We shall not always plant while others reap
The golden increment of bursting fruit,
Not always countenance, abject and mute,
That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap;
Not everlastingly while others sleep
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute,
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;
We were not made to eternally weep.
The night whose sable breast relieves the stark,
White stars is no less lovely being dark,
And there are buds that cannot bloom at all
In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall;
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds,
And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.
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Comments
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From guest Ricky Burt (contact)
The poem is a sonnet in Petrarchan form. The stanza's are meant to be how they are. I think the like 'And there are buds that cannot bloom at all/ In light,' means things are just as beautiful even if they are not in the light or white. Then followed by oppression imagery. Similarly with 'White stars is no less lovely being dark,' is saying that whether something/someone is white or black they can be just as beautiful as one another. -
From guest Lizzie (contact)
something about this poem always gets me excited and I love the line "So in the dark we tend the haert that bleeds" it gives such emotinal imagery. I love reading it. -
a brilliant poem about african-american oppression. cullen is saying that the african-american will not always stay quiet under oppression, they will not always. "And there are buds that cannot bloom at all in light" so they wait, until the day they cannot wait anymore.
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he's right. we were not meant to eternally weep. but i still do eternally and internally.
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The poem really can't be seen in its entirety since it isn't devided into its original stanzas.
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