured for their racial
status. So, the daybreak in Alabama is not only a new beginning to this place only. It
brings rays of hope to the regions where racial inequality and injustice still exist.

Structure
The poem is written in the free-verse form that does not contain a specific structure.
It consists of an irregular rhyming pattern along with non-metrical lines. Hughes
uses slant rhymes in several instances. Besides, there are some internal rhymings
that bring harmony between the lines. Even though the poem is written in a
specific meter the lines are mostly in the iambic meter. It means the second syllable
of each foot is stressed while the previous one is unstressed. The length of each line
is not regular. Some lines are comparably shorter than the neighboring lines.
Literary Devices
Hughes’ ‘Daybreak in Alabama’  contains the following literary devices:

 Metaphor: The title of the poem contains a metaphor for hope. It refers

to the hope of the colored people after witnessing the daybreak in
Alabama.
 Simile: It occurs in the following lines: “Rising out of the ground like a
swamp mist/ And falling out of heaven like soft dew”.
 Anaphora: This device is used several times within the text. For
example, readers can find this device in lines 9-14, lines 16-18, and lines
19-20.
 Imagery: The poet uses visual imagery in “Rising out of the ground like
a swamp mist” and olfactory imagery in “And the scent of pine needles”.
 Alliteration: It occurs in “colored composer,” “put the purtiest,”
“tall tall trees,” etc.

Themes
This poem taps on several themes such as harmony, equality, brotherhood, and
nature. The most important theme of this piece racial equality and harmony. This
theme is present after the ninth line. In these lines, Hughes talks about bringing
everyone to one place where they have to show kindness, affection, and respect to
everyone’s identity. The previous lines solely tap on the theme of nature. These lines
showcase a variety of natural imagery in order to bring freshness to the music. In the
last few lines, Hughes uses the theme of brotherhood and equality.
Detailed Analysis
Lines 1–4
The poem ‘Daybreak in Alabama’  begins with the wish of the first-person speaker,
the poetic persona of Langston Hughes, to become a music composer. Hughes uses
the term “colored” to refer to his racial identity. He accepts how he is and how the
world sees him at the time of writing the poem. Generally, non-white people are
called colored people. He takes pride in being a colored musician or poet.
He talks about writing a song or composing some music about the “Daybreak in
Alabama.” It means he wants to capture the “daybreak” through the music of his
song. His composition should have the feature to portray the beginning of a new
day in Alabama. He refers to this particular American state as the seed of the
American Civil Rights Movement was sowed there.

In the fourth line, Hughes uses the hyperbolic term “purtiest”. This word is
the superlative form of “pretty”. It is an informal use of the adjective. In this line, the
speaker emphasizes how much he is excited to compose the music. He wants to put
the most appropriate expressions in the songs that depict the daybreak.

The text we're using in this analysis sticks to that of the original poem, though Hughes cut the word
“colored” (a segregation-era term for Black people) in a later publication. In any case, its inclusion in
this original version identifies the speaker as a person of color. It's also significant that the “daybreak”
the speaker wants to write music about is in Alabama, one of the states in the American South where
segregation laws keeping Black people separate from white people were especially strict. Together,
these facts suggest that “daybreak” here refers not just to a literal sunrise but also to the speaker’s
longing for a fresh start for race relations in the United States.

What’s more, the poem announces the speaker’s wish to compose music someday, when the speaker
“gets to be” a “composer.” The fact that that wish lies in an indeterminate future implies that it is still a
long way from being fulfilled. 
Meanwhile, the colloquial phrase “I’m gonna write me,” common both in Southern slang and in African
American Vernacular English, is appropriate given the poem’s setting. It also establishes the speaker’s
tone as informal and even intimate, as if sharing a deeply personal wish with a close friend.

Lines 5–9
In the following lines, the speaker metaphorically compares the song to several
beautiful scenes observed in nature. First of all, he refers to the image of a “swamp
mist”. The song is compared to the mist that rises up. In the early morning,
the audience can see the mists gathering above swaps or any still water body. As the
poet is talking about the daybreak, he refers to the mist that can be seen at that
time.
Another scene is related to the early morning hour which Hughes talks about in the
following line. He depicts how the dew falls from heaven in the morning. The dew is
“soft”. This term makes the liquid (dew) seem like a soft, solid substance. He uses the
adjective to refer to the mental impression that the dew has on one’s mind. His song
is like “soft dew” that can comfort the listeners.
In the following lines, Hughes uses a palilogy by repeating the word “tall” twice. He
actually refers to the height of the trees by this repetition. Furthermore, he says that
listeners can smell the scent of pine needles and red clay after rain. These two
images belong to olfactory imagery. It means that the poet is referring to the smell
of two things by presenting their verbal depiction.

Lines 10–17
The use of the conjunction “And” at the beginning of all the lines in this section is
important to note. Hughes uses anaphora to create connectivity between the lines.
He repeats the word for the sake of emphasis. In the previous lines, he talks about
several natural images. From this section, he refers to “colored” humans.
In his song or poetic creation, readers can find people from different colors, races, or
identities. There are people having long red necks, red faces, big brown arms, and
yellowish eyes. Not only that, there is a place for both white and non-white people.
The line “Of black and white black white black people” does not have any commas
to separate the ideas. It hints at the idea of equality. For Hughes, they are human
beings. A white is also human, so is a black. There is no actual difference except their
external hues.
In his poetic creation, people of different colors have the same place. He especially
refers to the colors of their hands to establish a unity between them and propagate
the idea of brotherhood. When various hands join together and form a chain, it
becomes an ideal symbol of universal brotherhood.

Lines 18–23
The last few lines of ‘Daybreak in Alabama’  emphasize this idea more. In the first
two lines, beginning with the word “Touching”, Hughes tells his audience to be
respectful to one another. They should touch each other kindly as naturally as a dew
does to a leaf. This is a roundabout way of saying, they have to be kind to one
another.
n the following line, readers can find a metaphor “dawn of music”. Here, the musical
composition is compared to “dawn”. It can also be a reference to a new beginning
that his music is going to eventuate. Music is always harmonious and it is packed in
a rhythm. There is a musicality in everything around us, be it nature or human
beings. It is the music of the universe that binds us together.
In the last few lines, Hughes reiterates the idea described in the first few lines of the
poem. He says in that new dawn, he wants to be a colored musician and compose
about the daybreak in Alabama.

“Daybreak in Alabama” Vocabulary

 Colored: In the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, this was a term used to refer
to Black people in the United States. Though it was often the preferred term at the
time Hughes was writing, the word is currently considered an ethnic slur. Hughes
actually cut it from a later publication of the poem.
 Purtiest: This is a spelling of the word “prettiest” the way it might be pronounced in
certain Southern U.S. accents. The word suggests the way people might speak in
Alabama, as well as the down-to-earth, plainspoken tone of the speaker.
 Dew: Dew refers to tiny drops of water that slowly form on cool surfaces overnight.
Dew is often seen glittering on the leaves of plants or the petals of flowers in the
morning. It therefore not only suggests daybreak but, as in line 6, the gentleness and
splendor of nature. In line 19, it is used in a simile to suggest that racial unity and
 harmony would be just as natural as drops of water collecting on leaves during the
night.
 Poppy colored: The speaker uses this term to refer to faces that are the color of
poppies, which are a kind of bright red flower.
 Field daisy: This is a common name for a flower with white petals and a bright yellow
center.
References: https://poemanalysis.com/langston-hughes/daybreak-in-alabama/

https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/langston-hughes/daybreak-in-alabama