The Weary Blues Literary Devices

When we read or listen to poems we sometimes forget to really consider some of the main parts of the poem. However, there are three things we should consider thinking about when reading poems- setting, theme, and speaker. There are two poems by Langston Hughes that , upon reading them, make you want to understand them a little bit more. In this essay, I will analyze the poems, “ I, too” and “The Weary Blues”. I highly suggest that as I analyze them, engage yourself by thinking critically about the setting, theme, and speaker.
The first thing we should consider in both of these poems is the setting. Both of these poems were written in a period when African American slaves had been freed, but still did not have the same rights as Caucasians.

They each have their own unique theme that revolves around an issue or conveys an idea. In the poem, “The Weary Blues”, both the person listening to the music and the musician are trying to express their feelings. In line 11, Langston Hughes talks about how the musician was playing by saying, “He made that poor piano moan with melody” (“Hughes”11). This tells us as the reader that the musician’s only way of expressing himself is by playing the piano in a way that allows his true feeling to be heard. In this case, both the musician and the person listening are expressing their pain and other emotions through the blues. In the poem “I, Too”, the theme is much different from that in “The Weary Blues”. “I, Too” is more about African-Americans who have not been treated equally and hope for a better future to come. From the poem, we can determine the speaker is optimistic and knows that one day things will change for the better. In lines 9-10, the speaker says, “Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table when company comes” (“Hughes” 9-10). This says to me that the speaker feels like with everything that African-Americans have gone through, still one day Caucasian people in America will see them as their equals and treat them the