Blasting the Blues

The form of The Blue’s gave a lot of rhythmic power to Black American’s during the Civil Rights Movement. The performance style of the Blues became popular in the 1900s when certain styles such as the Memphis and Mississippi Blues emerged. Therefore, this surge in popularity of the Blues helped bring some recognition to the civil rights movement.

“Blues repetition as a means of gaining time to improvise a response to a life situation, when used as a poetic device can have many subtle effects” (Patterson189). The rhythmic repetition of the Blues was based around creating an image that represented the true life of an African American. This repetition helped lead up to the focusing image of the song or poem and the form often used refrains for emphasis.

“Personal Blues subjects like unhappy love, difficult times, hard luck, fruitless labor, natural disasters, rootlessness find expression through the concrete particulars of reported circumstances” (Patterson 189). Blues poems have no specific number of stanzas and this is because it helps create a theme which portrays humans emotions. Blues poems are based on the coherence of imagery and tone as opposed to developing ideas and a narrative within the poem. Another important aspect of the Blues would have to be their use of diction that is often described as electric.

Citations:

Patterson, Raymond. “The Blues.” An Exaltation on Forms: Contemporary Poets Celebrate the Diversity of Their Art. Edited by Annie Finch and Katherine Varnes. U of Michigan P, 2002, pp. 217–222.