In Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street”  the main theme is one of survival and leaving Harlem. Womack mainly sings about the need to “break out of the ghetto” and brings up the drugs and other bad things that go on there thus, portraying well the desperate situation in Harlem in his times. I liked how he sings about it in a very matter of fact way without emotions involved.

“We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks portrays in a very concise manner the life in Harlem by talking about specifics. The poem tells us it is considered cool to drop out of school, “lurk late…thin gin” and so on. The last line “We die soon” conveys the hopelessness of the whole situation.  “The Weary Blues” is similar in that it also portrays the hopelessness but in an emotional way without specific examples of life in the streets.  Hughes uses words such as “drowsy”, “lazy sway”, “old piano moan” to make the mood one of depression. It is especially sad when he “heard that Negro sing….I ain’t happy no mo’ and I wish that I had died.” In both poems it seems that there is no way to escape the miserable situation in Harlem unlike in “Across 110th street” where Womack sings about such a possibility though it may be difficult.