I AM the nigger. Singer of songs, Dancer. . . Softer than fluff of cotton. . . Harder than dark earth Roads beaten in the sun By the bare feet of slaves. . . Foam of teeth . . . breaking crash of laughter. . . Red love of the blood of woman, White love of the tumbling pickaninnies. . . Lazy love of the banjo thrum. . . Sweated and driven for the harvest-wage, Loud laugher with hands like hams, Fists toughened on the handles, Smiling the slumber dreams of old jungles, Crazy as the sun and dew and dripping, heaving life of the jungle, Brooding and muttering with memories of shackles: I am the nigger. Look at me. I am the nigger. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING by WALT WHITMAN THE ORIGIN OF SONG-WRITING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD TO G. TRUSTRUM by THOMAS EDWARD BROWN A SONG OF PITCAIRN'S ISLAND by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT OSCAR OF ALVA by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THY DAYS ARE DONE by GEORGE GORDON BYRON PINDARIC ODE: THE RESURRECTION by ABRAHAM COWLEY TO JOHN JOHNSON, ON HIS PRESENTING AN ANTIQUE BUST OF HOMER by WILLIAM COWPER |