I think these means when they gain that joy it will only go away and not stay with them.

Just by reading this you can hear and feel the power of these lines of the poem.

I like how he writes in this poem, and his writing scheme, his words flow in different ways but makes the poem all come together with the things he’s describing so the readers can think about what he’s saying.

Sad days are there but there are also better days, and to grateful that you get to experience those days.

Their voices are being heard.

This line was a good one for me because it shows how no race exists.

With this poem, it’s starting off a little more aggressive other than the previous poem. But it gives the visuals of what they’re writing about.

The use of imagery, chooses to show how freedom will be near for them if they use force towards it.

This poem is starting off with a lot of positive visuals and imagery.

This makes me infer on how they felt as if they were locked away, And how they were maybe set free.

The thought of prayer always seems to make its way in these types of poems, and the thought os praising a God.

This symbolizes the sap in the tree relating to the the blood in their veins.

I think this means that they sing through the pain, and of what they are feeling.

This line makes me think about how people hide their feelings in the inside but smile on the outside to try and hide their feelings.

We are given a lot of visuals of what’s going on in the story. Of the things we could be thinking about while reading.

I like how this symbolizes something, how giving out thiese flowers have a meaning to it.

He's making sure his blackness is known. And that he's proud of being the color he is.

The repetition of these words, give excitement to the poem. It gives a stance to the poem to what he's saying. And the words he's saying gives his words power.

For me it makes me think about how blacks have felt all the troubles that the world has given them, and have fought through them one step at a time, but it still has some thinking is there a place that will make all their troubles go away, a place that will make them feel at home.

Singing can change the feelings of people, and help people see things in different ways. Its amazing how music can just show power, and make people feel some type of way.

I do not know the correct meaning of this line, first I had to look up 'vigor' and 'ingenuity' to try to get a fuller meaning and it came up as of having strength and cleverness. But I still don't get what he means in the first line. But the rest he talks about the sounds of the cries from the slaves as being beautiful.

I don't really get the idea of slaveowners feeling the same about slavery as slaves did.

Everything the mother has done was for her children, them being slaves and African Americans were already hard for them. She was faced with the fact that she was living in a world were people would mistreat herself and her children and she was the victim of all of that.

With this line it makes me ask “Why would she feel that wya about herself?” Like she shouldn’t feel that type of way, no matter what the situation was.

I don’t really know what he’s trying to imply from this statement. It seems to me a little that he’s saying he’ll always be black on the outside but his heart is white, but I don’t really understand.

I also agree on what Brandi inferred about the knowledge of thinking she’s implying about her master when she says “Victim” but it shows how some slaves may have gotten attached to their masters, of being in that state of mind it could’ve really happened. And it had me thinking of stories of how some people who have been kidnapped get attached to their kidnappers.

The use of imagery in this poem is very vivid and descriptive, showing what he's talking about in different ways.

In this part I think it shows how there were happy and positive days, then it turned in a way of becoming negative.

Throughout this whole poem the whole theme is to show how America treats and have treated their black citizens. I like how to poem breaks down with questions to have the readers thinking, and for them to see how America hasn't changed.

When I read this part of the poem I know it implies and shows through the struggle but the power of through going these struggles. But with them having the belief and trust in God.

Who is she inferring about when she says "Beasts"

With this stanza it shows the connection of mother and child and to show how a mother will do anything and everything in her power to create a better life for her child. But the last part of "-or find him a grave!" has me questioning what that means.

With these stanzas this shows the connection between a slave mother and her child, the connection they have with one another and how them being separated creates a sadness in the poem, to struggle the struggle of what women slaves had to endure.

i think she implies that the queen would never back down. That she will never tilt her crown for a man.

With this part I believe that it implies how there are many struggles into women lives, how there are so many wrongs and so little rights. While men there's a difference in all of that, men can get away with many things, they have few rules, etc.

This was interesting to read, to show how kids first learned how they were a slave.

This part of the story represents slavery in ways of showing how they felt how their childhood was ended by slavery, and knew when it started. Also this is different from other slave novels by it explaining what African Americans did, and their jobs they held.

With this I was thinking about the first question which was asking how does this reading differ from the role of African American women from our other novels, and I feel as though this reading shows a different point of view, all the reading show how African Americans were treated but this one shows their voice, they have lines, and its showing and talking about the way they're feeling.

He's noting that freedom is a must and that slavery has too much pressure on ones self, and to let go of that pain is a must.

He yearns for freedom, just to be set free from the things thats holding him back.

His use of imagery is really good, with his depiction of a creature and then being amazed of how it flies. He later on talks about insects and bugs and makes it seem a little more whimsical.

The use of imagery, and metaphors in her poem, helps it build elements of a form being almost a narrative but it being a descriptive poem of her describing her imagination.

She shows that she is in control of her imagination, that she can leave when she wants to leave. And she can see what she's created.

The use of her words on imagination, it tells me that she thinks of imagination being a great way for our minds to see things. Where you can make up things, anyway possible.

Its as if she's saying a prayer for God, how virtue is apart of her life. How its guides her throughout the years of her life.

When she talks about virtue, I feel as if she's saying virtue is hard to find or hard to reach if you're not in the right state of mind. And the connection of God in someway, saying maybe just like reaching for virtue that you have to reach for God