Comparing Poems 'Piano And The Weary Blue'

D. H. Lawrence’s poem “Piano” and Langston Hughes “The Weary Blue” are two remarkable poems about the connection they encounter with music. Lawrence and Hughes both use music to remind them of moments in life when music impacted them most. While both poems have similarities they also have vast differences. The poems “Piano” and “The Weary Blue” both use music as a theme, but the poets tone is what makes the poems different. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast Langston Hughes “The Weary Blue” and D.H. Lawrence “Piano” using the theme of music.
Although the aforementioned poems use music as a theme, the poets both speak in first person to inform the reader who is telling the story. For example in the “Piano” from the beginning
the poet’s first line is “softly, in the dusk, a woman is singing to me” (1) Lawrence uses the words “me” to inform the reader it’s his story he talks about and for the reader to have a better image of his story. The same goes to Hughes poem, in the third line “I heard a negro play” (3) the poet uses “I” to let the reader know he will be talking about his experience with music. Another similarity the aforementioned poems have is the poets want the reader to have connection with the poems so they can also encounter the emotional memoir the poets have when hearing music. The poets in the aforementioned poems are both male figures and they both use an instrument to symbolize comfort. The instruments the poets used are pianos. Both Lawrence and Hughes feel a connection with music, the memories the poems have is what makes them different.
In Lawrence’s poem, the memory he shares with his audience is more of a childhood memory. He says “… childish is upon me, my manhood is cast down the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.” (11/12) the piano Lawrence heard gave him a flashback into his younger years which gave him different types of emotions. Hughes poem is quite different from Lawrence’s; his encounter with music wasn’t from flashbacks but of his experience with listening to the blues. The way Hughes told his story gave me a vivid image of his time with the blues. The poet said “He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool, Sweet Blues! Coming from a black man’s soul” (13-15) the way Hughes described the singer rather than his flashback made the poet look as if the singer was more important. The relationship between Hughes and the singer and the blues creates a melancholy relationship. Hughes is a cold guy who doesn’t like to show emotion, the way he described himself wasn’t as clear as they way the singer was described “got the weary blues and can’t be satisfied I aint happy no mo’ and I wish that I had died” (27-30). Whereas in the “Piano” the role Lawrence played was more sentimental and soft. He said “betrays me back, till the heart of me weeps to belong to the old Sunday evenings at home” (6/7), the way Lawrence talked about his feelings made me realize that he
misses his childhood when his mother used to sing to him. Both Lawrence and Hughes are talented poets who aren’t afraid to show the reader how they feel when music was bought into their lives. The poets expressed their emotions through music. The “Piano” by D. H. Lawrence used music as a source of comfort, whereas “The Weary Blue” by Langston Hughes used music as a way to free himself from the world. Ultimately these two poems reflect on the theme of music in their own ways.