Trumpet Player By Langston Hughes

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Andrew Lebedovych Cushman March 28, 2011 The “Trumpet Player’s” Escape Langston Hughes wrote “Trumpet Player” trying to express his peoples, African American, struggles of the past and the present. The trumpet is not just a musical instrument, it is a escape . Converting struggles and pain into a “golden note.” "Trumpet Player", is both a celebration of and reach for a Black identity. The poem's vivid imagery and careful metaphors express his vision of the life African Americans lived and live . The poem quietly speaks of oppression, of a violent past, of desperation and ongoing struggle, of a search for identity, but at the same time celebrates the grace and beauty of the "Negro." The poem's closed yet rhythmic, jazz-like structure gives it a musical flow appropriate to the title and the subject. The first stanza where Langston mansions the dark moons of weariness beneath the trumpet players eyes, resembles the night which is dark and scary. And the night being most likely the time when the trumpet player is playing. More references to the moon and moonlight occur further down in the forth stanza, referring to the trumpet player's desire "for the moon where the moonlight's but a spotlight in his eyes."(p.530) He longs for the beauty and serenity of a moonlight night but is left with the glare of spotlights in his eyes. Or, perhaps to this man, the spotlights are more rewarding then any full moon might be. And the “sea is a bar glass-sucker sized,” which is a small glass but yet enough for him. Hughes is celebrating the survival and persistence of the human spirit, of the African Americans. He places “slave ships”, and “crack of whips,” and “ vibrant hair tamed down, Patent-leathered now until it gleams like jet-were jet a crown,” following the first stanza to show the beauty despite the struggles. Talking about the beauty of ancient

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