11 Soulful Poems about Blues

The Blues as a musical movement and style is a poetic topic that’s inspired poets for generations. Poets often explore the feelings blues music inspires and use those feelings to convey an experience.

Poet depictions of music are common throughout the history of poetry, but there are few genres of music that have been as inspirational to poets as the blues has. It originated in the American South and is rooted in spirituals, work songs, and narrative ballads. Blues-inspired poems are often mournful, celebratory, and contemplative.

These poems are filled with emotion and references to extremely emotional experiences. Some contend with difficult subjects of the past, while others consider more recent changes and transformations.

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Last Affair: Bessie’s Blues Song

by Michael S. Harper

‘Last Affair: Bessie’s Blues Song’ by Michael S. Harper explores Bessie Smith’s blues, portraying love’s impact with vivid imagery and poignant refrains.

This poem is exceptional in its exploration of the blues genre. The poet skillfully infuses the poem with the essence of blues music, capturing its raw emotion, storytelling tradition, and melancholic undertones. The use of refrains, mirroring the structure of a blues song, enhances the rhythmic and musical quality. The poem pays homage to Bessie Smith, an icon in the blues tradition, and effectively channels the spirit of the genre.

Disarticulated

arm torn out,

large veins cross

her shoulder intact,

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Nationality: American

Themes: Death, Disappointment, Identity

Emotions:

Sadness

Empathy, Frustration, Grief, Hopelessness, Pain, Resilience

Topics:

Blues

Music

Form: Couplets

"> 91/100

The Weary Blues

by Langston Hughes

‘The Weary Blues’ blends Blues music with themes of race and sorrow in Harlem, capturing a deep, soulful narrative.

Langston Hughes was a pioneer of jazz poetry, a form greatly influenced by the music he heard in Harlem during the 1920s. 'The Weary Blues' is a brilliant evocation of a musical performance in this era which captures the feeling of witnessing musicians at the peak of their powers. It is among the finest depictions of the blues in any poem.

Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,

Rocking back and forth to a mellow croon,

I heard a Negro play.

Down on Lenox Avenue the other night

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Loving Someone You Can't Have

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Country Lover

by Maya Angelou

‘Country Lover’ by Maya Angelou is a blues-inspired poem that uses the rhythm of music to depict a country dance scene.

The poem opens with the words “funky blues,” which immediately sets the tone. This kind of music is deeply tied to African-American history. It brings in a mood that is full of rhythm, memory, and emotion. Blues music is not just sound in this poem. It becomes part of the setting and adds meaning to the celebration. Even without saying much, the mention of blues already carries a long and rich cultural story.

Funky blues

Keen toed shoes

High water pants

Saddy night dance

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Funeral Blues

by W.H. Auden

‘Funeral Blues,’ also known as ‘Stop all the Clocks,’ is arguably Auden’s most famous poem. It was first published in Poems of To-Day in 1938.

This piece could be appreciated as a blues work, most importantly a poetic work featuring the attributes of blues music. It is lyrical, rhythmic, and on top of that written on a sad, melancholic note.

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

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Nationality: American

Themes: Celebration, Identity, Relationships

Emotions: Compassion, Grief, Pride, Resilience

Topics:

Blues

Life Struggles

Form: Free Verse

"> 72/100

Ma Rainey

by Sterling A. Brown

This heartfelt Sterling A. Brown poem is all about the famous 20th-century blues artist Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, also known as the “Mother of the Blues.”

Ma Rainey is regarded as the mother of blues music and this poem pays appropriate homage to her and captures the essence of the music. The spellbinding way Ma Rainey is described emphasises the power the blues had to hold a room in complete anticipation, before leaving the audience with memories they would never forget.

When Ma Rainey

Comes to town,

Folks from anyplace

Miles aroun’,

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Canary

by Rita Dove

Rita Dove’s ‘Canary’ is a short poem that commemorates the life of Billie Holiday, an African American jazz singer.

Blues is a central aspect of the poem, reflecting the emotional tone of Holiday’s music and life. The poem describes how her experiences with sorrow and hardship influenced her blues songs. It emphasizes how the blues genre provided a way for her to express her inner pain and struggles through her music.

Billie Holiday’s burned voice

had as many shadows as lights,

a mournful candelabra against a sleek piano,

the gardenia her signature under that ruined face.

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Nationality: American

Theme: Love

Emotion: Sadness

Topics:

Blues

Black Lives Matter, Injustice, Racism, Suffering

Form: Free Verse

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Affirmative Action Blues

by Elizabeth Alexander

‘Affirmative Action Blues’ appears in Elizabeth Alexander’s Body of Life (1996). This poem is about the incident of police brutality on Rodney King in 1991.

Whist the poem feels very distinct from a musical performance, the allusion to blues music establishes a connection between the racist killing of Rodney King and the racist treatment of African-Americans in the deep south, where the blues originated, during the nineteenth century. The poet therefore uses the connection to remind her readers that the issue of racism was not consigned to the distant past.

Right now two black people sit in a jury room

in Southern California trying to persuade

nine white people that what they saw when four white

police officers brought batons back like

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Graveyard Blues

by Natasha Trethewey

‘Graveyard Blues’ is a journey of grief, the speaker finding solace among the names of the dead, with their mother’s name becoming a comfort.

The poem’s title makes a direct reference to the blues, both as a genre and as a feeling. The steady repetition in the lines mirrors the rhythm of blues music. At the same time, the emotional tone of the poem matches the sorrow and reflection that blues songs often carry. Even without knowing the musical style, the sadness and emotional rhythm in the poem clearly connect to this topic in both form and feeling.

It rained the whole time we were laying her down;

Rained from church to grave when we put her down.

The suck of mud at our feet was a hollow sound.

When the preacher called out I held up my hand;

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Cozy Apologia

by Rita Dove

Exploring relationship intricacies, ‘Cozy Apologia’ by Dove merges rhyme and disarray, reflecting on pragmatic bonds and revelations.

The speaker refers directly to the word “blues” when describing how she feels, which signals a mild sadness or emotional heaviness. The use of this term connects the poem to a mood of emotional quietness and longing. It reflects the speaker’s inner state as she admits that the relationship is not divine or exciting, but still enough to keep her from feeling worse. The word also ties into the slow and reflective tone of the piece.

I could pick anything and think of you—

This lamp, the wind-still rain, the glossy blue

My pen exudes, drying matte, upon the page.

#10

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Nationality: American

Themes: Disappointment, Identity, Journey, Love, Relationships

Emotions: Empathy, Fear, Grief, Sadness, Worry

Topics:

Blues

Culture, Immigration, Loss, Soul

Form: Free Verse

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Immigrant Blues

by Li-Young Lee

How does it feel when the body and the soul are not in conjunction? Read Li-Young Lee’s meditative piece ‘Immigrant Blues’ to understand what it really feels like.

Li-Young Lee uses the blues' association with African-Americans and the appalling manner in which they were treated during the nineteenth and twentieth century to comment on the way in which immigrants are treated in contemporary America.

People have been trying to kill me since I was born,

a man tells his son, trying to explain

the wisdom of learning a second tongue.

#11

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To a Dead Friend

by Langston Hughes

‘To a Dead Friend’ by Langston Hughes is a depressing poem about the ways death can permanently alter one’s ability to see or feel joy.

As a writer of the Harlem Renaissaince, blues was intimately wound into Hughes' poetry. It might be redundant or obvious to state that a poem lamenting the death of a loved one carries elements of the blues. But that doesn't change the fact that the poem is sodden with the raw vulnerability that makes the blues so potent.

The moon still sends its mellow light

Through the purple blackness of the night;

The morning star is palely bright

Before the dawn.

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11 Soulful Poems about Blues

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11 Soulful Poems about Blues

by Michael S. Harper

by Langston Hughes

by Maya Angelou

by W.H. Auden

by Sterling A. Brown

by Rita Dove

by Elizabeth Alexander

by Natasha Trethewey

by Rita Dove

by Li-Young Lee

by Langston Hughes

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