II ENGLISH CLASSTEST

I, Too.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow

I'll be at the table

When company comes

Nobody 'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides,

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed -

I, too, am America.

The title of the poem is "I,too"; probably the poet wants to offer the reader the social situation of the protagonist in relation to the society: he or she is not different from other people. Pyutting the comma between the subject and the adverb "too" the poet separates the two parts and focuses the attention on the adverb. In this way he shares his opinion with the reader: the protagonist is able to do the same things of everybody.

What can the protagonist do? He can "sing America" – even if he/she is the "darker brother". That means the protagonist feels a sense of belonging to America, but he/she is not from America: his/her skin is black; probably the protagonist of the poem is from Africa.

The poem is made of two stanzas.

The first stanza is composed by seven lines. In this first stanza the spoeaking voice is sent to eat in the kitchen when company cames. He/she is probably dependent on someone else or he/she works in a house doing housework.

The second stanza is composed by eleven lines: in this way the poet makes the second stanza more important than the first. In the second stanza the poet says "Tomorrow, I'll be at the table when company comes".
In the first line there is just the word "Tomorrow": the autor centres upon this word to introduce a change. The protagonist wants a future where nobody will dare say to him to eat in the kitchen. He/She wants to sit at the same table of the company: he wants to be considered equal to anybody else, having or deserving the same rights of other people.

The poem is split in this two stanzas because the poet wants to show the reader how the same situation changes from the "present" to the "future".