I, Too: Important Quotes Explained

I, too, sing America.

The speaker opens with this line, which references a poem by Walt Whitman titled “I Hear America Singing.” In Whitman’s poem, the speaker celebrates a range of different laborers whose work formed the bedrock of American economic life. The speaker describes how woodcutters, masons, carpenters, and other skilled laborers each “sing” America through their distinct types of labor. The speaker of Hughes’s poem opens with a corrective to Whitman, who failed to recognize the contributions that African-descended peoples have made to the United States. It’s in light of this failed recognition that the speaker of Hughes’s poem opens by saying, “I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes.

These lines (lines 2–4) open the poem’s second stanza, where the speaker describes the marginalized status he occupies in the white household where he works. He makes this marginalized status clear in the phrase “the darker brother.” Despite being considered a “brother” of the family, his “darker” skin relegates him to a position of inferiority. And indeed, the white family reminds him that he’s not quite a full member of the household every time company comes over for dinner. On these occasions, he’s excluded from joining the family at the table and forced to eat in the kitchen instead. Just as he exists on the margins of this family, the speaker also occupies a marginal position in American society at large. In this way, the poem’s domestic setting doubles as a symbol for the American nation.

But I laugh
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table.

These lines (lines 5–9) bridge the second and third stanzas. The speaker closes the second stanza by describing how, despite his exclusion from the dinner table, he bides his time and actively cultivates strength and self-confidence. The rhythm of these lines amplifies their meaning. Each of these lines uses what’s known as rising meter, which refers to any rhythmic scheme emphasizing metrical feet that start with an unstressed syllable and finish with a stressed syllable. All three lines quoted here feature a single anapest, where an anapest is a metrical foot consisting of two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed syllable. Anapests have a rising rhythm, as if they are building up to something. In this case, the rising rhythm amplifies the speaker’s preparatory measures. That is, the meter amplifies the sense that he’s getting ready to take action. Precisely what he’s building up to becomes apparent at the beginning of the third stanza (line 18), where he announces his intention to take his rightful place at the table.

I, too, am America.

The speaker closes the poem with this line, which closely echoes the line that opened the poem: “I, too, sing America.” The key difference between these lines lies in the verb. Whereas the speaker begins by saying that he sings America, he ends by declaring that he is America. This transition from singing to being provides the structural framework for the entire poem. The speaker begins the poem by asserting his right to say something about America. As someone who lives, works, and contributes value to American society, he has every right to comment on American social and political life. As a Black man, however, his exclusion from full citizenship means that he can’t fully participate in social and political life. It’s precisely to rectify this inequitable situation that the speaker imagines claiming his seat at the proverbial table when company comes over for dinner. By asserting himself in this way, the speaker also metaphorically asserts his right to greater participation in the development of the nation. Only by claiming this right for himself will he achieve a sense of full citizenship. Thus, instead of merely singing America, he imagines a future in which he truly is America.