Droning a drowsy syncopated tune, <br />Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon, <br />I heard a Negro play. <br />Down on Lenox Avenue the other night <br />By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light <br />He did a lazy sway .... <br />He did a lazy sway .... <br />To the tune o' those Weary Blues. <br />With his ebony hands on each ivory key <br />He made that poor piano moan with melody. <br />O Blues! <br />Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool <br />He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool. <br />Sweet Blues! <br />Coming from a black man's soul. <br />O Blues! <br />In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone <br />I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan-- <br />"Ain't got nobody in all this world, <br />Ain't got nobody but ma self. <br />I's gwine to quit ma frownin' <br />And put ma troubles on the shelf." <br /> <br />Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor. <br />He played a few chords then he sang some more-- <br />"I got the Weary Blues <br />And I can't be satisfied. <br />Got the Weary Blues <br />And can't be satisfied-- <br />I ain't happy no mo' <br />And I wish that I had died." <br />And far into the night he crooned that tune. <br />The stars went out and so did the moon. <br />The singer stopped playing and went to bed <br />While the Weary Blues echoed through his head. <br />He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.<br /><br />Langston Hughes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-weary-blues/
