Poetry retrieved from Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47347/the-weary-blues
The poem Weary Blues by Langston Hughes can be high complexity, making it above fifth grade level. A primarily Caucasian group of fifth graders would need background in blues music, dialect and vocabulary.
The teacher can remind students that Poetry is a genre. Teacher can lead students in analyzing the theme and message in a poem from Brown Girl Dreaming (hop onstage) and Langston Hughes. Then analyze the structure and mood (line, word, identify rhyme patterns) of each poem. Once the aforementioned is understood students can explore changing the dominant two rhyme pattern in "The Weary Blues" by substituting a synonym that doesn't rhyme. Discuss how this changes the mood and if the message is changed when no longer supported by the structure.
Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,
Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,
I heard a Negro play.
Down on Lenox Avenue the other night
By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light
He did a lazy sway. . . .
He did a lazy sway. . . .
To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.
With his ebony hands on each ivory key
He made that poor piano moan with melody.
O Blues!
Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool
He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.
Sweet Blues!
Coming from a black man’s soul.
O Blues!
In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone
I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan—
“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,
Ain’t got nobody but ma self.
I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’
And put ma troubles on the shelf.”
Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more—
“I got the Weary Blues
And I can’t be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can’t be satisfied—
I ain’t happy no mo’
And I wish that I had died.”
And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.
Key Vocabulary
Blues
crooned
chords
gas light
melancholy
raggy tune
syncopated
Model Library Standards
The student will independently pursue information to become a lifelong learner.
4.1
Read widely and use various media for information, personal interest, and lifelong learning:
a. Read a good representation of grade-level-appropriate text, making progress toward the goal of reading one million words annually by grade eight (e.g., classic and contemporary literature, magazines, newspapers, online information).
4.3
Appreciate and respond to creative expressions of information:
a. Understand that genre is a term that describes types of literary works that are similar (e.g., drama, fable, fairy tale, fantasy, folklore, essay, speech)
L.6.1e.Recognize variations from standard English in their own and others’ writing and speaking, and identify and use strategies to improve expression in conventional language.
L.6.3a.Vary sentence patterns for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.***
L.6.3b.Maintain consistency in style and tone.
L.9–10.1a. Use parallel structure.
Grade 5 Reading Standards
2. Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text.
3. Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).
4. Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes. (See grade 5 Language standards 4–6 for additional expectations.) CA
5. Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem.
6. Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described.
7. Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).
Reading Standards for Informational Text
3. Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.
4. Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area. (See grade 5 Language standards 4–6 for additional expectations.) CA
5. Compare and contrast the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison, cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or information in two or more texts.
9. Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.
Reading Foundational Skills
4. Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension.
a. Read on-level text with purpose and understanding.
b. Read on-level prose and poetry orally with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression on successive readings.
References
Hughes, L. (1987) The Weary Blues. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47347/the-weary-blues