The Speaker

The speaker uses the first-person plural pronoun "us" to speak for a collective group: enslaved people in the Caribbean or perhaps humanity as a whole. The speaker in poems throughout I is a Long-Memoried Woman is an unnamed Afro-Caribbean woman, so this poem can be read in the context of the whole collection. By personifying the sugarcane, the speaker in "Sugar Cane" examines the treatment of both the plant and those forced to cultivate it.

The diction, speech pattern, and use of non-standardized English help evoke the speaker's voice. For example, the word "ague" was used commonly to refer to a severe fever, specifically malaria (18). Since Guyana was colonized by Britain (following Dutch colonization), it makes sense that this word would make its way into this region. In addition, the rhythmic musicality in the poem contributes to the speaker's voice.

Sugarcane

The speaker personifies sugarcane specifically as...