An Agony. As Now.

The body is a source of conflict in the poem. A body’s flesh is typically associated with comfort, softness, and familiarity. Yet this body is “metal” (Line 7). It is cold, hard, and foreign. The speaker is not at home in this body. The speaker’s alienation from his body results in extreme pain, both physically and mentally. The metal body also reflects machinery, suggesting that the body has become a machine for capitalism and industrialization.

By treating his body as a separate entity, the speaker shows how his body is objectified. Others can use his body. For example, his body is used to love those he does not want to love. As a Black American poet, Baraka also comments upon the objectification of the Black body, including the pain of slavery and oppression, and the artistic expectations of white artists and their standard of beauty.

The speaker’s inability to reunite the body and the soul leads to the poem’s foreboding final image. As the body is separated from its soul, the body is unable to feel. Without the body, the soul is unable to speak. Instead, the soul is left screaming, trapped inside.