Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues" (full text) (1926)
The Weary Blues is Langston Hughes' first published book of poetry. It was published by Knopf in 1926, with a preface by Carl Van Vechten. Alongside Alain Locke's anthology, The New Negro: an Interpretation (1925), the publication of Hughes' collection of poems is one of the defining moments of the Harlem Renaissance. The Weary Blues contains several of Hughes' best known poems, including "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "Dream Variation," and the Epilogue ("I, too, sing America..."). It celebrates the emerging Black expressive culture in Harlem, but also reflects Hughes' considerable travels in the early 1920s, in Mexico, Europe, and the Caribbean (see "Water-front Streets," "A Farewell," "Port Town," "Natcha," "Soledad: A Cuban Portrait" and "Mexican Market Woman" for more of Hughes' internationalism).
Critics such as Arnold Rampersad have particularly singled out Hughes' innovative embrace of concepts borrowed from jazz and blues music as the defining innovation of this collection. The blues in particular would be central to Hughes' second published book of poems, Fine Clothes to the Jew (1928). Here, Hughes' interest in the collection seems equally divided between the blues theme and concepts and experiences closer to Jazz (along those lines, see "Jazzonia," "Negro Dancers," "To Midnight Nan at Leroys" and "The Cat and the Saxophone," to name just a few)
Langston Hughes first began publishing his poetry in The Crisis in June 1921; his first poem published there, fittingly, was "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," one of his most famous and enduring works. However, Hughes also published many other poems that would appear in The Weary Blues in magazines like Opportunity and Survey Graphic in the years leading up to the publication of his first book. An archive of The Crisis up to 1922 can be found at the Modernist Journals Project.
This text was produced using the scanned version of the first edition of the book available at Google Books. For this digital edition, I extracted a plain text version, and then formatted and tagged the poems in the Table of Contents below. The plain text version can be found here.
--Amardeep Singh, Lehigh University. January 2022
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The Weary Blues
by Langston Hughes
With an Introduction by Carl Van Vechten
New York: Alfred A. Knopf
1926
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Dedication: "To my mother"
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"I wish to thank the editors of The Crisis, Opportunity, Survey Graphic, Vanity Fair, The World Tomorrow and The Amsterdam News for having published some of the poems in this book."
This page has paths:
- Langston Hughes: Poems, Biography, and Timeline of his early career Amardeep Singh
- Welcome: African American Poetry--a Digital Anthology Amardeep Singh
Contents of this path:
- Introducing Langston Hughes to the Reader (Carl Van Vechten)
- Langston Hughes, "Proem" ["The Negro"] (1922)
- Langston Hughes, "The Weary Blues" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Jazzonia" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Negro Dancers" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "The Cat and the Saxophone" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Young Singer" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Cabaret" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "To Midnight Nan at Leroy's" (1926)
- To a Little Lover-Lass, Dead by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, Harlem Night Club (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Nude Young Dancer" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Young Prostitute" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "To a Black Dancer in 'The Little Savoy'" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Song for a Banjo Dance" (1922)
- Langston Hughes, "Blues Fantasy" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Lenox Avenue: Midnight" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Dream Variation" (1924)
- Langston Hughes, "Winter Moon" (1923)
- Poeme d'Automne by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Fantasy in Purple" (1926)
- March Moon by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Joy" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921)
- Langston Hughes, "Cross" (1925)
- The Jester by Langston Hughes
- The South by Langston Hughes
- As I Grew Older by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Aunt Sue's Stories" (1921)
- Langston Hughes, "Poem" ("The Night is Beautiful...") (1923)
- A Black Pierrot by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Harlem Night Song" (1926)
- Songs to the Dark Virgin by Langston Hughes
- Ardella by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "To the Black Beloved" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "When Sue Wears Red" (1923)
- Pierrot by Langston Hughes
- Water-Front Streets by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "A Farewell" (1925)
- Long Trip by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Port Town" (1926)
- Sea Calm by Langston Hughes
- Caribbean Sunset by Langston Hughes
- Young Sailor by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Seascape" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Natcha" (1926)
- Sea Charm by Langston Hughes
- Death of an Old Seaman by Langston Hughes
- Beggar Boy by Langston Hughes
- Troubled Woman by Langston Hughes
- Suicide's Note by Langston Hughes
- Sick Room by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Soledad: A Cuban Portrait" (1925)
- To the Dark Mercedes of 'El Palacio de Amor' by Langston Hughes
- Mexican Market Woman by Langston Hughes
- After Many Springs by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Young Bride" (1925)
- The Dream Keeper by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Poem (To F.S.)" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Our Land: Poem for a Decorative Panel " (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Lament for Dark Peoples" (1924)
- Afraid by Langston Hughes
- Poem: For the portrait of an African boy after the manner of Gauguin by Langston Hughes
- Langston Hughes, "Summer Night" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Disillusion" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Danse Africaine" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "The White Ones" (1924)
- Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" (1922)
- Poem ("We Have Tomorrow...") by Langston Hughes
- Epilogue ("I , Too, Sing America...") by Langston Hughes