The Weary Blues

Before “The Weary Blues” came out in Langston Hughes’ first book, it was published in 1925 by Opportunity, the magazine put out by the Black civil rights organization the Urban League. The poem won the magazine’s top prize in poetry. The publication history of “The Weary Blues” further ties it to the Harlem Renaissance—a period of remarkable Black creativity from the 1920s until the mid-1930s, Opportunity played a critical role in providing a platform to Harlem Renaissance writers like Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Countee Cullen, and, of course, Hughes. His poem reflects the top priorities of Harlem Renaissance artists as it supplies an unfiltered glimpse at a Black life in diction and tone congruent with the Black community. The poem’s rhythm displays the influence of jazz and blues on Harlem Renaissance artists, and the singer’s lyrics highlight how Hughes and other artists at the time felt empowered to exhibit the locution often found in their community.

Another literary context for “The Weary Blues” is Modernism. Modernism is typically associated with white writers and poets like Gertrude Stein, Virginia Woolf, James Joyce, and T. S.