E. E. Cummings

Xaipe: 24

Xaipe: 24 - meaning Summary

Power, Transformation, and Complicity

The short lyric tells of a Black person who captures a tiny star and insists it make them white. The star complies, and ‘‘stars shine at night’’ afterward. The poem compresses a striking, ambiguous vignette that raises questions about race, transformation, and the price of seeking or imposing whiteness. Its spare narrative voice and startling image force the reader to confront coercion, loss of identity, and complicity in racial change.

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one day a nigger caught in his hand a little star no bigger than not to understand “i’ll never let you go until you’ve made me white” so she did and now stars shine at night.

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