Why Are They Happy People?
Why Are They Happy People? - meaning Summary
Joy as Defiant Survival
The poem addresses Black men and women in direct, commanding language that insists on smiling and performing cheerfulness despite aging, labor, and mortality. Its imperatives present a public expectation or survival tactic: to hide pain behind laughter and industry. The repeated urging to grin and endure suggests critique of social pressure to appear content, and it frames forced cheer as both resistance and concession in a hostile world.
Read Complete AnalysesSkin back your teeth, damn you, wiggle your ears, laugh while the years race down your face. Pull up your cheeks, black boy, wrinkle your nose, grin as your toes spade up your grave. Roll those big eyes, black gal, rubber your knees, smile when the trees bend with your kin.
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