Hughes wrote “I, Too” in free verse, which means the poem doesn’t have a consistent meter. That said, close analysis of the meter on a line-by-line basis reveals a pattern that has symbolic significance for the poem as a whole. This pattern develops across the three middle stanzas, and it involves an overall shift from rising meter to falling meter. The term rising meter refers to any rhythmic scheme emphasizing metrical feet that start with an unstressed syllable and finish with a stressed syllable. Iambs (unstressed–stressed) and anapests (unstressed–unstressed–stressed) are both types of rising meter. By contrast, falling meter emphasizes metrical feet that start with a stressed syllable and finish with an unstressed syllable. Trochees (stressed–unstressed) and dactyls (stressed–unstressed–unstressed) are both types of falling meter. As its name indicates, rising meter creates a sensation of upward movement, almost as if the poetic line is building something up. Likewise, falling meter evokes a sensation of downward movement, as if the poetic line is collapsing.

In “I, Too,” the second stanza is mainly characterized by rising meter. Consider the following breakdown of lines 2–7:

I am the | dark-er | bro-ther     (dactyl + two trochees)
They send | me to eat | in the kit- | chen.     (iamb + two anapests + extra syllable)
When com- | pa-ny comes,     (iamb + anapest)
But I laugh     (anapest)
And eat well,     (anapest)
And grow strong.     (anapest)

Though the opening line of the stanza uses falling meter, all the other lines clearly feature rising meter. By contrast, the third stanza (lines 8–13) is increasingly characterized by falling meter:

To-mor-row                                    
I’ll be | at the | ta-ble     (three trochees)
When com- | a-ny comes     (dactyl + anapest)
No-bo-dy- | ‘ll dare     (dactyl + iamb)
Say to me     (dactyl)
Eat in the | kit-chen,”     (dactyl + trochee)
Then.

The poem’s overall shift from rising meter to falling meter maps neatly onto a parallel shift in the poem’s content—that is, from exclusion to inclusion. The speaker uses rising meter in the second stanza to suggest the building up of walls of exclusion that keep him in the kitchen. By contrast, he uses falling meter in the third stanza to symbolize the collapse of those same walls of exclusion, enabling him to have a seat at the table. This progression from rising to falling meter ultimately leads the speaker into the fourth stanza (lines 15–17), where he uses a regular meter for the first time to suggest the possibility of equality:

Be-sides,     (iamb)
They’ll see | how beau- | ti-ful | I am     (four iambs)
And be | a-shamed     (two iambs)

Here, the strictly iambic rhythm gives rise to a sense of equanimity and egalitarianism.