A Bridge between ‘Po’ Boy Blues’ and ‘Homesick Blues’: Music

A Bridge between ‘Po’ Boy Blues’ and ‘Homesick Blues’: Music

One of the most important poets of his time Langston Hughes interested not only in poetry but also in music. He grown up in a city where jazz music was very popular and his friends and siblings were people who were living with jazz music. When he saw that he was not talented for both, he chose the one he is talented in: poetry. But what is special with him? What did he do about the things he loved so much? What is relation of Jazz to Langston Hughes? The things he did may be counted as a quality which sets a bridge between his poems?

Being realized that he couldn’t be apart from music or poetry or being interested in only one of these, he did something special: merging two art forms into one, he crated jazz poetry which includes jazz in his poetry. This style can take jazz as both subject and form. This poetry includes syncopated rhythms and repetitive phrases of blues and jazz music. So why did he do this in his poetry? During Harlem Renaissance most of the black poets were proud of writing on their own heritage and reflecting their own ideas, life styles. As being one of the most important art styles for black people, jazz became very popular not only with its musical dignity but also with its poetic dignity. So Hughes had been affected from his own memories, hobbies and likes, and then mixed these two together.

In these two poems we may see that actually while he was using jazz forms in his poetry, he set a bridge between his poems. To start with first stanzas he basically used 12-bars blues structure:

“Homesick blues”                                                           “Po’ boy blues”

De railroad bridge's                                               When I was home de

A sad song in de air.                                             Sunshine seemed like gold.

De railroad bridge's                                               When I was home de

A sad song in de air.                                             Sunshine seemed like gold.

Ever time de trains pass                                       Since I come up North de

I wants to go somewhere.                                    Whole damn world’s turned cold.

               When you try to read these lines aloud then you can recognize that their 12-bars structure. Besides as it is clear their form is also the same as in the sense of meter and rhyme. In both poems there are repetitions as blues has its rhythm repeated again and again. This repetitions and structures go through ends of the both poems. 

I went down to de station.                                   I was a good boy

Ma heart was in ma mouth.                               Never done no wrong.

Went down to de station.                                    Yes, I was a good boy,

Heart was in ma mouth.                                      Never done no wrong,

Lookin' for a box car                                           But this world is weary

To roll me to de South                                         An’ de road is hard an’ long.

Homesick blues, Lawd,                                       I fell in love with

'S a terrible thing to have.                                    A gal I thought was kind.

Homesick blues is                                                 Fell in love with

A terrible thing to have.                                       A gal I thought was kind.

To keep from cryin'                                              She made me lose ma money

I opens ma mouth an' laughs.                            An’ almost lose ma mind.

               As it is seen here these two poems are alike except their content. By having been poet during modernist era he did something new by writing with spoken language, combining those two art style but at the same time this was a new form structure to fit in and write according to those rules of the type as in these poems it follows with repetitions and line structures. So if we ask the question again if this structure sets a bridge between his poems, the answer is totally yes. Because he wrote in a basic structure just change the topic of poems and used the same structure. This attempt connects his poems in a sense. So if we look these poems in a formalist way we can consider these two poems are belong to the same road to drive on.