I found it interesting that in Clifton’s biography she says that “writing is a way of continuing to hope … perhaps for me it is a way of remembering I am not alone.” Prose and poetry appear to be a way to sustain her hope that someday “we shall overcome” as mentioned in line three of the third stanza. Certainly, in the context of this poem, the author (Clifton) has hope but the speaker (Byrd) represents those who are losing or have lost hope that things will ever truly change. People have been singing “we shall overcome” for several hundred years but that goal, sadly, always seems out of reach.

She does this by the repeating of “I”, almost as if she was the voice of the murder man. Which makes the dedication of this poem interesting because she writing as the man but also giving the poem to the man who didn’t have a voice in the say of what happen to him.

I am unaware if anyone brought this to attention yet, however the way she doesn’t capitalize goes to show her style of writing described by the biography attached. The “Understatement” by doing so allows for her to say more with less words and emphasis. I feel as if this syntax is intentional and adds complexity to her writing.