I ran. I ran so far away.... -sings to self-

Poem 250 Page 311

The speaker of the poem is a black male. This is insinuated by the diction of the word "Suh" and as it is stated in line four "why come the black boys don't run off." There is only one rhyme in "The warden said to me" and it is the fourth and eighth line. The rhyme there is distinctly masculine which helps the reader understand that the speaker is male; the use of the term "boy" says also, that the speaker is male, but the masculinity in the rhyme in comparison to the childish connotation provides a clear divide between the speaker and the warden. The parenthesis help show what the speaker is thinking but would not dare to say out loud because of his social status. However the words "innocently, I think," show that while the speaker is merely thinking these words he is also questioning they way that things are in his life. He is unsure if the answer he is providing is simply an automatic response or if he genuinely means what he says.
Poems like this disturb me but always seem to catch my attention. I liked that Knight used the masculine rhyme only once so that the reader got the sense that the masculinity is present, but dimmed by the use of the word "boy." These subtle hints are, for me, what makes a poem truly excellent.