Langston Hughes’ “Life is Fine” consists of six stanzas with a variable refrain falling after each two stanzas. The theme of the poem is a lover’s lament.
First Stanza: “I went down to the river”
The first stanza dramatizes the speaker’s attempt to commit suicide by drowning. After going “down to the river,” the speaker sits down to think things over. He finds that he cannot think, so he abruptly jumps into the river.
Second Stanza: “I came up once and hollered!”
In the second stanza, the speaker dramatizes the notion that a drowning person comes up three times before sinking permanently beneath the water. He says that the first time he came up, he “hollered!” He does not report what he vocalized nor to whom he might have been “hollering.”
He continues to the second time he came up, and that time he “cried!” He is growing more urgent in his painful condition. But instead of sinking a third time, the speaker jumps out of the water for the strange reason that the water was so cold. His dedication to suicide is impeded by the discomfort of having to suffer the cold water.
First Refrain: “But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!”
The surprising turn of events is emphasized by the next line, which serves as a refrain, and at this point, the reader becomes aware of the comic effect that the speaker is infusing into his drama. He repeats that fact that the water was cold.
The cold water has actually become his best friend at that moment by saving him from drowning. He hops out of the river, not because he wanted to live but simply because he could not bear the discomfort of the cold water.
Third Stanza: “I took the elevator”
The speaker continues his search for a comfortable method of suicide. He takes “the elevator up / Sixteen floors above the ground.” He remembers that he is there because his girl jilted him, and he intends to kill himself by jumping off the sixteen-floor building.
Fourth Stanza: “I stood there and I hollered!”
Again, the same frame of mind claims him, and just as he had done in the cold river water, he stands there “holler[ing]” and “cry[ing].” This time his friend that keeps him from ending his life is the fact that the building is “so high.”
Second Refrain: “But it was High up there! It was high!”
And again, the refrain emphasizes the problem with jumping off the building. It was high. The speaker could not suffer the cold, and now he cannot suffer the height.
Fifth Stanza: “So since I'm still here livin'
The speaker decides to stop trying to commit suicide and “live on.” He asserts that he could have died for love, but he decides that the better way to look at it is that he was born “for livin.”
Sixth Stanza: “Though you may hear me holler”
In the sixth stanza, the speaker not only decides to live, but he also decides to show some backbone about it, and even though he might still “holler” and “cry” because of the loss of his “sweet baby,” he is not going to allow her to “see [him] die.”
Final Refrain: “Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!”
The final refrain showcases a very different character from the suicidal weakling who appeared in the opening. The speaker has changed his thinking; he now sees that “Life is fine.” So fine that he adds, “Fine as wine! Life is fine!”
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