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Teachers & SchoolsPlace Imagery
Throughout the poem, specific locations are mentioned. We get the sense that geographic locations are a huge part of the speaker's identity. Geography, indeed, plays a big role in race, especially back when this poem was published, in 1951. Following about a century after the Civil War, the southern United States was the hub of racism, while the north was considered more progressive. But as we can see from this poem, the races were in conflict everywhere. This poem also uses places to enrich its specificity and detail. We feel like we are a part of the speaker when we hear about the places where he lives his life.