English D323

“Lenox Avenue: Midnight” by Langston Hughes was written during  the Harlem Renaissance, which stood for blues,jazz, and soulful art and expression. Like the idea of blues, this poem emphasizes the loneliness the poet felt and it is expressed throughout the story with various examples. The poet first uses the lines:

“The gods are laughing at us,

The broken heart of love,

The weary,weary heart of pain —”

to show that the poet is going through a breakup or even the death of a loved one. The expression  “the gods are laughing at us” is used to show the readers that the poet suffers a great deal of misfortune and blames it on the gods. He later uses characteristics of city-life such as the rumbling of street cars and the swish of rain. The use of imagery is to let the readers know that the poet is all alone. The idea of rain is used to express moodiness and/or loneliness. The loud sounds drumming from the cars is used to express the hard life people go through in the city. The combination of the two deeply emphasizes a clear and central mood and takes the reader on that street corner to see what the poet is seeing. And lastly, Hughes repeats: “And the gods are laughing at us”, which shows that the character deserves a great deal of pity.