4 Poetry for Students
Line 25:
Here another activity that was central to the
Civil Rights Movement is alluded to. In this case
it is the Freedom Rides of the South which held as
their goal the desegregation of buses.Line 26:
With this command and the following one,
Madgett introduces not a specific time or place, but
the role of faith in the speaker’s struggle. This men-
tioning of religion also broadens the scope of the
poem as it now includes issues of morality, and not
only justice.Lines 27-28:
The fourth stanza then concludes with one fi-
nal command, returning full circle to that which
started the list, walking. Now though it has been
altered, even transformed, into marching. This of
course carries connotations of added strength,
given that the word “marching” makes one think
of greater numbers of people than “walking” does,
and also brings in the idea of an army. The last line
here then returns the poem full circle to the voice
that is now singing one of the key protest songs of
the entire Civil Rights Movement, “We Shall Over-
come.”
It is worth noting how this paragraph coheres
in part because of the parallel structure employed
by Madgett. This is when a similar rhetorical struc-
ture is used with different phrases, and an excel-
lent example exists here in the fourth stanza as lines
25 to 27 all begin with a one-word exclamatory
command, which is then followed by an affirma-
tive sentence beginning with the phrase “And I ...”
As well as implying the relatedness of these dif-
ferent acts, it also presents them in a smoother, al-
most musical way that mimics the singing about to
come. In poetry, choice of rhetorical structure—
where and how to place the words—is as impor-
tant as which words are being used.Lines 29-31:
With the action of the above stanzas well es-
tablished and indefinite (“until the last chains fall”)
the poem now shifts toward its closing. It reaffirms
the strength of the movement and protest by list-
ing certain things that have been used to squash ef-
forts in the past and stating that they will no longer
work. These specific details help to sharpen the im-
age of the confrontations as one can easily picture
“dogs” and “clubs” and “guns.” There is also ref-
erence again to actual places where protest and con-
frontation have occurred, Montgomery and Selmabeing key locations of non-violent protest and gath-
ering during the Civil Rights Movement.
This line not only serves as another illustration
of how the struggle for equality cannot be stopped,
because, literally, there is not enough room or force
to detain the people, but it also helps tie the poem
together before its end by making reference to the
physical restraint—the chain gang—of the first
stanza.
Here the poem nears its end and finally comes
out and tells what the goal of all the protest re-
counted has been. Clearly there is some idea
throughout the poem, with all the historical refer-
ences, but to summarize the poem speaks of the
“destiny of manhood, / of equality, of dignity.” The
key word here in regards to the rest of the poem,
it could be argued, is “destiny” as it implies that
what is desired—the freedom and equality to grow
and live one’s life—is not only a right, but is a fun-
damental part of a larger plan. It is how it is sup-
pose to be, the poem claims with this one word.
This presents an opposing idea to that of Manifest
Destiny which was used by Europeans founding
America to justify whatever actions—slave-trading
being only one of the horrific ones—they took.Lines 36-37:
This second to the last line echoes the second
line of the poem by stating the duration of the op-
pression, and it here sets up the final line, “Now!”,
which can be seen as yet another nail being driven
home. The message of the poem, that the time has
come, echoes in the reader’s mind.Themes.
American Dream
The phrase “The American Dream” brings
many things to mind: self-reliance, entrepreneur-
ship, freedom, equality, and economic prosperity,
to name a few. The early literature of the nation
was very concerned with defining the American
Dream. Thomas Jefferson dreamt of a nation of
farmers, while Ralph Waldo Emerson rhapsodized
about the importance of self-reliance. At the same
time discussions of this American Dream were go-
ing on, a whole race of people were being system-
atically denied the tenets that make up the dream:
freedom, the vote, economic independence, even
the ownership of one’s own body. Instead of own-
ing homes, getting an education, farming land, and
building towards a future, African-Americans wereAlabama Centennial