ESSAY: SONG FOR A DARK GIRL

Poetry Analysis

Song for a Dark Girl is a poem written by Langston Hughes that describes the scene of a black girl who discovers the body of her lover battered, beaten and hung from a tree in the ‘Black Belt’ region of Southern America.

Way Down South in Dixie

(Break the heart of me)

They hung my black young lover

To a cross roads tree.

The poem begins every first line of a stanza with the same line which has a mood which is commonly associated with Blues music. This fits perfectly within the time period the poem was written (1927) and also coincides with what was popular within black culture at the time.

The first line is jaunty and almost jolly which is offset from the rest of the poem, this is an intentional draw back which can be interpreted as trying to recreate the sharp change in feelings one may feel in the situation of the ‘Dark Girl’. Relatively happy (or at least content/mellow) and then the rug pull effect on emotion when you discover a body.

In relation to the first line being repeated, it could be speculated that the girl cannot believe what she sees or that the feeling strikes at her again every time she looks up at her lover (implying that she only looks at the body three times before she leaves).

The second line which is enclosed within brackets implies a deeper connection that the use of the word lover in the third line. It shows that there was a loving relationship (whether one sided or mutual is unmentioned but a mutual one would fit best in the poem’s instance) and the line being in future tense coincides with the theory that she is in shock and hasn’t quite taken it all in properly. But back to the first point: the word lover usually implies that there is only a sexual relationship, the mentioning of the heart implicates a deeper relationship binds them than that of just intercourse. Also if there were no connection of love then the poem would lose a certain measure of its weight.

The phrase ‘black young lover’ is an interesting arrangement, typically it would be arranged young black lover, but in the poem black is put first drawing more attention to the fact this is the predominant aspect of the figure, which makes sense when coupled with the fact they was killed because of his skin colour so their ethnicity becomes the motivating factor in the murder and thus more important than age. It also is disjointing when reading it which brings more attention to it.

The reference to a cross roads tree contains a variant of different interpretations. The first is that a common legend within the black community of that time is that of Robert Johnson who allegedly sold his soul to the devil at a crossroads for the ability to play guitar better than anybody in existence. In relation this doesn’t really stand up to the poem unless you interpret it from the perspective of the community, their personal devil were the white men. It could be argued that what the lynched lover had bargained for was the end of black oppression (which the present has proved to have happened) while this may be a romanticised notion it also

There is also the literal sign of the cross which can be drawn to a religious meaning (religion being a predominant feature in their community past and present) and the final interpretation is that the lover was strung up at a crossroads to increase the chances of it being seen which would heighten its ability to act a deterrent for those who would wish to speak out again oppression.

Way Down South in Dixie

(Bruised body high in air)

I asked the white Lord Jesus

What was the use of prayer.

Following the structure predetermined by the previous stanza, the first line is the same and the second line is bracketed. ‘Bruised body high in air’ is a line that comes with a very vivid image being implanted in the mind.

The girl describes how she prayed and how her prayers went unheard, so she blames Jesus for not protecting her lover at her request. Feeling a lesser connection her with idol she highlights the fact he is white which created a larger void between them, she is almost standing Jesus with her enemies. Saying that he did nothing so he is as bad as those who brutalised her love because he did nothing and he was in a position to prevent it.

While blaming him she back tracks to all of the other times she has prayed to him and asks what is the point behind it, as if he does not care for her or her community. She feels abandoned and is starting to break away from her faith in Jesus.

An interesting quirk is that Jesus according to his background would actually have been black but is depicted in (predominately white occupying) Christianity as white. So her ignoring this could be interpreted as saying that he is their god not hers, that she wants the black lord Jesus or that she as previously mentioned doesn’t want Jesus at all, anymore.

Way Down South in Dixie

(Break the heart of me)

Love is a naked shadow

On a gnarled and naked tree.

The final stanza follows suit again to the previous and repeats the second line from the first stanza, the repetition may be to show that she is still emotionally numbed to the sight she is faced with. The final two lines explain (to an extent) why this line is in the future tense and the present in this and the beginning of the poem.

            She describes love as a naked shadow; she has personified love as her lover, drawing parallels that they both have been stripped down to essentially nothing but a shell. This shows that the aforementioned repeat of lines implies that rather her heart breaking it has just been hollowed out. That the experience has struck her so hard that it didn’t break her heart but destroy everything internally.

            She describes it as a shadow, before she was close enough to tell that the body was bruised now it is a shadow, so she has moved away from it. The way love has been personified implies that she is walking away from her ability to love, in relation it could be interpreted that she has no interest in trying to repair her feeling. Just that she is going to leave her feelings of numbness and her heart with her lover.

There is more religious imagery here, describing a body as naked on a piece of tree, reminiscent of the crucifixion of Jesus. She isn’t necessarily saying she thinks of her lover as Jesus more like she sees her faith in religion itself as dying with her love naked and alone with nobody coming to their aid in attempt to bring them down.

            The fact she doesn’t try to bring him down from the tree and chooses to leave instead could be taken as to mean that she is leaving him there along with her ability to love almost to hijack the original intent of the lynching to leave a message. The original message is grounded in religious hatred and is a warning that this could happen again if provoked, her message is simply that she’ll never love again, that her faith and ability to love were killed when her lover was killed and displayed in such a manner.

Conclusion

The poem is a very interesting mix of religious, racial and emotional tribulations; it combines a lot of themes within such a short poem. The fact it has no reprieve at the end really adds to the feeling that that period in black history was really a horribly dark time that felt like it would be an everlasting purgatory for the community. 

            There are certain aspects of the poem that still remain a mystery, the formatting of the second line of each stanza never has much inclination as to why it is contained brackets the only things that come to mind are that when it is read it is meant to be whispered or just emphasised less in reading.

            Overall it is very rich in themes and subtext and the more you want to look into it the more you get out of it, it is an easy enough poem to understand and the simple horror of it makes it a very interesting read especially when coupled with the history it is rooted in. The poems survival is a way of keeping that section of history alive and that is always something that shall always stimulate curiosity into said history and that is always something that should be applauded.  

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This essay was written for my university course and is protected by copyright, do not copy or replicate any part of this text without my express permission unless you mean to copy one of the works i cited, then by all means knock yourself out.