Analysis Of Lush Life By Billy Strayhorn

Jazz is influential music of the soul. There have been countless individuals who indulge in and create jazz music, and there have been numerous, respected poets who were inspired by jazz. Of these poets, I would include both revered writer Nikki Giovanni, author of “And I Have you”, and esteemed jazz musician Billy Strayhorn, author of “Lush Life”. Giovanni is considered to be a jazz poet because of her rhythmic pattern and style in her poem, and Strayhorn’s career speaks for itself. These sophisticated poets, although born in different eras, share quite a few similarities, and differences, in both their personal lives and their work. With the use of structure, style, and figurative language throughout their poetry, Giovanni and Strayhorn …show more content…
Although Giovanni lived a solitary life when it came to marriage (even though Giovanni never married, she had one son out of wedlock), she appreciated love; what seemed to be most important to her was the love that is shared amongst family and friends. She wrote numerous poems focusing on the appreciation of love, but one that is particularly fitting is her poem titled “And I Have You”. This poem fits the “Ghazal” pattern, which is a type of poem, primarily focusing on the subject of love, that has a repeated rhyme scheme in the form of “ABCB”; the second and fourth lines rhyme, but not the first and third. Another feature about this specific poem is the style; it seems to be that the first three lines of each stanza state obvious facts, while the fourth line relates to love. For example, stanza one states that “rain has drops” (1), “sun has shine” (2), and “moon has beams” (3). These are all simple facts. The fourth line, however, states “That make you mine”. It can be inferred that Giovanni is implying the fact that love is unconditional and true; just as rain has drops and the sun shines, there is a love that simply …show more content…
Although it is speculated that his song could have different meanings, heartbreak seems to be a fitting one. His song “Lush Life” tells a story in a chronological way, beginning with stanza one providing a look into his past. “I used to visit all the gay places” (1) and “To get the feel of life” (4) allude to a past of simply living life. Stanza two looks at the women from the past, “The girls I knew had sullen and gray faces” and “You could see where they’d been washed away” provides an understanding that possibly the women in his life were just as lonely as he. Stanza three, stating “Then you came along”, but ending with “I was wrong”, outlines an unsuccessful relationship. Then, stanza four, repeating “life is lonely”, and saying “everything seemed so assured”, explains the sudden heartbreak. Stanza five illustrates a futile effort to forget the woman, and stanza six ends by Strayhorn issuing the belief that romance is no good, and that he doesn’t need it in his life; he would just rot away with the other lonely