Analysis Questions
1. Identify the mood expressed in "The Weary Blues," "Song for a Dark Girl," and "Harlem." What accounts for the consistency?
2. Based on his poetry, what does Hughes see as the role of music in the "black experience"?

Interpretation Questions
3. What does the seemingly compliant voice reveal lying behind the façade in "Dream Boogie"?

Evaluation Questions
4. Why does the voice/narrator of "Dream Boogie" refrain from articulating the revelation behind the "boogie woogie"?
5. Why is Simple's exit from the bar contradictory or ironic? How is it consistent with some assumptions that you might draw from his situation?