A Black Man Talks of Reaping

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism and death.

The poem is an allegory, so it contains meaning that isn’t explicit. The poem emphasizes sowing and reaping, but it isn’t just about the struggles of farming. The diction is figurative, so the words represent the greater struggles of Black people to benefit from their work and provide their progeny with useful wealth. The speaker’s experience serves as a broader metaphor for systemic racial injustice, particularly the historical and economic structures that have continually exploited Black labor. At the same time, the poem is about agriculture. Due to the United States’ system of slavery, many Black people were forced to plant and grow crops with little to no compensation. Once slavery in the US nominally ended, many Black people, due to overtly racist laws and policies, had to continue working in the fields—labor, like sharecropping, that didn’t provide long-term benefits. This cycle of disenfranchisement meant that Black families often remained trapped in economic precarity despite their labor, mirroring the poem’s central theme of unfulfilled effort. With the allegorical genre, Bontemps uses a common occupation held by Black people to confront the extensive hardships of Black people living in a continually racist society. 

As the title indicates, the speaker is a Black man, so a Black man narrates the allegory—the poem is in his voice. The voice carries a confident and melancholy tone. This confidence arises from the speaker’s awareness that he’s a gifted sower. He has carefully worked on various lands for years, and he has planted so many seeds that they could fill the lands of other countries. This hyperbolic image underscores both the vast scale of his labor and the bitter irony that, despite such contributions, he remains unrewarded. Despite his formidable experience, the man has no nest egg. The lack of rewards gives him a sense of melancholy and loss. The speaker feels that he should have more, but all he has is what he can hold in his hands. The paucity underpins the sorrowful tone. 

The allegory genre turns the reader into a student. The speaker becomes the teacher, illuminating the past and present difficulties of prospering as a Black person in the United States. The tone is somewhat fatigued as the speaker explains his labors and thus the racism besetting the Black farmworker. This interpretation suggests a degree of frustration in the poem—Black suffering is not a new phenomenon, yet it must continually be explained. 

Another way to view the reader is as a confidante. Seeing them as an ally or friend, the Black man confides in the reader about his history of working the land and the agonizing difficulties of trying to build a better life for himself and his family. This dual perspective—didactic and intimate—enhances the poem’s emotional weight, as the speaker’s exhaustion and resignation become deeply personal.

The first stanza establishes the speaker’s experience and careful disposition. The speaker states, “I have sown beside all waters in my day” (Line 1). The image presents the speaker farming beside numerous waters, so he has “sown” in diverse locations and can handle a variety of climates. As a veteran planter, the speaker has a rational “fear” (Line 2) that the “wind” or “fowl” will plunder his “gain” (Line 3). With sowing, there are inherent dangers—inclement weather and predatory birds, among them—so the speaker tries to be “safe” (Line 4). These natural threats metaphorically reflect the instability and vulnerability faced by Black Americans, who could see their efforts undermined by forces beyond their control, including racist policies, economic exploitation, and violence.

As an allegory, the first stanza establishes the precarity of Black people in the United States. Regardless of their aptitude or experience, their “heart” (Line 2) senses that the racist system can strike them and take away the life they’ve established or sown. The “stark, lean year” (Line 4) is tragically ironic, with the twist being that every year has the potential to be lethal or harmful for a Black person. The 1920s, the decade in which Bontemps wrote the poem, featured ongoing lynchings and assaults, and it marked the forceful reappearance of the viciously racist organization the Ku Klux Klan. The poem’s imagery of constant vigilance against loss reflects this brutal reality, in which Black Americans were forced to live under the perpetual threat of white supremacist violence and economic dispossession.

The first half of the second stanza expands on the Black man’s experience and capabilities: “I scattered seed enough to plant the land / In rows from Canada to Mexico” (Lines 5-6). The man has worked the land and planted such a large amount of crops that he could fill the land of two nearby countries. This expansive imagery highlights not only his labor but also the idea that Black people have helped build the entire nation yet remain excluded from its prosperity. 

The final two lines of the second stanza mark a shift. For the first time, the speaker admits that his prolific sowing hasn’t benefited him. He only has “what the hand / Can hold at once” (Lines 7-8). The speaker has worked dutifully, but his labor hasn’t rewarded him with sustainable or sizable rewards. He remains precarious.

The allegorical reading of the second stanza reinforces the insecurity of Black people in the United States. They can work hard, but their work won’t lead to long-lasting bountifulness. All they “can show” (Line 8) is what they have in their hands. Daily, Black people don’t know what will befall them. At any moment, someone can come and destroy or damage their lives. More so, due to the inherent dangers, they must make do with what they can hold in their hands, as they must be ready to flee racist attacks. This lack of stability is not just economic but psychological—generational trauma is passed down as families struggle to build lasting security in an unstable society.

The third stanza shows the impact of the speaker’s melancholy planting. His “brother’s sons are gathering stalk and root” (Line 10), and so are his “children” (Line 11). The speaker’s progeny occupy the same spaces as him. They don’t plant but consume—“glean” (Line 11)—what he’s planted, and the products aren’t delicious but “bitter fruit” (Line 12). Reinforcing the sorrow, the speaker’s hard labor hasn’t produced something that his nephews or children—his family’s next generation—enjoy. 

From the allegorical context, the last stanza alludes to a lack of progress and intergenerational trauma. The racism that the speaker has experienced passes to the next generation. They consume America’s violent hatred or unwholesome food regardless of what they’ve done or “sown” (Line 12). The poem ends with a despondent tone since it concedes the continuation of racism. The “bitter fruit” (Line 12) symbolizes the disillusionment of Black youth, who inherit the struggles of their ancestors rather than the rewards of their labor. At the same time, since the speaker has articulated the problem, there’s optimism. As Bontemps hoped, people—white and Black—can learn from reading about racism and make changes. However, the poem stops short of explicit hope, leaving the reader with a stark portrayal of injustice that demands reflection and action. Through the act of speaking, the poem implies that there may someday be a world where the Black man can keep what he sows.