sentation of 1920s reality. Hughes’ use of repetition both reaffirms the truth of this ethos and brings a bit of humour to the plight of Negro womanhood, particularly in the last stanza: I’m gonna buy me a rose bud An’ plant it at my back door, Buy me a rose bud, plant it at my back door, So when I’m dead they won’t need No flowers from the store. (19 -24) In a manner similar to the last part of “The Weary Blues,” the last bit of “Midwinter Blues” seems surprisingly life-affirming. Although the woman blatantly addresses her physical death and the emotional death of her relationship, the notion of planting flowers indicates a concrete movement toward life and cyclic hope. In this fashion, “Midwinter Blues” also becomes a fully realized product of Hughes’ Blues aesthetic, healing itself while wallowing in its pain. Throughout his work, Hughes develops and relies on a sensitive, self-conscious poetic voice -- a voice which sheds light on the African-American experience through its incisive use of simple, direct, descriptive language. This application allows his writing to transcend from mere poetic documentation to esteemed art in its own right. With his evocations, Hughes plants and harvests his Blues aesthetic again and again. He brings incredible intelligence and poignancy to the every-day struggles of marginilization, loss, and human difficulty. Rather than simply rehashing the agony of being human (and Black) into poetic whining, however, Hughes turns pain into a beautiful process of healing by embrace. This active grasp of the human condition gives unspeakable power to his Blues aesthetic, which in turn gives power to Hughes’ overall artistic endeavor, leading his readers “far into the night [to] croon that tune” (The Weary Blues, 31). ...
