Analysis Of The Black Finger By Angelina Grimke

“The Black Finger” is a short poem that was written by Angelina Weld Grimke around the Harlem Renaissance period, which was an era in which stood for change and the persistence for African American rights. This is why Weld’s poetry demonstrates strong characteristics of African Americans in her writings. “The Black Finger” is one of her more well known pieces of poetry. This poem, at first glance, looks to be short, a mere two stanzas with an average of four words per line. Nevertheless, with a straight to the point, freeverse take, she manages to still get her main point across to her readers.
The poem begins with a first person view. It appears as if the “I” in the first line prepares the reader to step into Weld’s shoes (Grimke). In addition

to that, the first line describes her encounter with “a beautiful thing”, beginning vaguely so that one keeps reading to figure out what she is referring to (1). The next two lines begin to paint an image to a reader. It contains a couple of adjectives with which she incorporates a bit of alliteration. These adjectives, “slim” and “still” emphasize the subject of which the reader has yet to figure out what it is (1). Afterwards, Weld paints the setting of the background which is against a golden sky (1). It’s not until the next stanza in which the subject is revealed, a straight cypress. When one thinks about a cypress, it paints a picture of a beautiful evergreen tree, standing straight up. Weld describes this cypress similarly. “Straight”, “sensitive” and “exquisite” (1). At first glance, one might believe that Weld’s topic for the poem is this evergreen, nevertheless, the next stanza reveals otherwise. “A black finger”, hinted from the title, shows up (1). “The Black Finger” is to be compared to the cypress mentioned before. The next line, “pointing upwards” is describing it similarly as a regular cypress, pointing straight up, towards the sky (1). The next two stanzas are questions to keep the reader thinking, which is how Weld ends a good amount of her poems with. She describes the finger as “beautiful” then questions its color and direction it is pointing to (1).
The last couple of lines are the most significant.

When one thinks about directions, pointing up towards the sky usually is referring to heaven, and pointing downwards to the ground, can be the equivalent of hell. In this case, the finger is pointing upwards towards heaven, which is a sign of positivity or hope. Considering this era of the early 1900s was when heavy racism, violence, and segregation was common amongst communities. This finger appears to be enduring of all of these hardships, yet still is hopeful and looking upwards. Weld nevertheless, in the last stanza appears to be questioning the direction of the finger. As if she’s wondering how one can remain so hopeful after going through so much.
Overall, this poem is used to compare an African American to a cypress tree in a positive manner, which is evergreen and always pointing upwards. The time frame in which Angelina Weld Grimke wrote this in was a difficult time to live in. Only recently had African Americans received their rights, and even then, other races, more prominently, caucasians were hateful towards them. Although not lengthy, this poem manages to successfully capture the enduring strength that African Americans held during this difficult time period by simply comparing them to a strong cypress

tree.