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Goin’ down the road, Lawd Goin’ down the road. Down the road, Lawd, Way, way down the road. Got to find somebody To help me carry this load.
Road’s in front o’me, Nothin’ to do but walk, Road’s in front o’ me, Walk...an’ walk...an’ walk. I’d like to meet a good friend To come along an’ talk.
Hate to be lonely, Lawd, I hates to be sad. Says I hate to be lonely, Hates to be lonely an’ sad, But ever friends you finds seems Like they try to do you bad.
Road, road, road, O! Road, road...road...road, road! On the no’thern road, These Mississippi towns ain’t Fit fer a hoppin’ toad. Do you feel the rhythm? Do you hear the rhyme? What is music? Music is lyrics, rhythm, and rhyme. What is poetry? Poetry is lyric, rhythm, and rhyme. This is how Langston Hughes wrote this poem: “Bound No’th Blue”. This poem is about the lonely journey from the laborious struggle of the South, to the North by an African American searching for a better life, as sung by a blues singer. It's a long, lonely road. All you need is someone to talk, to help bear the load. When I read this poem, I was taken back to the stories that I have heard my parents talk about. I almost instantly remember the atmosphere of the juke-joint that I visited while in Mississippi for a family reunion. I read the poem first and then began to hum it with a melodic rhythm. I ended by singing it in the manner that I had heard the blues sung. Muddy Waters, Alberta Hunter, Ma Rainy, Bessie Smith, B.B. King, and Bobby Blue Bland sang about the blues and Langston Hughes wrote about it. “He was the first poet to use the blues form successfully, and he used it with continued skill for many years.” (p. 1128). In this poem Mr Hughes used symbols and end rhymes in each of the stanzas. Born James Langston Hughes on February 1, 1902 in Joplin, Missouri, his family were abolitionist. He began writing poetry in the eighth grade. His father didn’t think that he could make a very good living at this, so he paid for him to go to Columbia University to study engineering. Langston dropped out after a short time with a B+ average. His favorite pastime was sitting in the clubs in Washington D.C., or New York, listening to blues, jazz, and writing poetry. He was quoted, “I tried to write poems like the songs they sang on Seventh Street...(these songs) had the pulse beat of the people who keep on going.” (p. 1) Biography Queens Borough Public Libray Hughes’ first book of poetry, “The Weary Blues”, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. His primary influences were Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Carl Sandburg, and Walt Whitman. He was known for his colorful portrayals of black life in America from the twenties through the sixties. He refused to differentiate between his personal experience and the common experience of black America. (p.1) The Academy of American Poets-Poetry Exhibits Charters, Ann and Charters, Samuel. “Literature and Its Writers”. New York: Bedford Books, 1996. 1997 Biography. “Langston Hughes, The Poet Laureate of Harlem”. Queens Borough Public Library Poetry Exhibits. “The Academy of American Poets”. |