One of the recurring elements of Hughes' poetry is rhythm. It's the main focus of many of his poems. They were designed to be read aloud or even sung. This is the only part about Langston Hughes' writing I actually enjoyed (other than his comically bad grammar). When reading several of his poems, I could hear the jazzy rhythm and see them easily being sung. Well, it turns out that was his intention. His poetry has a jazzy rhythm, much like the music that would have been popular at the time. This style would later become popular as jazz poetry, making Hughes the pioneer.
There are lots of musicians who I could connect with Hughes' poetry. Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Nat "King" Cole; pretty much any jazz great of the time would have inspired Hughes' poetry. Some on Hughes' jazz inspired poems include Bound No'th Blues, the Weary Blues, Song for a Banjo Dance, and Po' Boy Blues, along with countless others. Essentially, two thirds of his poems have the word blues in the title. He really should have been a songwriter, in my opinion. Anyway, those poems have a specific jazz rhythm that could be found in most popular music of the time. Below is an example.
Louis Armstrong - West End Blues<br><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.4shared.com/flash/player.swf?ver=9051" style="" id="ply" name="ply" quality="high" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="false" wmode="opaque" flashvars="file=http://dc171.4shared.com/img/439801441/d2930b6a/dlink__2Fdownload_2FlhoOLO2c_3Ftsid_3D00000000-000000-00000000/preview.mp3&volume=50&" height="20" width="200"><br>Powered by <a href="http://mp3skull.com/">mp3skull.com</a><script type="text/javascript" src="http://mp3skull.com/embedcl.php"></script>
In conclusion, the use of poetry with a jazz rhythm was a new development at the time Hughes was writing it. It's the main reason Hughes' poetry was noteworthy, and still is noteworthy, and out of all his poems, the rhythmic ones were the only ones I could take any enjoyment from. However, my initial opinion hasn't been changed. I don't think having good rhythm is enough to write compelling poetry. I'll go deeper into other aspects of Hughes' poetry in blogs to come. Until then, I must say, Adios!
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