Who Understands Me but Me

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1990

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Free Verse

“Who Understands Me but Me” is written in free verse—poetry that does not follow specific rhyme schemes or rhythmic patterns. Free verse mimics the way people speak outside of poetry, making it relatable and accessible to a wider audience. Though “Who Understands Me but Me” does not follow specific rhyme schemes, and though each individual sentence feels conversational, the poem relies on repetition to create a rhythm. Throughout the first stanza, the speaker repeats the sentence structure, using “[t]hey take” and “I live” (Lines 5, 6, 7) to create a sense of unity. Each sentence fits like a puzzle piece. It mimics the monotony of prison life and the constancy of deprivation and abuse. The poem becomes a list or a litany of ways those in power take more and more from those under their control. This viewpoint emphasizes the cruelty of the guards and the almost numbing quality of the daily routine of abuse. It makes the turn at the end more surprising, when the speaker responds to this ongoing degradation with the discovery of his own self-worth.

Personification of the Separate Parts of the Self

This poem is predominantly about the way one man discovers himself. It is difficult to depict this abstract concept, which defines a self that divides into related parts, when all of these parts seem, from the outside, to be the same unified person. To make this clearer to the reader, the speaker personifies different parts of himself, giving the different parts their own faces and physical bodies.

These different parts of the self are able to do things we would typically ascribe only to other people. One part can teach the speaker that there are things more important than water. The self can smile and let sunlight come through their smile, signifying that the speaker finds light, intelligence, support, and even joy inside a part of himself that he didn’t know before now. The new aspect of the self can laugh with the speaker at himself. The speaker therefore shows that he has not only discovered a new part of himself, but he has also befriended his inner consciousness. He has distanced himself from himself, gaining a sense of humor about himself.

Rhetorical Question

The first stanza of “Who Understands Me but Me” ends with the rhetorical questions, “who understands me when I say this is beautiful? / who understands me when I say I have found other freedoms?” (Lines 15-16), and the last stanza repeats the first question. This question functions in two ways. The speaker directly addresses the reader, which helps create a sense of intimacy. It asks that the reader consider the answer, thus engaging readers in the poem's journey. At the same time, the question implies that nobody, or only a few people, would understand this concept. If the speaker were to say, “this is beautiful” (Line 15), it would be surprising, because everything he outlines seems the opposite of beautiful. By phrasing it as a question, he keeps the focus on the relationship of the speaker to himself. He is describing an experience that only he would really understand, hence the question, which suggests that nobody but the speaker can really understand what he has been through. He only shared the experience with the multiple shades of his psyche.