The Barrier
- I MUST not gaze at them although
- Your eyes are dawning day;
- I must not watch you as you go
- Your sun-illumined way;
- I hear but I must never heed
- The fascinating note,
- Which, fluting like a river reed,
- Comes from your trembing throat;
- I must not see upon your face
- Love's softly glowing spark;
- For there's the barrier of race,
- You're fair and I am dark.
- Claude McKay
The Barrier by Claude McKay is a very powerful poem that shows one of the many "barriers" that African-Americans faced during the Harlem Renaissance. I chose this poem because of the imagery it portrays and the message it sends to its readers.
The tone of the poem is set in the first two words that McKay wrote. The capitalization of MUST inflicts anger and frustration in his voice. The reader can infer that McKay is very passionate about his topic just by reading the first sentence. He also uses imagery to show his passion. For example, McKay uses images such as "sun-illuminated ways", "fluting like a river reed", and "Love's softly glowing spark". The significance of his last example of imagery is that it reveals to the reader what "the barrier" is. His poem is about how he cannot love another person because of the color of their skin.
McKay does not use many sound devices in The Barrier. The only two forms of sound devices that I found were end rhyme and meter, which he uses to give the poem a nice flow. While I was reading the poem, McKay's use of end rhyme made me feel a sense of connection between his ideas from line to line.
McKay uses a few figures of speech in The Barrier. For example, he compares eyes to the dawn of day and gives love a soft glowing spark. To me, these descriptions add another dimension to the poem. The dawn of day and spark of love create a good contrast from what his state of thought is at the end. They really bring out his feelings and emotions on how he feels about the color barrier. This was the biggest part of McKay's poem that said something to me, that made me feel as if I was fighting against the color barrier too.
