Trumpet Player By Langston Hughes
Rebecca McKenzie
Dr. Frank D. Williams
ENGL 1102, Online
Drafted: Aug. 31, 2016
Interpretation of Langston Hughes’ “Trumpet Player”
Langston Hughes was known as a critical voice throughout the Harlem Renaissance, a literary movement which took place during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite criticisms from several members in the African America community, Hughes continued to write about a mixture of contemporary subjects, such as jazz music, and racial issues, such as slavery or the Jim Crow Laws (State Historical Society of Missouri).
Part I: Scansion and Analysis To begin, it is necessary to note that the poem is told from a third person omniscient point a view, with the African American man in the poem being spoken about and not himself actually speaking or thinking. Hughes never uses the first person “I” in the poem and instead only refers to the man as “The …show more content…
His description of his memories of slavery are flat, with next to no adjectives to paint a picture of that time as if he is actively trying to forget even as the thoughts linger. On the other hand, the player describes his music so wonderfully, using similes comparing the music to “[. . .] honey / mixed with liquid fire” (19-20) and the rhythm to “[. . .] ecstasy / distilled from old desire” (23-24). The reader is taken back and forth from a difficult past to an enjoyable present, and it is in stanza 5 where we see a change in the tone from troubled to peaceful. The reader is returned to the trumpet player’s present state while preforming, where he says he “does not know / upon which riff the music slips / It’s hypodermic needle / to his soul” (37-40). This could easily suggest the musician believes music is his medicine, or his cure, for his pain. He plays his music, unsure where the pain of his past ends and when the euphoric feeling of being free
Dr. Frank D. Williams
ENGL 1102, Online
Drafted: Aug. 31, 2016
Interpretation of Langston Hughes’ “Trumpet Player”
Langston Hughes was known as a critical voice throughout the Harlem Renaissance, a literary movement which took place during the 1920s and 1930s. Despite criticisms from several members in the African America community, Hughes continued to write about a mixture of contemporary subjects, such as jazz music, and racial issues, such as slavery or the Jim Crow Laws (State Historical Society of Missouri).
Part I: Scansion and Analysis To begin, it is necessary to note that the poem is told from a third person omniscient point a view, with the African American man in the poem being spoken about and not himself actually speaking or thinking. Hughes never uses the first person “I” in the poem and instead only refers to the man as “The …show more content…
His description of his memories of slavery are flat, with next to no adjectives to paint a picture of that time as if he is actively trying to forget even as the thoughts linger. On the other hand, the player describes his music so wonderfully, using similes comparing the music to “[. . .] honey / mixed with liquid fire” (19-20) and the rhythm to “[. . .] ecstasy / distilled from old desire” (23-24). The reader is taken back and forth from a difficult past to an enjoyable present, and it is in stanza 5 where we see a change in the tone from troubled to peaceful. The reader is returned to the trumpet player’s present state while preforming, where he says he “does not know / upon which riff the music slips / It’s hypodermic needle / to his soul” (37-40). This could easily suggest the musician believes music is his medicine, or his cure, for his pain. He plays his music, unsure where the pain of his past ends and when the euphoric feeling of being free