Langston Hughes is an extraordinary poet and has a way of making words flow whimsically to the beat of his own drum. I am very familiar with his poetry style so I chose to analyze “Trumpet Player”. At first glance I notice there are a total of six stanzas in this poem, but there is not a set pattern for the stanzas. There are eight lines in the first four stanzas but the last two stanzas only have six lines. The lines are enjambment and the thoughts continue to roll over to the next line. There is not a set amount of words or syncopated rhythm per line which leads me to believe the poem is free verse. As a reader it is hard to catch the rhyme of the poem because there are multiple lines that end in the same suffix. As a listener you hear
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Hughes begins painting the image of the musician in the first stanza of his poem “Trumpet Player”. Hughes repeats the first two lines multiple times through his poem to refer back to the trumpet player and maintain his image throughout the poem, but with each stanza he polishes the image of the trumpet player to make it clear to his listeners. The “dark moons of weariness” (3) are bags under the trumpet player’s eyes, but the word weariness lets us know the man was troubled. He also mentioned the man having memories of slave ships, and whips which gives us an idea of what was troubling him. He continues painting the picture of the trumpet player by describing “[He] has a head of vibrant hair / tamed down / patent-leathered now” (12-14). He uses this metaphor to describe his black hair being combed and laid down. Hughes uses metaphors that lead the listeners to believe the trumpet man drowned his sorrows in alcohol trying to forget or ease his pain but the pain he was trying to forget allowed him to create a masterpiece with his lips. The poem expresses the trumpet player’s desire in an interesting way. At first, I thought the poem was expressing one desire. After reading over the poem multiple times I realized the trumpet player had two desires. The desire of fame is described as the “longing for the moon / where the moonlight 's but a spotlight” (26-27) and the desire for alcohol “longing for the sea / where the sea 's a bar-glass”
Hughes begins painting the image of the musician in the first stanza of his poem “Trumpet Player”. Hughes repeats the first two lines multiple times through his poem to refer back to the trumpet player and maintain his image throughout the poem, but with each stanza he polishes the image of the trumpet player to make it clear to his listeners. The “dark moons of weariness” (3) are bags under the trumpet player’s eyes, but the word weariness lets us know the man was troubled. He also mentioned the man having memories of slave ships, and whips which gives us an idea of what was troubling him. He continues painting the picture of the trumpet player by describing “[He] has a head of vibrant hair / tamed down / patent-leathered now” (12-14). He uses this metaphor to describe his black hair being combed and laid down. Hughes uses metaphors that lead the listeners to believe the trumpet man drowned his sorrows in alcohol trying to forget or ease his pain but the pain he was trying to forget allowed him to create a masterpiece with his lips. The poem expresses the trumpet player’s desire in an interesting way. At first, I thought the poem was expressing one desire. After reading over the poem multiple times I realized the trumpet player had two desires. The desire of fame is described as the “longing for the moon / where the moonlight 's but a spotlight” (26-27) and the desire for alcohol “longing for the sea / where the sea 's a bar-glass”