Analysis of People

Jean Toomer 1894 (Washington, D.C.) – 1967 (Doylestown)



To those fixed on white,
White is white,
To those fixed on black,
It is the same,
And red is red,
Yellow, yellow-
Surely there are such sights
In the many colored world,
Or in the mind.
The strange thing is that
These people never see themselves
Or you, or me.

Are they not in their minds?
Are we not in the world?
This is a curious blindness
For those that are color blind.
What queer beliefs
That men who believe in sights
Disbelieve in seers.

O people, if you but used
Your other eyes
You would see beings.


Scheme AAXXXXBCDXXX XCXDXBX XXX
Poetic Form
Metre 11111 111 11111 1101 0111 1010 101111 0010101 1001 01111 11010101 1111 111011 111001 11010010 1111101 1101 1110101 00101 1101111 1101 11110
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 496
Words 101
Sentences 8
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 7, 3
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 18
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 131
Words per stanza (avg) 33
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

30 sec read
110

Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer was an American poet and novelist and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. more…

All Jean Toomer poems | Jean Toomer Books

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