Imagery is a key aspect of this poem.
The poem is about racism, and when the author speaks of a buried mole
digging in the soil, it is because it is easier for a reader to
visualize this image rather than the concept of racism. Both
situations are accompanied by the feeling of perseverance even when
it is hard to see the rewards of the work being done. By taking a
large, hard to envision idea and replacing it with an incident that
is smaller in scale yet identical in the emotional repercussions, the
reader can better grasp large concepts and complicated emotions.
The rhyme scheme in this poem is very
unique. It starts out with a true rhyme scheme of ABABCDCD, but by
the ninth line, the scheme changes to EEFFGG. Because the poem is
technically a single stanza, the full rhyme scheme would be
ABABCDCDEEFFGG. This change in pattern is very sophisticated, because
rhyming helps to make things more lyrical and memorable, while the
change in routine makes sure that the poem does not sound cliché.
This method also gives to author more freedom of word choice while
still adding structure to the poem. In this poem, there is also a
fair amount of alliteration, marked by examples such as “God is
good,” “fickle fruit,” “black, and bid,” which all help to
make sure that the poem sounds melodic. This smooth delivery of the
poem helps to add a cohesive binding to it.
A large part of the body of the poem is
made up of allusions. While the references to God may not be strictly
allusions, it is important to note that the author is referring to
the Christian god, as demonstrated in line four (a belief in
Christianity is that humans were made in God's image) and in the
reference to the catechism. There are also references the two
characters in Greek mythology, Tantalus and Sisyphus. The fact that
all of these allusions mark struggles that have the same emotional
scope as do struggles with racism means that they could also be
interpreted as metaphors for the struggles the Black community has to
deal with, especially concerning self-expression, as stated in the
final line of the poem.
