American Literature / Unit 13 AML 1208 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"The Weary Blues" and the Blues Form
Captions available
The idea
Hughes brought the blues stanza into poetry: a line, its near repetition, and a third line that answers. "The Weary Blues" frames a Harlem piano player's song inside a listener's report, and the witness credits Hughes with incorporating blues, spirituals, colloquial speech and folkways into verse.
In practice
A statement, its echo, and a reply.
Where people slip
The blues stanza is a form, not a mood.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
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