Naturally the past seems to fade from the forefront of our minds as new times encroach. All that remain are brief fragments of a previous time. Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues”, and Robert Frost’s “Directive”, offer a limbo between the past and the present. Modernity is inevitable, yet the past still lingers in the shadows. While their styles may differ, both poems provide a vague depiction of times lost. By doing so, they provide no sufficient solution to issue, but merely offer a momentary escape to the confusion brought by a newer period. Ultimately, an attempt is made by the poems to show the reader what they already know. Individuals are bound to their time, and only the next generation can call the times to come their own.
In Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” the speaker is pulled away from the present and falls into a “drowsy syncopated tune” (1040). Hughes utilizes the grammatical structure of the poem to make the audience unsure of whether the bystander or the singer is “rocking back and forth to a mellow croon” (1040). By doing so, it suggests that the singer’s music is powerful enough to allow the bystander and the musician to become one in the experience. Although the singer is not directly singing to the …show more content…
The speaker follows up by describing a place that no longer exists with any completion removed “by the loss of detail” (740). Houses, farms, and a town that once thrived are no more. What also distinguishes “Directive” from the “weary blues”, is the speaker’s assertiveness and direct contact with the person he is trying to coax. The speaker wishes to be a guide and purposely wants the audience to get lost in this pre-existing time. Only when the reader gets lost can he begin to understand what the guide is
In Langston Hughes’ “The Weary Blues” the speaker is pulled away from the present and falls into a “drowsy syncopated tune” (1040). Hughes utilizes the grammatical structure of the poem to make the audience unsure of whether the bystander or the singer is “rocking back and forth to a mellow croon” (1040). By doing so, it suggests that the singer’s music is powerful enough to allow the bystander and the musician to become one in the experience. Although the singer is not directly singing to the …show more content…
The speaker follows up by describing a place that no longer exists with any completion removed “by the loss of detail” (740). Houses, farms, and a town that once thrived are no more. What also distinguishes “Directive” from the “weary blues”, is the speaker’s assertiveness and direct contact with the person he is trying to coax. The speaker wishes to be a guide and purposely wants the audience to get lost in this pre-existing time. Only when the reader gets lost can he begin to understand what the guide is