{
 "id": "langston-hughes/the-weary-blues",
 "title": "The Weary Blues",
 "poet": "Langston Hughes",
 "poet_slug": "langston-hughes",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poetry",
 "book_slug": null,
 "book_kind": "compilation",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1925,
  "venue": "Opportunity (May 1925)",
  "note": "First prize in Opportunity’s poetry contest; title poem of The Weary Blues (1926).",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Weary_Blues"
  ]
 },
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   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/003138045",
   "https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse",
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  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 35,
  "n_stanzas": 1,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I heard a Negro play.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Down on Lenox Avenue the other night",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the pale dull pallor of an old gas light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He did a lazy sway.⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "He did a lazy sway.⁠ ⁠…",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "To the tune o’ those Weary Blues.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With his ebony hands on each ivory key",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He made that poor piano moan with melody.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Blues!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Swaying to and fro on his rickety stool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He played that sad raggy tune like a musical fool.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweet Blues!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Coming from a black man’s soul.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O Blues!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "In a deep song voice with a melancholy tone",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ain’t got nobody in all this world,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Ain’t got nobody but ma self.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I’s gwine to quit ma frownin’",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And put ma troubles on the shelf.”",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He played a few chords then he sang some more⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“I got the Weary Blues",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And I can’t be satisfied.",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Got the Weary Blues",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And can’t be satisfied⁠—",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "I ain’t happy no mo’",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And I wish that I had died.”",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And far into the night he crooned that tune.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars went out and so did the moon.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The singer stopped playing and went to bed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}