Snaps Before Claps.....
Jazz poetry - poetry that demonstrates jazz-like rhythm or the feel of improvisation. Jazz poetry started around 1915, based on aspects of African-American culture. However, jazz poetry shifted its focus from racial pride and individuality to spontaneity and freedom during the 1950s. Beat poet Bob Kaufman was said by some to be the greatest jazz poet ever to have lived, with the exception of Langston Hughes.
Breakdown...
In my opinion, this poem describes a tortured/depressed soul. This can be inferred from many things found within this poem. First, the poet's choices of words. The words that were used in the poem were kind of dark, and unpleasant. This set a gloomy mood in during the poem. Second, were the usage of death and the role it played in this poem. For example the lines, "Got the Weary Blues And can’t be satisfied— I ain’t happy no mo And I wish that I had died.” stood out to me because the mood set with the language the poet used along with lines like this represents a soul that has been damaged.
Literary Devices...
"I heard that Negro sing, that old piano moan" - This line is an example of Anthropomorphism, which is the appliance of human characteristics to God, Animals, or Objects. He say the piano moans, which is the human quality, which is most likely referring to the melody that is being played.
"Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor" - Onomatopoeia. He uses the sound word(thump) to describe the sound that his foot made as the singer was performing.
Also, that lines has examples of consonance with multiple uses of the letter T in quick succession, either in the beginning or end of the word.
EXAMPLE: Thump, Thump, Thump, wenT his fooT on The floor.
"The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead." - These were the final three lines of the poem, and they were rally ironic to me. They were ironic because the man in the poem said that he wished that he was dead earlier in the poem. Now, at the end at the poem, they said that he slept like a rock or a man that was dead, which means he showed no emotion which is a quality that all humans posses. So, that shows that he was already "dead" on the inside.
"Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor" - Onomatopoeia. He uses the sound word(thump) to describe the sound that his foot made as the singer was performing.
Also, that lines has examples of consonance with multiple uses of the letter T in quick succession, either in the beginning or end of the word.
EXAMPLE: Thump, Thump, Thump, wenT his fooT on The floor.
"The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that’s dead." - These were the final three lines of the poem, and they were rally ironic to me. They were ironic because the man in the poem said that he wished that he was dead earlier in the poem. Now, at the end at the poem, they said that he slept like a rock or a man that was dead, which means he showed no emotion which is a quality that all humans posses. So, that shows that he was already "dead" on the inside.