Langston Hughes's "Trumpet Player" travels between lethargy and vitality as the titular musician plays his song.
The poem begins with the lethargy, termed by Hughes as "weariness." The first stanza describes this first mood:
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 thighs. (1-8)
The "dark moons of weariness" are connected to memories of slavery, the ultimate example of racial oppression. The deep-seated memory of the Middle Passage and the abuse suffered by slaves on plantations mark his face. He is not so much "lethargic" as he is weighed down by the burdens of his race's history.
Next, though, the trumpet player's "vitality" is expressed. The speaker writes,
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. (9-16)
His "vibrant hair" is part of what makes the trumpet player vital, that along with his music, which we will discuss next. This stanza describes his appearance and ends with a simile comparing his hair to "a crown," which is a marked difference from what we saw in the first stanza.
The speaker's description of the music produced by the trumpet player conveys the vitality of his playing very well. He writes,
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. (17-24)
The "liquid fire" and "ecstasy" observed in the music are a product of the trumpet player's essential vitality, since he is able to create such force.
From this point, the speaker's desire is described, and this part of the poem seems a bit melancholy:
Desire that is longing for the moon where the moonlight's but a spotlight in his eyes, desire that is longing for the sea where the sea's a bar-glass sucker size. (25-32)
His "longing" may suggest some kind of dissatisfaction, which could be connected to the "weariness" we saw earlier.
The speaker says the trumpet player "does not know / upon what riff the music slips," suggesting that the player is not even aware of the depth of his desire and memory described by the speaker (37-38). However, the music is "hypodermic needle / to his soul" (39-40). The music heals him, numbs him to pain. This could relate in some way to vitality, though it's also a bit ironic, considering the connotation of numbing related sometimes to needles. Ultimately, though the music has a soothing effect on the player:
but softly as the tune comes from his throat trouble mellows to a golden note. (41-44)
The music is able to take "trouble" and cause it to calm down, to form into "a golden note." Music has healing power; it helps the player deal with trauma and oppression. The music gives him his vitality back, despite the underlying struggles he and his ancestors have endured.
Saturday, June 9, 2018
Discuss vitality and lethargy in Langston Hughes "The Trumpet Player"?
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