Point of View

“Ma Rainey” appears to be written in the third-person point of view using the pronouns “she” and “they”, until a shift in the third and fourth sections. The first and second sections, which comprise three stanzas, take a more omniscient view of the people assembled in this scene. They come from a range of places and occupations, although they are bound together by culture and social class. In the third section, Stanza 4, the speaker brings themself into the poem for the first time using a fourth-person voice: “Git way inside us, / Keep us strong” (Lines 31-32). Then in the fifth stanza the speaker condenses into the singular “I”. This approach creates a sense of narrowing focus as the poem progresses, moving from a wide lens that encompasses the entire region down to a single conversation between two defined individuals.

Language and Meaning

Brown’s poem...