1; (13) and “pale veins”are the key concepts in the metaphor. The word “threaded” (13) gives the image of pain. There are numerous possible reasons for the pain, the only limitation is the readersimagination. Also, when a piece of clothe is made, many pieces of thread are threadedtogether, and there is no way to get a single thread out without destroying the whole pieceof clothe itself. Maybe the poetic voice is saying there is no way that he can get awayfrom his “pale veins” or past, his past being his heritage or skin color. The word “pale”(14) is used to illustrate that the poetic voice is white. It could be that he (poetic voice)was a slave owner or trader when it was in Africa and now it realizes that what it did wasnot right and is grief stricken. The next metaphor in the second stanza is, “I am full withdying” (15). The key vocabulary here is obviously, “full of dying” (15). This illustratesthe poetic voice's sorrow for leaving Africa or his sadness for doing what he did while in Africa. Think of being full with something, that something is all you think about, allyou know. Now think about being “full of dying,” all the poetic voice thinks about isdeath and it torments him everyday. Or maybe the poetic voice killed many Africansduring his stay there and now it haunts him every second of his life as he tries to escapehis horrible past.The first metaphor in the third stanza is, “I grew meat in the earth's blond side"(25). The key concepts are “grew meat” (25) and “earth's blond side" (25). Thismetaphorshows one aspect of what the poetic voice did while in Africa. “Grew meat,” (25) meansthat he (the poetic voice) was a plantation owner that owned slaves, that grew fruit, hencethe word meat, the fleshy part of the fruit. “Blond side of the earth,” (25) refers to thesunny or tropical climate of...
