I, Too

The title of the poem is I, Too. From the title, the reader expects the poem to be about somebody who talks about him/herself. The title is very short and raises the reader’s curiosity. The word “too” implies a comparison between two parts, and the reader is curious to know more about them.

The poem is made up of two stanzas, composed in free verses.

The speaking voice is a black man (or woman) that describes his usual life and his expectation for the future.

The first stanza is made up of seven lines and in it, the speaking voice describes his life. In the first line, the speaking voice says he, too, sings America. In the second line, the speaking voice introduces himself as a black man. He tells that when the company comes (white man), he is sent to eat in the kitchen. But he doesn’t feel  bad. He laughs, eats well and is hopeful. And grows strong, not only physically, but also inside. He learns not to feel bad for what the other people (the white people) thinks about him. The verbal tense used is the Simple Present. The Simple aspect of the verbs, conveys the idea of a situation that doesn’t change.

The second stanza is made up of eleven lines. It reports the expectation of the speaking voice for the future. The first word is “tomorrow”. It means that he thinks it all will happen in the near future. He will be at the table when the company comes and nobody will tell him to go and eat in the kitchen. And anybody will recognise that he is a beautiful, nice person as them, and will be ashamed. The verbal tense used is the Simple Future. It conveys the idea of a big change.

The first and the last line of the poem have the same structure. They begin with the words “I, too”.

The first line tells: I, too, sing America. It means, that the black men sings and celebrates America as the white man, although they don’t think he is worth to be part of it.
It is the right beginning for the poem: the black men can only “sing America”, by himself, because nobody recognises him as part of the country.
The last line tells: I, too, am America. The poet used the noun America instead of the nationality adjective (American). This is because, being American, is only a legal fact. Being America, means to feel to be part of America: black man are part of the American story exactly as the white man.

The poem is a comparison between black and white man, and a confrontation between the past and the present situation of black man in America.