Remember
Remember - meaning Summary
Memory as Political Call
Hughes urges readers to remember slavery and to actively survey the social landscape from a distance. The poem asks formerly enslaved people to look down on towns in America and Africa to recognize persistent racial domination. It identifies white power in moral terms—thieving, lying, unscrupulous—and frames Black poverty and humiliation as the result of that system. The tone is admonitory and politically engaged, calling for awareness rather than passive memory.
Read Complete AnalysesRemember The days of bondage — And remembering — Do not stand still. Go to the highest hill And look down upon the town Where you are yet a slave. Look down upon any town in Carolina Or any town in Maine, for that matter, Or Africa, your homeland — And you will see what I mean for you to see — The white hand: The thieving hand. The white face: The lying face. The white power: The unscrupulous power That makes of you The hungry wretched thing you are today.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.