Po' Boys Blues

The poem, Po' Boy Blues, by Langston Hughes is an honest poem about himself in a time that wasn't very happy for him. In this poem, the first phrase of every stanza is repeated. I think this was done to put emphasis on those words. The vocabulary that he uses adds character to the poem and I know more about him because of it. Words like "de" instead of "the" and the word "an'" instead of "and." In the line, "When I was home de Sunshine seemed like gold," I think that the poet used a more interesting way to say that he was a poor boy growing up and was very grateful for the free gifts like sunshine. In the line, "Since I come up North de Whole damn world's turned cold," the poet gives the reader more information about where he was from, and he must have come from somewhere southern and then moved North. This poem has a good sense of rhythm and flows really well with each word. The rhyme scheme to this poem is every second, fourth and sixth line, but I don't know if there is a pattern name for that. The line, "But this world is weary An' de road is hard an' long," is a metaphor. I think what he is literally saying is that sometimes things got harder for him and seemed like they would never end. One of the hard parts of life for him was a relationship with a woman who spent his money and made him feel like he was going crazy. I gathered this from the line, "She made me lose ma money An' almost lose ma mind." In the last stanza, Hughes repeats the word "weary" many times. I think he does wrote it this way because weary means tired and it shows that he is too tired too say anything more. The last line of this poem, “I wish I’d never been born,” is very strong and left me thinking about it. It summarizes the whole poem in a powerful, but sad way.