Trumpet Player & We Know The Way In this essay, I will compare the first and third stanzas of the poem "Trumpet Player", written by Langston Hughes, and the song "We Know The Way", written by Opetaia Foa'i and Lin-Manuel Miranda. I have chosen the poem because of its deep connection to the Harlem Renaissance. Ever since I was little, I have always had a passion for the arts of African Americans, whether it came to jazz music, like Louis Armstrong, rap music, like Tupac or NWA, or politics, like Martin Luther King Jr, or sports, like Michael Jordan. The two stanzas specifically that I have chosen show the power and presentation that Hughes was able to portray. This poem spoke to me as it dives into the rich history that many people do not put effort into learning. I chose the song out of favoritism, as the movie "Moana" is one of my favorite movies of all time. The storyline, the soundtrack, and the animation call to me, and this song touches the soul for me. What sets this song apart from all the other ones we learned is that it can reach back to Pacific-Islander roots and show what the true history is about. I will be presenting a comparison between the two, how they both reach back to the artist's ancestry, and how they compare to each other, with the context of each piece, close readings, and the cultural issues within them. Langston Hughes was a poet and an activist, and in 1947, he was one of the first-ever poets to contribute to the art of jazz poetry. In the two stanzas I have chosen, many clues can lead us to the meaning and reasoning behind each line. One of the first things that can be recognized is in the lines: "Has dark moons of weariness Beneath his eyes Where the trumpet at his lips" 1
Where the smoldering memory of slave ships Blazed to the crack of whips About his thighs" (Hughes). This line portrays the tiredness of the trumpet man, who has gone through a lot himself, but also his culture and race as a whole. The next line ties it in, as it calls upon the slavery that many African Americans had to face in the 1800s. Even with slavery being abolished in 1865, Hughes paints the picture that the after-effects of slavery still haunted many African Americans (Archives). In the third stanza, Hughes can represent the power of the trumpet, writing: "From the trumpet at his lips Is Honey Mixed with liquid fire. The rhythm From the trumpet at his lips Is ecstasy Distilled from old desire-" (Hughes). This stanza represents the love and passion that the trumpet man puts into his efforts to play. Honey can be used as a metaphor for something sweet, adding to the melody and making it nice to listen to. Ecstasy, which is a drug that makes one feel euphoric, can be used here as a line