National Poetry Month #4: Song For A Dark Girl
Song For A Dark Girl
Langston Hughes
Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
They hung my black young lover
To a cross roads tree.
Way Down South in Dixie
(Bruised body high in air)
I asked the white Lord Jesus
What was the use of prayer.
Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.
American poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance and a pioneer of jazz poetry. 'Song For A Dark Girl', written in 1927 before the Civil Rights Movement, is from the perspective of a black woman in the South who has seen the lynching of her lover. Way Down South in Dixie is a line from 'Dixie', a popular blackface minstrel song about former slaves reminiscing about the good old days in the South; Hughes uses it here with damning irony.
Among the versions of 'Song For A Dark Girl' put to music is Ricky Ian Gordon's, which has been covered by Audra McDonald. This version does not have good video quality, but it is by far her best - and most harrowing - performance that I can find.
Langston Hughes
Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
They hung my black young lover
To a cross roads tree.
Way Down South in Dixie
(Bruised body high in air)
I asked the white Lord Jesus
What was the use of prayer.
Way Down South in Dixie
(Break the heart of me)
Love is a naked shadow
On a gnarled and naked tree.
American poet Langston Hughes (1902-1967) was one of the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance and a pioneer of jazz poetry. 'Song For A Dark Girl', written in 1927 before the Civil Rights Movement, is from the perspective of a black woman in the South who has seen the lynching of her lover. Way Down South in Dixie is a line from 'Dixie', a popular blackface minstrel song about former slaves reminiscing about the good old days in the South; Hughes uses it here with damning irony.
Among the versions of 'Song For A Dark Girl' put to music is Ricky Ian Gordon's, which has been covered by Audra McDonald. This version does not have good video quality, but it is by far her best - and most harrowing - performance that I can find.