Cross
Cross - meaning Summary
Mixed-race Identity Questioned
The poem presents a speaker born to a white father and black mother who retracts past curses against each parent and expresses remorse. It contrasts the parents' different social outcomes—father dying in a “fine big house,” mother in a shack—to highlight racial and class inequality. The closing question, "Being neither white nor black?", frames the speaker's anxiety about identity, belonging, and the uncertain social fate of mixed-race people.
Read Complete AnalysesMy old man's a white old man And my old mother's black. If ever I cursed my white old man I take my curses back. If ever I cursed my black old mother And wished she were in hell, I'm sorry for that evil wish And now I wish her well My old man died in a fine big house. My ma died in a shack. I wonder were I'm going to die, Being neither white nor black?
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