Po' Boy Blues - Langston Hughes

"When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
When I was home de
Sunshine seemed like gold.
Since I come up North de
Whole damn world's turned cold.

I was a good boy,
Never done no wrong.
Yes, I was a good boy,
Never done no wrong,
But this world is weary
An' de road is hard an' long.

I fell in love with
A gal I thought was kind.
Fell in love with
A gal I thought was kind.
She made me lose ma money
An' almost lose ma mind.

Weary, weary,
Weary early in de morn.
Weary, weary,
Early, early in de morn.
I's so weary
I wish I'd never been born."

Again Hughes plays the role of storyteller, reciting a story from his early life. Yet this poem is not your everyday, mundane poem. Hughes adds his own urban flare to it that makes it sort of a catchy song as opposed to a poem. I chose this for my last and final post because I feel these sort of poems are the deeper roots of hip hop music which I have a passion for. This sort of spoken word storytelling evolved into a style of music. Nowadays it had changed mindsets completely, but in its early stages hip hop was just like Hughes, it told stories of hardship teamed up with catchy word choice.