Analysis of Breezin' With The Shadows
Tameron Colbert 1995
Juke jams and silent lambs,
The black boy runs
Sweating, dying, and singing.
Speak to him,
As the roots and vines spiral the whips on his back,
His soul echoes a spiritual
While staring eye to eye
With the white cloak, stalking from the shadows.
The dirt from his nails
"Why ya skin dirty?",
The curl from his wail,
"Momma why it hurt so much?"
Feeds the pavement of devastation,
As the shadows dance to a jazz tune
"To be you must be close to despair,
You must remain a shadow in,
In our skin-head society."
Speak to them,
Sing it in a way only dem Negros will understand
"Here boy, take dis here cotton flower,
Dis is ya place on the world."
Juke Jams and Silent Lambs
A little black girl cries with a flower
In a field surrounded by piercing suns and silent petals,
Don't cry, your tears must turn into a song.
Coltrane tunes in the breezy afternoon,
Dries her tears blazing a monsoon
May the cotton wash their sins away
Because tears do fade away
But them scars on their skin
Will forever dance in the fields.
Scheme | A x x x x x x x x b x x x c x d b x x e x A e x x c c f f d x |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 110101 0111 1010010 111 101011001111 111001000 110111 101110101 01111 11110 01111 1011111 10101010 10111011 111111101 1101010 010110100 111 1100110110101 111111010 1111101 110101 0101111010 001010110101010 1111110101 101001001 10110001 101011101 0111101 111111 10101001 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,068 |
Words | 256 |
Sentences | 9 |
Stanzas | 31 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
Lines Amount | 31 |
Letters per line (avg) | 25 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 25 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 6 |
About this poem
The poem is recounting experiences that I have seen and watching my students and feeling what my ancestors felt.
Font size:
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Breezin' With The Shadows" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 23 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/139132/breezin%27-with-the-shadows>.
Discuss this Tameron Colbert poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In