Religious Imagery In Langston Hughes' Poem

Langston Hughes poem “Song for a Dark Girl” portrays the heartache of a young black girl, from the South in America, who discovers the torturous death of her lover. The poem takes place during a time period where oppression towards people of color was very prominent and thought to be permanent. Hughes wanted to highlight the emotions and the cruelties that were being endured by the people of color as well as the role of religion that took part in all this. In order to portray these deep emotions of suffering, Hughes used imagery that contained various literary techniques.

Racial suffering was very prominent in the South during the nineteenth century, which was the time period of this poem. Each stanza in the poem begins with the line “Way Down South in Dixie,” which alludes to the song “Dixie” that was written during the nineteenth century to celebrate the South. However, it is being used in a depressing poem. The imagery of this particular line shows the irony of how the South is rejoicing their glory, but there is so much horror that is being overlooked. We also see the irony in the title of the poem itself that the poem is a “song”. Songs are usually thought to be joyous and for this poem the imagery of the title suggests it might be a blues or an upbeat jolly song, but as we continue to read the poem, we realize that it is showing the tragedies that the people of color are enduring. Hughes wants state the fact that the South is being looked at being so great, but in reality, it is not because of the misery and inhumane practices that are being used on the people of color living there.

The second line of the poem is placed in parenthesis in order to emphasis the agony of the poem. He says, “(Break the heart of me)” not only is he depicting a vivid image of a young girl in pain, but by placing it in parenthesis he uncovers that her aching heart that mourns her lover is an emotion too great to be expressed. Her feelings toward the death of her lover cannot be put into words because it would not do justice to the level of love, she felt for him. This line is repeated in the third stanza, to further emphasis the uncontainable emotion. This technique of the use of parenthesis is seen again in the second stanza where it says “(Bruised body high in air)” to show the intensity of torment the lover had gone through. Once again, the condition and state of the body being tortured could not be explained in words.

Hughes uses specific diction in the imagery of the poem to depict the great depth of suffering experienced by the “Dark girl”. He particularly uses the word girl instead of women to show that she is young and therefore innocent, so losing her lover would have affected her immensely, as she was not prepared for such a tragedy that would travel with her for a very long time. The emotions that she felt due to this event in her life is much greater than those of an older and mature woman. He also says, “black young lover” to make an important point that the reason why the young lover is hanging from the tree is because of the fact that he was black, and also to show that he is innocent because he is young so his death is primarily due to the color of his skin.

Syntax is also used in the imagery of the poem to enhance the emotions. He uses simple sentence structures to show that the song was written by a girl of color, because they were not very educated during this time period. The poem is very short and concise, and does not use complex language, which shows the limitations society had put on those whose skin was not white. He also, chooses to switch from present and past tense, such as “they hung” and “break” to show that she is still feeling the distress of her loss in present day, that she is not yet over the shock that she has experienced. There is also religious imagery is evident throughout the poem. The White Southerners lynch her lover “To a crossroads tree”, in public. Hughes is making an allusion to the image of the crucifixion of Jesus. He is comparing the lynching of the black lover to Jesus hanging from a cross as both were acts of hatred. The allusion shows the immense brutality of the lynching. However, he is trying to bring up the irony that the White Southerners who did the actual act of lynching were trying to uphold their Christian values through these violent acts.

Also, this image of the lover hanging in the middle of an intersection is significant because it indicates that the White Southerners wanted everyone to witness the repercussions of disobeying them, so that it would create fear amongst the others. But it also demonstrates the people who lynched the black lover did not see it as a crime because they made no attempts to hide and rather wanted everyone to be aware of what they had done, by placing him in a public location. Hughes underlines the idea that these actions were being justified, when they should not have been.

In the second stanza, Hughes shows the disconnection between the girl and the Lord Jesus as she questions him for not listening to her prayers. He says, “I asked the white lord Jesus” to emphasis the fact that Jesus is White, and girl is Black, so he is not one of them and therefore, does not sympathize with her. He wants to describe how she believes that the lord Jesus is a part of the people who killed her lover because he did not do anything to protect him. Also, he says “What was the use of prayer,” to portray the abandonment the girl feels because she has prayed over and over again for her people, but nothing is being done because he does not care for them because he is “white”, which makes her lose faith in him. However, there is irony being shown through the imagery of her questions to heighten her religious beliefs as well because her asking the Lord Jesus why he is not answering her prayers is a prayer in itself.

In the last stanza, Hughes uses a metaphor in his imagery to portray the tremendous amount of grief that is felt by the girl. He compares love to a naked shadow, to show her inability to love anymore because before she saw a bruised body, but the body is just a shadow in the distance implying that she is unable to love anymore, she is in a state of numbness. Then he compares love to a naked tree to show the emptiness felt by the girl like a tree that is bare. Neither her nor the tree are living anymore, they are both hollow on the inside with nothing to live for as they have been stripped of their life. The concept of love is dead, hanging up on the tree as well, as that emotion is just a shadow for her now too. But also, the love he is referring to is also another name for god and Christ, so once again he is mentioning that the girl no longer believes in god because she sees Christ as a dead tree.

In conclusion, Hughes wanted to portray the feeling of despair and detachment to religion that was being experienced by innocent people, because of the way they were born through one specific experience of a young girl of color who lost her lover in these acts of violence towards their kind. He used literary techniques such as allusion, diction, irony, metaphors, and syntax in his use of imagery to enhance the emotions and acts of violent harassments of the people of color that he wanted to depict.