G.5+Discussion+of+the+Speaker+of+the+poem

=**Discussion of the Speaker**=

The speaker in the poem //A Black Man Talks of Reaping// uses a first person point of view which tells us they have experienced it first hand. "**I** have sown beside waters in my day. **I** planted deep...", "**I** planted safe against this stark lean year". The speaker could be a slave or anyone from the African American race that wanted to tell us how unfair and painstaking the work forced upon them was. The mood of the setting in the poem is one of hardship, hopelessness, and yearning for a better life. Reading it engraves a sense of sadness for what the slaves had to go through, but also happiness because this was in the past and now there are no more legal slaves in America.

The speaker in //Storm Ending// uses the rare second person point of view. They describe a scene of a storm as it is happening. The mood of the storm is a light hearted and one of good feelings. "Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads", "Full-lipped flowers" Usually storms foreshadow something bad or negative that is to happen, or are just plain described as a scary unpleasant event. Toomer does a fantastic job on telling his readers about how he views a storm. The voice of the poem tells us about ending of slavery and how it is a joyous event. "Rumbling in the wind Stretching clappers to strike our ears . . . Full-lipped flowers Bitten by the sun Bleeding rain" The quote can be compared to the tears of joy that were shed and the clapping and rejoicing that went on once slavery ended.