Summary

The speaker informs the reader in Part 1 of the poem that there is more to sugarcane than meets the eye. Something more lingers beneath the surface of his (the plant's) "indifferent hard" exterior (5). The leaves of the plant are sharp and blade-like, and the speaker compares "his waving arms" to a cry for help (7). The thick fibrous "skin" protects the sweet juice inside (9).

In the second part of the poem, the speaker describes the color of sugarcane as jaundice-yellow. When ripe, sugarcane shivers as though sick from fever and chills. The rain worsens this condition. Sugarcane also suffers from "bellywork / burning fever / and delirium" when extreme weather like hurricanes strike (21-23).

In the third and final part of the poem, the speaker declares that sugarcane has no control over the process of growing up. Instead, enslaved people work to ensure the sugarcane grows until...