Po Boy Blues Figurative Language

The Harlem Renaissance era was a beautiful time of artistic expression for African American people. Two very successful poems/songs were “Po’ Boy Blues” along with “Good Morning Blues”. Good Morning Blues is actually a song composed by Lead Belly. This beautiful song speaks of a man acknowledging his sadness and recognizing it. Po’ Boy Blues” is a touching poem of a lost love composed by Langston Hughes. Throughout this essay I will be comparing and contrasting the two pieces. Note that both pieces are not both poems, one being a song. This is not a roadblock for me considering that they both have poetic style. I believe that the two pieces have many things in common, along with many things that differentiate them from each other. After scanning the pieces, I've come up with some similarities of the two pieces. The two pieces use a decent amount of figurative language. For example, the song, Good Morning Blues, uses repetition to express a longing feeling. Along with that, “Po’ Boy Blues” uses repetition a lot, Repeating, “Weary!” over and over throughout the Poem. Yet their themes are very similar as well. One pieces theme is based on a lost feeling and the other being the close …show more content…
The poem Po’ Boy Blues uses a few similes, while Good Morning Blues doesn't use a single simile. For example, “The Sunshine seemed like gold.” Along with that the Form is also very different from each other. “Po Boy Blues” has many more line breaks while “Good Morning Blues” stretches out its sentences. The Theme is a key part a good Poem. I have come to think the themes very different. The theme of Po’ Boy is loose and love, and the theme of Good Morning Blues is depression and dissatisfaction, though they both deal with sad despairing emotions, making them similar, they are not the same. After comparing the two I’ve come to realize that the two pieces are very different as