In \u201cBy the Pale Dull Pallor of an Old Gas Light,\u201d Steven Nardi argues Langston Hughes\u2019 \u201cThe Weary Blues\u201d speaks to a \u201cdisjunction\u201d between poets and musicians, as well as a sense of loss for a culture changed by modernization (Nardi 256). Nardi marks the influence of modernization at play in Hughes\u2019 \u201cThe Weary Blues\u201d by noting the transition from gas to electric lighting at the turn of the century. Nardi argues that the musician represents an older generation left behind by the modernization of the city, as he plays alone in the dark without electricity and is later described as a \u201crock\u201d or a \u201cman that\u2019s dead\u201d (Hughes). Nardi highlights the sense of disconnect between Hughes\u2019 narration as a poet and the musician by noting the \u201crhythmically distinct\u201d natures of poetry and music, as Hughes employs \u201cmostly iambic couplets\u201d for the speaker\u2019s voice while utilizing a \u201cfour beat, ballad stanza\u201d for the musician\u2019s voice (Nardi 258). According to Nardi, the rhythmic distinctions between Hughes\u2019 and the subject of his poem demonstrate an \u201cunbridgeable difference\u201d between Hughes\u2019 poetry and jazz music, which speaks to a larger disconnect between Hughes and African American folk culture (Nardi 257). Nardi argues \u201cThe Weary Blues\u201d was written at a time in which Hughes \u201cfound a balance between the competing demands of his own poetic voice, and the voices of the silenced black culture that Hughes found himself excluded from\u201d (Nardi 255). Through analyzing the technological context, rhythmic differences in the speaker and musician\u2019s voices, and the poem\u2019s interplay with blues and jazz music, Nardi argues that \u201cThe Weary Blues\u201d encapsulates the dilemma between the folk and modernity, a pressing issue for Hughes and his contemporaries.<\/p>\n
Nardi, Steven A. \u201c\u2018By the Pale Dull Pallor of an Old Gas Light\u2019: Technology and Vision in Langston Hughes\u2019s \u2018The Weary Blues.\u2019\u201d In New Voices on the Harlem Renaissance: Essays on Race, Gender, and Literary Discourse<\/em>, ed. by Australia Tarver and Paula C. Barnes.\u00a0Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2005. 253\u201368. https:\/\/search.ebscohost.com\/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mlf&AN=2006297637&site=ehost-live.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In \u201cBy the Pale Dull Pallor of an Old Gas Light,\u201d Steven Nardi argues Langston Hughes\u2019 \u201cThe Weary Blues\u201d speaks to a \u201cdisjunction\u201d between poets and musicians, as well as a sense of loss for a culture changed by modernization (Nardi 256). Nardi marks the influence of modernization at play in Hughes\u2019 \u201cThe Weary Blues\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3602,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3602"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/humanitiesfellows\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}