The evolution of poetic song verse is a rich and complex subject that can be investigated through the examination of different works of craftsmanship. In this paper, we dive into the comparison and contrast of the tune "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" by Chuck Berry and the poem "Jazzonia" by Langston Hughes. Through a close reading of specific sections, we are going look at how these works reflect the evolution of poetic song verse, paying attention to continuities and discontinuities between the two. To start, it is essential to set up the historical and social context in which both "Brown Eyed Handsome Man" and "Jazzonia" were made. Chuck Berry's song was released in 1956, amid a time of significant social and cultural change within the United …show more content…
In "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," Chuck Berry utilizes vivid and evocative dialect to paint a picture of the main character and the reactions he inspires. Expressions such as "arrested on charges of unemployment" and "just-a-driftin' and a-driftin'" pass on a sense of movement and urgency, while also implying to the social and economic substances of the time. The song's narrative quality and narrating components adjust with the tradition of folk and blues music, displaying a continuity in the use of narrative inside poetic song verse. On the other hand, Langston Hughes' "Jazzonia" utilizes rich and sensory imagery to bring out the atmosphere of a jazz club. The poem is replete with depictions of music, dance, and sensory experiences, creating a multi-sensory tapestry that immerses the reader within the world of jazz. Lines such as "moanin' low / Sweet blues coming from a black man's soul" and "Boys with big mouths and big legs / And it's a razz-ma-tazz and a jazz" capture the vibrant and rhythmic essence of jazz music, illustrating a discontinuity within the use of imagery compared to conventional poetic song
The speaker in “Harlem” is an African-American activist in Harlem who is fighting for rights of the African-Americans who live in Harlem. Although written by the same author, “Harlem” and “Harlem Night Song” have similarities and differences in literary devices, tone and mood. In “Harlem Night Song”, Hughes used non-consistent rhyme. In the poem, it states, “The Harlem roof-tops/Moon is shining./Night sky is blue./Stars are great drops/Of
Chuck Berry’s revolutionary sound was not completely new material though. He was heavily influenced by blues musicians, especially Muddy Waters who introduced him to Chess Records where he later recorded Maybellene, which became a number one on R&B charts, and number five on pop. He was also influenced by country musicians that he had heard on the radio transforming two sounds and blending them into one. Extending beyond the usually black audience from R&B in the area of rock oriented audience; his music achieved a much bigger appeal to more people. Using guitar tricks and parts of blues singers style, Berry designed a form that many had wanted to quickly copy from.
“Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words.” –Edgar Allan Poe. Poetry is one of the world’s greatest wonders. It is a way to tell a story, raise awareness of a social or political issue, an expression of emotions, an outlet, and last but not least it is an art. Famous poet Langston Hughes uses his poetry as a musical art form to raise awareness of social injustices towards African-Americans during the time of the Harlem Renaissance. Although many poets share similarities with one another, Hughes creatively crafted his poetry in a way that was only unique to him during the 1920’s. He implemented different techniques and styles in his poetry that not only helped him excel during the 1920’s, but has also kept him relative in modern times. Famous poems of his such as a “Dream Deferred,” and “I, Too, Sing America” are still being studied and discussed today. Due to the cultural and historical events occurring during the 1920’s Langston Hughes was able to implement unique writing characteristics such as such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues that is demonstrative of his writing style. Langston Hughes use of distinct characteristics such as irregular use of form, cultural and historical referenced themes and musical influences such as Jazz and the blues helped highlight the plights of African-Americans during the Harlem Renaissance Era.
Mainstream music in the 21st century is known to blend many different genres. Chuck Berry has influenced such genres as rhythm and blues (R&B), country, and today’s pop music. He realized at a young age he had to play more than just “black” music as a black artist. He had to appeal to whites since most Americans in the 1950s were white.
In Langston Hughes' The Blues I'm Playing, the blues are the source of Oceola's life and her choices. Langston is trying to illustrate the conflict between life and art. The art in this story is represented in a confined manner, as a disciplined career with a white woman acting as the overseer in the young lady's life. Art to Oceola, with its profit, convenience and privileges offers an array of benefits, but being embodied in Dora Ellsworth, the art seems to drift away from life's vitality. Life in Oceola sings itself in jazz and blues in Harlem, ignores the artistic East 63rd Street and the rules by which are claims its superiority. There is a closeness between the blues and the life of Oceola as she summarizes her life for her patron. She remembers Mobile's roast pig and the large mouth of Billy Kersands, the minstrel leader who let her as a child place both hands inside it. The relevance of Negro experience to blues and jazz is the point in her recollection that her parents, both musicians, we...
When looking at the Harlem Renaissance, readers can expect to discover many artists that pushed the exposure of Jazz, Blues, and African American literature to the American mainstream during the 1920’s – 1930’s. Langston Hughes is associated with the Harlem Renaissance for his literary works and activism. Zora Neale Hurtson, was also a writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance, her works are, to say the least are in contrast to Hughes’s work. I reason that the different styles of writing and thinking, that were contributed to the Harlem Renaissance is in regards to both author’s upbringing/childhood experiences. The two literary compositions that I will be reviewing are I, Too by Langston Hughes, (The Norton Anthology
“Most things I write, I do for the sheer love of the music in them. Somehow or other, however, I find my poetry of itself treating of the Negro, of hi...
During the Harlem renaissance African American writers, artist and musicians flocked to Harlem, New York. The popularity of Jazz throughout American culture opened the door for African American voices to be heard. Most notably the voice of Langston Hughes. Since Jazz music was an important part of African American culture at the time, Hughes and others like him adapted the musical genre to create their own, African-American voices that could easily be distinguished from the work of white poets. Many of Hughes' poems sounded similar to the popular jazz and blues songs of the period. In his work he confronted racial stereotypes, protested social conditions, and expanded how African American’s viewed themselves. He was considered a “people’s poet” who tried to reeducate his readers by proving the theory of black people having many artistic talents was actually a reality.
Jazz is referred as “America’s classical music,” and is one of North America’s and most celebrated genres. The history of Jazz can be traced back to the early era of the 20th century of the U.S. “A History of Jazz” presents From Ragtime and Blues to Big Band and Bebop, jazz has been a part of a proud African American tradition for over 100 years. A strong rhythmic under-structure, blue notes, solos, “call-and response” patterns, and
In order to see the parallel between the novel and jazz, one must first see how Ellison incorporates jazz music in the prologue of the novel. He not only sets the scene with jazz music in the background but also gives the narrator a deep understanding of music. The music that the narrator listens to is Louis Armstrong’s “Black and Blue,” which is appropriate because Armstrong is a prominent African-American jazz musician who protests the treatment of African-Americans through his music. The narrator embraces every line of the song and gives an apt description of its message:
The content is written in the style of the blues not only in the music but in the social perspective of the times in Harlem in respect to the sufferings and struggles of the African-American past and present experiences, and what they were going to encount...
Langston Hughes was probably the most well-known literary force during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first known black artists to stress a need for his contemporaries to embrace the black jazz culture of the 1920s, as well as the cultural roots in Africa and not-so-distant memory of enslavement in the United States. In formal aspects, Hughes was innovative in that other writers of the Harlem Renaissance stuck with existing literary conventions, while Hughes wrote several poems and stories inspired by the improvised, oral traditions of black culture (Baym, 2221). Proud of his cultural identity, but saddened and angry about racial injustice, the content of much of Hughes’ work is filled with conflict between simply doing as one is told as a black member of society and standing up for injustice and being proud of one’s identity. This relates to a common theme in many of Hughes’ poems: that dignity is something that has to be fought for by those who are held back by segregation, poverty, and racial bigotry.
To start, the structure of the initial assignment that the student must focus on is given differently then the rest of the poem. The majority of the poem is written in free verse. These verses are typical of the jazz-poetry style that became popular during the Harlem Renaissance. The easy style of jazz-poetry gives a dialogue feel to the poem that the reader can connect with. “As it appears, Langston Hughes’s outstanding collection of poems exemplifies the greatest of those qualities of jazz and blues, and his talent truly makes these poems come alive in the same way that jazz and blues music comes alive for the audience as well as for the musicians” (Davidas 1). You truly begin to see the internal struggle the student is having with his assignment and how he is grappling with more then just an assignment for English
As it mentioned above, the title itself, draws attention to the world-renowned music created by African Americans in the 1920s’ as well as to the book’s jazz-like narrative structure and themes. Jazz is the best-known artistic creation of Harlem Renaissance. “Jazz is the only pure American creation, which shortly after its birth, became America’s most important cultural export”(Ostendorf, 165). It evolved from the blues
Lyric poetry is based off song and establishes human condition, in this poem the condition of African Americans.