Text of

"Jazzonia"

by Langston Hughes

"Jazzonia" was originally published with other of Hughes' early poems in 1923 in The Crisis, the official publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). It was later published in the 1925 volume The New Negro, edited by Alain Locke (the book that, for many, announced the Harlem Renaissance), and in Hughes' first volume of poetry, The Weary Blues (New York: Knopf, 1926). A short biography of Hughes is also available.

OH, silver tree!
Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

In a Harlem cabaret
Six long-headed jazzers play.
A dancing girl whose eyes are bold
Lifts high a dress of silken gold.

Oh, singing tree!
Oh, shining rivers of the soul!

Were Eve's eyes
In the first garden
Just a bit too bold?
Was Cleopatra gorgeous
In a gown of gold?

Oh, shining tree!
Oh, silver rivers of the soul!

In a whirling cabaret
Six long-headed jazzers play.

This text is one of several being analyzed by students in the courses "Culture in the Jazz Age," taught by Nick Evans, and "The Rhetoric Around Music," taught by David Liss. Other of these texts include:
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