A Connoisseur of American Verse: An Explication of Poetry by Langston Hughes
Uploaded by perpetualplague on Feb 05, 2002
Hard Daddy, Midwinter Blues, Little Old Letter
Langston Hughes electrifies readers and launched a renaissance in black writing in America. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of black men and women, the poor, and the lovesick. Helping the African-American male gain praise in the poetic and musical world Hughes conveyed an experience that turned poetic lines into the phrases of lyrical blues. Leading the new century with greatness it can clearly be said that Langston Hughes was one of the great connoisseurs of American verse.
To first understand Langston Hughes’ blues you must first know what blues is and what the common meter is for blues. Blues is basically a line pertaining to a time or event followed by another line that has something to do with the first line. A repetition of the first two lines is then done to create emphasis. A last line or two that has a rhyme scheme that is similar to the first four lines within the stanza.
The meter usually contained within blues lyrics is iambic trochee. Iambic trochee is marked by an unstressed point followed by a stressed point proceeded by two unstressed points and ensuing that would be another stressed point. In the poem “Hard Daddy” it is clearly seen how Hughes used iambic trochee to perform his blues. “I went to ma daddy, Says Daddy I have got the blues.” If noticed in the first two lines of “Hard Daddy” the word “went” is a stress point while “I” is the unstressed point. “To ma” are two other unstressed points while “Daddy” is a stressed point. The first stanza is a common iambic trochee.
After knowing what blues is and how it is to be read the poems by Hughes can be broken down. In poem one, “Hard Daddy”, it is quite literal. The tone is sad, the speaker is upset about her “man”. The speaker’s father is not the loving kind. He turns his shoulder on the occasion of his daughter needing help. Angered, the speaker wishes she “had wing to/ Fly like the eagle flies. / I’d fly on ma man an’/ I’d scratch out both his eyes.” Like the blues, this poem is quite literal. Hughes used the basic format of blues to convey a moment in time.
Poem two, “Midwinter Blues”, is about a woman left by a man. The quote, “Left when the coal was low”, can...