Hopelessness in Langston Hughes’ “song for a Dark Girl”

Lynn W. Ong

Professor Nicole Spigner

ENGL 116W

16 March 2015

Hopelessness in Langston Hughes’ “Song for a Dark Girl”

Upon a first reading of Langston Hughes’ “Song for a Dark Girl,” one might argue that the poem deals largely with the religion of Christianity and how it relates to the African American community. In her critical article about the poetry of Langston Hughes, Mary Beth Culp argues that Hughes is indeed dealing with Christianity in this particular poem. While there is no doubt that religion plays a role in “Song for a Dark Girl,” I argue that Hughes uses the theme of religion as well as mood and structure to set up the story of an African American woman’s loss of her lover as a metaphor for the loss of hope in reconciliation between the African and White American communities.

        Culp’s argument centers on the black white disparity within Christianity and how Hughes uses his poetry to address these “contradictory elements” (Culp 242). She describes Hughes as a “folklorist” (24) and as such, his poetry was deeply rooted in the intertwining of religious and racial feelings. Christianity was presented in Hughes’ poetry in a number of different ways. It was simultaneously a “source of strength for the oppressed” and “the religion of slavery” (241), which are extremely contrasting views. This dichotomy that was very much embedded in the African American’s experience with Christianity and Culp argues that Hughes often addresses it in his poetry. In “Song for a Dark Girl,” this dichotomy is presented through Christ’s skin color. Hughes presents Christ, in two separate instances in the poem, as a white man and as a black man. He is first portrayed as black and as “the image and friend of the lynched Negro” (242) and later portrayed as white and as siding with the other white oppressors. It is important to note that Christianity was a religion passed from white slave owners to their slaves. In many ways, the teachings and sufferings of Christ rang very true with the slaves’ plight. At the same time, however, Christ is often portrayed as a white man with this notion that Christ is on the same side as their oppressors and as such, can be thought of as another construct aiding in their oppression. According to Culp, it is these contrasting views and interpretations of Christ that Hughes strives to address in his poetry.

        In reading “Song for a Dark Girl,” Culp argues that the reader can see this innate split within Christianity in multiple instances throughout the poem. Looking at the first stanza,

        Way Down South in Dixie

        (Break the heart of me)

        They hung my black young lover

        To a cross roads tree. (quoted in “Langston Hughes” 1311)

Here, Culp argues that the speaker’s “young black lover” (3) is Christ and therefore, Christ is being presented as a black man. She also notes the deliberate separation of the word crossroads in line four into two words, cross and roads, and argues that this draws a direct comparison between the lynching of a black man to the crucifixion of Christ. In the second stanza, Hughes introduces “the white Lord Jesus” (7) to whom the speaker, a black woman, asks, “what was the use of prayer” (8). We see that Christ is now being presented as a white man. Culp argues that the white Jesus is Hughes’ way of “expressing the frustration of the black religious experience in America” (Culp 245), which goes back to this inherent dichotomy within the Christian religion and the notion that Christ, as a white construct introduced to black slaves, is unable and perhaps even unwilling to help the plight of the African Americans. According to Culp, “Song for a Dark Girl” is a deeply religious poem that presents this innate disparity within Christianity.

        While there is no denying the religious elements in the poem, I argue that religion is simply one of many devices Hughes uses to set up the greater meaning of his poem, which is that the African American community has lost all hope for peace between them and the White Americans. I see the inherent split within Christianity as representative of the racial divide so present in the United States, specifically the southern region. In “Song for a Dark Girl,” this can be seen in the repetition of the “Way Down South in Dixie,” (Hughes 1) a phrase repeated in the beginning of every stanza. The fact that every word is capitalized lets the reader know that this phrase is an allusion to the popular folk song “Dixie” (also known as “I Wish I Was in Dixie” and “Dixie’s Land”). The upbeat song was later adopted as the unofficial anthem of the Confederacy during the Civil War. It is interesting that Hughes immediately juxtaposes this happy song in the next line with “Break the heart of me” (2) in the first and second stanzas then “Bruised body high in air” (5) in stanza two. Both lines are extremely sad and stand in stark contrast to the line that precedes them. That black white dichotomy that exists in Christianity also exists in the United States. The United States is supposed to be the land of the free and freedom is absolutely integral to the country’s constitution. Yet, we see that the land is free to only the White Americans and even today, we could argue that African Americans are still not given the same freedoms as their white peers. Hughes presents this disparity in the beginning of every stanza, cementing this thought into the readers’ minds. The contrasting black and white Christ figures that Culp argues as central to the poem’s theme serve as a metaphor for the contrasting “Dixie Lands” that white and black people live in: The free America for the whites versus the oppressive America for the blacks. This has led to their loss of hope in peace with the other race.