The Life of Langston Hughes: Negro Speaks of Rivers, The Weary Blues, & I, Too, Sing America

The Negro With the trumpet at his lips Has dark moons of weariness Beneath his eyes Where the smoldering memory Of slave ships Blazed to the crack of whips About his thighs. The Negro With the trumpet at his lips Has a head of vibrant hair Tamed down, Patent-leathered now Until it gleams Like jet- Were jet a crown The music From the trumpet at his lips Is honey Mixed with liquid fire. The rhythm From the trumpet at his lips Is ecstasy Distilled from old desire- Desire That is longing for the moon Where the moonlight's but a spotlight In his eyes, Desire That is longing for the sea's a bar-glass Sucker size. The Negro With the trumpet at his lips Whose jacket Has a fine one-button roll, Does not know Upon what riff the music slips

The poems To Beauty and Trumpet Player both have an undertone of homo-eroticism in the love and admirationshown to other men of African descent. In the specific case of To Beauty, "To worship at the alter of beauty" is ametaphor or common Jazz age euphemism for that very personal and privateactivity shared by gay men. Hughes,in his life and work, expressed a desire andpreference for other men of African descent. He saw their beauty, especially thebeauty in those of very dark-complexion. Black gay men often forget how handsome they are in all their variety.

References

Aldrich, Robert (2001). Who's Who in Gay & Lesbian History. Routledge.
Bernard, Emily (2001). Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964. Knopf.
Berry, Faith (1983.1992,). Langston Hughes: Before and Beyond Harlem. In On the Cross of the South, p.150; & Zero Hour, p.185-186. Citadel Press
Hutson, Jean Blackwell; & Nelson, Jill (February 1992). "Remembering Langston". p.96.
Joyce, Joyce A. (2004). A Historical Guide to Langston Hughes. In Steven C. Tracy (Ed.), Hughes and Twentieth-Century Genderracial Issues, p.136. Oxford University Press
Nero, Charles I. (1997).Queer Reprensentations: Reading Lives, Reading Cultures. In Martin Duberman (Ed.), Re/Membering Langston, p.192. New York University Press
Nero, Charles I. (1999).Columbia Reader on Lesbians and Gay Men in Media, Society, and Politics. In Larry P. Gross & James D. Woods (Eds.), In Free Speech or Hate Speech: Pornography and its Means of Production, p.500. Culumbia University press
Nichols, Charles H. (1980). Arna Bontempts-Langston Hughes Letters, 1925-1967. Dodd, Mead & Company.
Rampersad, Arnold (1986). The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 1: I, Too, Sing America. Oxford University Press
Rampersad, Arnold (1988). The Life of Langston Hughes Volume 2: I Dream A World. In Ask Your Mama!, p.336. Oxford University Press Schwarz, Christa A.B. (2003). Gay Voices of the Harlem Renaissance. In Langston Hughes: A "true 'people's poet",pp.68-88.Indiana University Press
West, Sandra L. (2003). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance. In Aberjhani & Sandra West (Ed.), Langston Hughes, p.162. Checkmark Press

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Negro Speaks of Rivers, The Weary Blues, & I, Too, Sing America