Major Features Of Langston Hughes Jazz Poetry An Analyis Of His Poem Railroad Avenue

Seminar paper from the year 1998 in the subject American Studies - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,7, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (American Studies Department), course: American Modernism, language: English, abstract: How did Langston Hughes shape music into poetry, what were the items of his jazz poetry and what message did he want to mediate? Concerning the items and message of jazz poetry, secondary literature offers no help. Reading Hughes' jazz poems and combining it with the status of jazz music and Hughes' view of art, the following assumptions are plausible: Hughes’ jazz poetry tries with literary devices to imitate jazz music. This poetry reflects to reflect modern, urban black poplar culture. His poems transmit a new black self- confidence. The aim of this paper is to give reasons for those assumptions by analyzing a jazz poem closely. The poem that is to be analyzed is called „Railroad Avenue“ and was published first in 1926.

Presents selected works from "The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes," and "The Ways of White Folks."

A leading figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes was the first to use his poetry to reflect the real daily lives of average Black people. This collection celebrates Black pride and contains messages of hope and optimism from the 1920s. Langston Hughes is often referred to as the Poet Laureate of African-American experience. The writer featured themes of cultural heritage, racial discrimination, and optimism in his poetry. He used his work to reflect the struggles of Black people in America, but also to send messages of hope. Jazz and blues had a strong influence on his work and dreams are a recurring theme in his poetry. Not only does Hughes comment on the American dream and Black people’s inability to achieve it, but he also uses dreams as a symbol of hope for equity and freedom. This collection features several sections, including: - The Weary Blues - Dream Variations - The Negro Speaks of Rivers - Black Pierrot - Water-Front Streets - Shadows in the Sun - Our Land Where the Jazz Band Plays - The Weary Blues has been proudly published by specialist poetry imprint Ragged Hand and features an introductory excerpt by Carl Van Vechten and the introductory essay A Brief History of the Harlem Renaissance. This collection is a perfect gift for fans of Hughes’ poetry and those with an interest in Black history.

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.

An introduction to jazz which focuses on its historical development.

Langston Hughes electrified readers and launched a renaissance in Black writing in America—the poems in this collection were chosen by Hughes himself shortly before his death and represent stunning work from his entire career. The poems Hughes wrote celebrated the experience of invisible men and women: of slaves who "rushed the boots of Washington"; of musicians on Lenox Avenue; of the poor and the lovesick; of losers in "the raffle of night." They conveyed that experience in a voice that blended the spoken with the sung, that turned poetic lines into the phrases of jazz and blues, and that ripped through the curtain separating high from popular culture. They spanned the range from the lyric to the polemic, ringing out "wonder and pain and terror—and the marrow of the bone of life." The collection includes "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "The Weary Blues," "Still Here," "Song for a Dark Girl," "Montage of a Dream Deferred," and "Refugee in America." It gives us a poet of extraordinary range, directness, and stylistic virtuosity.

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a black civil rights activist, leader, Pan-Africanist, sociologist, educator, historian, writer, editor, poet, and scholar. He became a naturalized citizen of Ghana in 1963 at the age of 95. "The time has not yet come for a complete history of the Negro peoples. Archaeological research in Africa has just begun, and many sources of information in Arabian, Portuguese, and other tongues are not fully at our command; and, too, it must frankly be confessed, racial prejudice against darker peoples is still too strong in so-called civilized centers for judicial appraisement of the peoples of Africa. Much intensive monographic work in history and science is needed to clear mooted points and quiet the controversialist who mistakes present personal desire for scientific proof. Nevertheless, I have not been able to withstand the temptation to essay such short general statement of the main known facts and their fair interpretation as shall enable the general reader to know as men a sixth or more of the human race. Manifestly so short a story must be mainly conclusions and generalizations with but meager indication of authorities and underlying arguments." - W. E. B. Du Bois

Langston Hughes' blues and jazz poetry is given special attention in a study which places the poetry in the Afro-American oral tradition and the tradition of struggle and protest.