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.
This was some very thoughtful insight, Spriggs. I, too, think that Claude McKay is angry about the color barrier's toll on his relationship, but I'd also like to point out an example from the poem that displays emotions of the woman in the relationship. McKay made an image of the woman he speaks of in this poem, and it states that she is sad. She speaks with a "trembling throat." Often times, people tense up and tremble when they are sad or nervous, and I think that this woman is clearly experiencing this sorrow. McKay displays to us that the color barrier was hurtful to all races of humans because of the segregation that existed in that era.
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