America has got the blues

In this Assignment we read "Americas got the Blues" the introduction gave a brief history summerization of how Blues came to be. It also says how when the blues became popular many "White folk" tried to do the blues but failed at it so they would put the word blues in the title of their song or band name or on a special occasion have a Blues Song. The introduction also talked about key figures of bringing blues out in to the open like W.C Handy who wrote "Memphis Blues" and "St Louis Blues"


After the introduction it lists some very famious poems or blues lyrics. It gives a brief life history of each of the authers then shows you one of the Poems that they are famious for.

"Blue" the Poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, very crude yet in its simple way more telling than all the other poems. Its writing style while hard to understand, once you grasp what he is saying is actully very good.

"Standin at de winder Feeling kind o glum listen to de raindrops play de kettle drum lookin crost de medders swimming lak a sea lawd a mussy on us whats de good o me? cant go out a hoein wouldnt ef i could goun to wet fu hunting fishing aint no good too much noise fo sleeping non one hyeah to chat des mus stan and listen to dat pit-a-pat Hills is gitting misty valleys gittin Dahk watch-dogs menance a holwin athah have em ba;k"

As you can see with what i have written down in what is said in the poem the style is very crude, yet the story is telling. In his descriptions all he talks about is how there is nothing to do, and even if he wanted to he cant go outside cause even the weather is against him. in his poem life is just one big storm against him. He cant tend to his crops, he cant hunt and he cant fish so he cannot provide for himself or his family. "lawd a mussy on us" = god have mercy us. Aparently even god is not on his side. All in all its a very sad story of an uneducated man who lives off of a land that doesnt want to provide for him.

St. Louis Blues is a different sort of style in comparison to "Blue" It is very articulate and very straight forward about why the person has the blues, the person is down and sad because the person they love has been stolen away from them "St. Louis woman with her diamond ring pulls that man around by her If it wasnt for her and her that man i love would have gone no where no where." That kind of gives you the hint.

Something I have noticed about Blues Poems and Blues songs is they very much like to repeat the first sentence in most of their Stanza's.