This poem’s primary themes are identity, creativity, and racism. From the start, the black speaker fails to meet the expectations of his white lecturer. Despite the distance between the speaker and his professor, he writes about his experiences and prefers to present his true self in his assignment. He is first scared because he is uninterested. However, he realizes that his likes and interests are shared by people of other races, which gives him confidence. The speaker builds a ground reality in which individuals affect one another regardless of their identities or skin color in America.

Theme for English B Summary

1. Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /r/ in “I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem” and the sound of /n/ in “Eighth Avenue, Seventh, and I come to the Y”.
2. Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line. For example, the sound of /i/ in “I like a pipe for a Christmas present”.
3. Alliteration: Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line in quick succession. For example, the sound of /b/ in “or records—Bessie, bop, or Bach” and the sound of /h/ in “I feel and see and hear, Harlem, I hear you”.
4. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. For example, “up to my room, sit down, and write this page”, “This is my page for English B” and “So will my page be colored that I write.”
5. Rhetorical Question: Rhetorical question is a statement that is asked to receive an answer. It is just posed to make the point clear. For example, “I wonder if it’s that simple?”
6. Personification: Personification is to give human qualities to inanimate objects. For example, “And let that page come out of you.”
7. Anaphora: It refers to the repetition of a word or expression in the first part of some verses. Here, ‘part of you’ is repeated in the final stanza. “Yet a part of me, as I am a part of you./ That’s American./ Sometimes perhaps you don’t want to be a part of me./ Nor do I often want to be a part of you.”

Theme for English B Summary

This poem has a myriad of poetic devices, some of which are as follows:

• Hyperbole: The phrase “the whole house/ began to tremble” is an example of exaggeration or hyperbole. 
• Personification: In the phrase “the wind pried/ with its stiff fingers”, the wind is personified. 
• Visual Imagery: One example would be the vivid descriptions in the lines “the stars began to burn/through the sheets of clouds”.

The Journey Summary