Analysis of Bucketwheat's Lament by Cornelius Eady
Cornelius Eady - Poem Author
Analysis
If you have not read the poem, please do so by clicking the link on the bottom. Read specifically "BUCKWHEAT's LAMENT" then come back and read the analysis.
This is a first person narrative about the troubles of growing old. From a gangster’s perspective, it isn’t about violence that he believes he will later grieve over but rather his friendships he formed during his gang days. “White gang” is explicitly made clear, as is “white girls”. “Hoo-doo” is form of African American folk magic tradition. In this line the speaker is using a hyphen to present the information that his hair might become all wavy and unmaintained. The end of the first stanza is the turning point. The speaker responds back to his families’ and “white girls’s” words. The word grown isn’t associated with maturity as it is normally, but with growing weak, stiff, and “skin going sour”.
- Cornelius Eady's BUCKWHEAT'S LAMENT Original Poem
My family tells me this white gang I run with will Grow up, and leave me behind. Our bones Will change, and so will their affection. I will Be a childlike man who lives in a shack. Just Wait, they promise, my hair will become Hoo-doo. The white girls
