The Weary Blues

Droning a drowsy syncopated2 tune,Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,I heard a Negro play.Down on Lenox Avenue the other nightBy the pale dull pallor of an old gas lightHe did a lazy sway …He did a lazy sway …To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.With his ebony hands on each ivory keyHe made that poor piano moan with melody.O Blues!Swaying to and fro on his rickety3  stoolHe played that sad raggy4  tune like a musical fool.Sweet Blues!Coming from a black man’s soul.

O Blues!In a deep song voice with a melancholy toneI heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—

“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,Ain’t got nobody but ma self.I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’And put ma troubles on the shelf.”

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.He played a few chords then he sang some more—“I got the Weary BluesAnd I can’t be satisfied.Got the Weary BluesAnd can’t be satisfied—

I ain’t happy no mo’And I wish that I had died.”

And far into the night he crooned that tune.The stars went out and so did the moon.The singer stopped playing and went to bedWhile the Weary Blues echoed through his head.He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.

From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.1994

1. See “Life and Works” for comments on this poem.2. “syncopated”: to alter the rhythm of temporarily by transferring the accent to a normally unaccented beat.3. Rickety: feble, unstable, threatening to collapse.4. Rough, ragged…