To The Diaspora

“To the Diaspora” is a poem of 23 lines divided into four stanzas. There is no regular rhyme, rhythm, or stanza length, making the poem free verse. Although the poem is in free verse, it does have an underlying structure. The poem moves from the past, then to the present, and on into the future the speaker projects for Black Americans. The first and second stanzas represent the distant past, when the ancestors of Black Americans entered the routes of the transatlantic slave trade and arrived in the Americas.

The third stanza describes the era during which Black Americans endured the struggle of slavery. The fourth stanza represents the more recent past, during which Black Americans close to “the heat and youth” (Line 16) engaged in a struggle for self-representation.

The last stanza represents that struggle in the contemporary moment, one in which Black Americans are fully engaged in that struggle for identity, although they are “unwillingly a-wobble” (Line 21), meaning they don’t seem fully equipped for the journey. The last line of the poem projects on into the future, when Black Americans will continue to do the work of defining themselves.