Who Understands Me But Me

"Who Understands Me merely Me" is one such verse form that Jimmy Santiago Baca wrote in prison. It was published in the collection, Immigrants in Our Own State and Selected Early Poems (1990). In this verse form, Baca's "stubborn" and "childish" speaker recounts the concrete sufferings backside the bars that helped him come out stronger. He admits the impediments were much stronger to overcome. But, somehow he found a greater source of energy lying buried inside him. The voice that he heard in isolation and hurting, transformed him into a human being. This piece is a tribute to the inner self that just understands him.

Read the total text of "Who Understands Me but Me" below:

            Who Understands Me but Me            by            Jimmy Santiago Baca            They turn the water off, so I live without water, they build walls higher, then I live without treetops, they pigment the windows black, so I live without sunshine, they lock my cage, so I live without going anywhere, they have each last tear I take, I alive without tears, they take my heart and rip it open, I alive without heart, they take my life and crush it, then I alive without a future, they say I am abominable and fiendish, so I have no friends, they end up each hope, so I take no passage out of hell, they give me hurting, so I live with pain, they give me hate, so I alive with my hate, they have changed me, and I am not the same man, they requite me no shower, then I live with my smell, they separate me from my brothers, so I live without brothers, who understands me when I say this is beautiful? who understands me when I say I have found other freedoms?  I cannot fly or make something appear in my hand, I cannot make the heavens open or the world tremble, I can live with myself, and I am amazed at myself, my dear, my beauty, I am taken past my failures, astounded by my fears, I am stubborn and childish, in the midst of this wreckage of life they incurred, I practice existence myself, and I take found parts of myself never dreamed of by me, they were goaded out from under rocks in my heart when the walls were built higher, when the water was turned off and the windows painted black. I followed these signs similar an old tracker and followed the tracks deep into myself, followed the claret-spotted path, deeper into dangerous regions, and plant so many parts of myself, who taught me water is non everything, and gave me new eyes to run across through walls, and when they spoke, sunlight came out of their mouths, and I was laughing at me with them, we laughed like children and made pacts to e'er be loyal, who understands me when I say this is beautiful?  - from            Immigrants in Our Own State and Selected Early on Poems            (1990)

Analysis of Who Understands Me but Me by Jimmy Santiago Baca

Summary

In the verse form "Who Understands Me merely Me," the speaker describes how he is denied the essential sources to survive: water, air, and sunshine. Not but that, his freedom is taken abroad, his emotions are crushed, and his hope is blown out. The conventional society ("They") causes him pain by antisocial and trying to mold him. However, he has establish "other freedoms" amidst the manifold tortures inflicted upon him.

He admits that he is not transformed into a superhuman being, however, the experiences have changed the fashion he thinks. The denial of liberty and essential resources to live accept made him look within to seek newer, renewable sources of energy. In this way, he has establish and then many parts within himself that taught him that the things taken away from him are not everything for survival and renewal. This realization has helped him to become the person he is at present.

Construction & Grade

"Who Understands Me but Me" is a free-verse lyric written from the bespeak of view of a first-person speaker. The setting of the verse form is a prison where the speaker discovered the child in himself. There is no set rhyme scheme or meter in the poem. Information technology consists of 2 long stanzas with xvi and xx-ii lines respectively. In the outset stanza, Baca uses an interesting crusade-and-effect style in club to draw how he was physically and mentally tortured within the prison walls. At that place is a tone of sad acceptance in his phonation. At the end of both stanzas, the sadness in the speaker's phonation fades away.

Literary Devices & Figurative Language

Baca's "Who Understands Me merely Me" showcases the use of the post-obit literary devices:

Repetition

Baca uses this device in the first stanza of the poem. Each line contains a repetition of the main thought. For case, the kickoff line contains the repetition of "water." In the second stanza, the speaker repeats the same ideas from the starting time stanza:

when the walls were built higher,

when the water was turned off and the windows painted black.

Anaphora

The repetition of the same word or phrase at the start of consecutive lines is called anaphora. It occurs in the post-obit lines:

Lines one-14 (offset with "They")
Lines xv-sixteen (starting time with "who understands me when I say")
Lines 17-nineteen and Lines 21-22 (beginning with "I")
Lines 27-28 (first with "when the")
Lines 34-36 (starting time with "and")

Metaphor

The line "They lock my cage," contains a metaphor. In this line, the prison is compared to a cage used to incorporate wild fauna. In "they take my life and crush it," the poet compares "life," an abstract idea to something that tin exist crushed. In line 23, the torment inside a prison is compared to a "wreckage of life".

Simile

It occurs in the lines, "I followed these signs/ similar an old tracker and followed the tracks deep into myself" and "nosotros laughed like children and made pacts to always exist loyal".

Rhetorical Question

The first, as well as the second stanza, ends with rhetorical questions. At the finish of the get-go stanza, the speaker rhetorically asks who understands him when he says that life in the prison house is beautiful and that he has institute freedom there. The aforementioned question "who understands me when I say this is cute?" is used every bit a refrain at the end.

Imagery

Baca uses the following types of imagery in "Who Understands Me only Me":

Visual Imagery: "they build walls higher, so I live without treetops," "they paint the windows blackness, so I live without sunshine," "they lock my cage, and so I live without going anywhere," etc.
Tactile Imagery: "they take my life and beat out it, and so I live without a future"
Organic Imagery: "they take each last tear I accept, I live without tears," "they take my eye and rip it open up, I live without heart," "they give me pain, so I alive with pain," etc.
Olfactory Imagery: "they give me no shower, so I live with my smell"

Line-by-Line Analysis & Explanation

Lines i-16

They plow the water off, so I live without water,

they build walls higher, so I live without treetops,

they paint the windows blackness, so I live without sunshine,

they lock my cage, so I live without going anywhere,

they accept each last tear I have, I alive without tears,

they take my heart and rip it open, I alive without center,

they take my life and crush it, then I live without a future,

they say I am beastly and fiendish, so I have no friends,

they finish up each hope, so I have no passage out of hell,

they give me pain, then I live with pain,

they give me hate, so I live with my hate,

they have changed me, and I am not the same man,

they requite me no shower, so I live with my smell,

they separate me from my brothers, and so I live without brothers,

who understands me when I say this is beautiful?

who understands me when I say I accept found other freedoms?

Jimmy Santiago Baca's poem "Who Understands Me but Me" begins with a series of torments inflicted upon the speaker. By "They," the poet refers to a judgmental lodge. At start, they turned every source of living off to watch the speaker suffer for his crimes. They deprived him of water, air, and sunshine. Furthermore, they locked him away in a cage like a wild animate being. They were and so unsympathetic that they took away his tears so that he cannot express his sadness.

According to the speaker, they did non stop there. They left him heartless and lifeless and then that he cannot accept a future. As a reason for such tortures, they say he is beastly and fiendish. Therefore, he is doomed to be friendless. Denying the frail rays of hope, they made him stay in the hellish environs of the prison cell.

Following a similar crusade-and-effect pattern, the speaker expresses that he lives with pain and hate as they gave them to him quite generously. In the procedure, he changed as a person. Now, he is no longer the same homo. Too, they besides denied basic sanitation. Thus his trunk reeks.

Not but that, they separate him from his brothers with whom he could share his pain. However, the torments could not pause his spirit as he describes his life in prison as "beautiful." Nobody can sympathize when he says that he has found liberty within the walls. But he himself tin make it out.

Lines 17-28

I cannot fly or make something announced in my hand,

I cannot make the heavens open or the globe tremble,

I tin can live with myself, and I am amazed at myself, my love,

my beauty,

I am taken past my failures, astounded by my fears,

I am stubborn and childish,

in the midst of this wreckage of life they incurred,

I practice being myself,

and I take found parts of myself never dreamed of by me,

they were goaded out from under rocks in my heart

when the walls were built higher,

when the water was turned off and the windows painted black.

In the second stanza, the speaker describes that he is non transformed into someone having special abilities. He cannot fly or make something appear in his manus from thin air. He can neither make heaven open up nor the world tremble. All he can do is live with himself. Information technology is too tough to alive with oneself when one is tortured like the speaker. Interestingly, the speaker says he is amazed at himself. He describes the person within him as his "love" and "beauty." Though he is taken by his failures and fears, he is stubborn and kittenish to acknowledge defeat.

Describing the time in prison as a "wreckage of life" incurred upon him by guild, he says that he practices beingness himself at that place. In this style, he has establish some parts within himself he never dreamed of. The tortures and denials stirred these parts out from the "rocks" (a symbol of hardened emotions) in his heart.

Lines 29-38

I followed these signs

like an old tracker and followed the tracks deep into myself,

followed the claret-spotted path,

deeper into unsafe regions, and found so many parts of myself,

who taught me h2o is not everything,

and gave me new eyes to run into through walls,

and when they spoke, sunlight came out of their mouths,

and I was laughing at me with them,

we laughed like children and made pacts to always be loyal,

who understands me when I say this is beautiful?

When he was all by himself in the dark cell, he looked inside. Like an quondam tracker, he followed the signs deep into his mind. He walked upon the "blood-spotted path, a metaphorical reference to the painful memories. Going deeper into dangerous regions of his heed, he discovered the truthful beauty within himself. He met with the person long forgotten.

These "parts" or just his mind taught him that water is non everything. They taught him to see through the towering walls bandage against him. At that place was non a unmarried entity residing in him. Rather, there was a combination of voices, and spirits that inhabited his soul. When they spoke, sunlight came out of their mouths diminishing the darkness.

At that time, he realized how foolish he was to believe everything was going to end and that he had no future. So, he laughed at himself along with the inner voices. They laughed like innocent children and fabricated pacts of loyalty. Even if everyone leaves him, the voices of the inner human being volition not go out him ever. These are the sources of going on when one is forced to stop living.

In the last line, the speaker reiterates the same question. No thing how hard he tries to convince others that the life he has is beautiful, they will not believe it. Nobody tin.

SOAPSTone Analysis of "Who Understands Me only Me"

Southpeaker	The speaker of the verse form is a jail inmate, specifically the poet Jimmy Santiago Baca himself. Baca wrote this poem while he was in prison. He used the showtime-person point of view to draw his feel: "They plow the water off, so I live without h2o".
Occasion	The poem was written somewhere between 1973 and 1979 when Baca was in his 20s. This reactionary piece is a response to the treatment of judgemental lodge.
Audience	The audience of the poem is specifically "they," the social club that denied the speaker freedom, essential resource to recover and grow, and tried to subdue his voice.
Purpose	Baca wrote the poem "Who Understands Me but Me" to tell the globe how beautiful he is even if he is treated equally an outcast. The message of the poem is that one must look within to find strength. The harsher the experiences the stronger a person becomes.
Subject	The poet introduces the field of study immediately at the beginning. Information technology concerns life within a prison house, the cruel treatment of society, and inner force and beauty.
Tone	This piece is written from a subjective point of view. Thus, the tone or the attitude of the speaker is emotive, sad, and confirming. In the 2d stanza, his tone becomes happy, wise, and empowering.

Theme

Baca's "Who Understands Me only Me" revolves around the themes of freedom vs. confinement, denial, torture, cruelty, and spiritual enkindling. The majority of the text deals with the cruel treatment of order toward a person who is imprisoned for criminal charges. Through this personal piece, Baca tries to reverberate upon his life behind the bars and how he was treated there. However, as the readers become through the unabridged text, they realize this piece is more than well-nigh his spiritual awakening or transformation. He depicts how the experiences transformed him into a better person and made him look within.

Historical Context

The verse form "Who Understands Me only Me" was one of the early poems that Jimmy Santiago Baca wrote during his six-year imprisonment. Shortly afterward he was released, he published his first collection of poetry, Immigrants in Our Own Land in 1979. It was later reprinted with additional poems as Immigrants in Our Ain Country and Selected Early Poems in 1990. This poem was included in the collection.

Born in 1952, Baca was abandoned at the age of 2. He lived with ane of his grandparents who afterward placed him in an orphanage. At the age of thirteen, he ran away from the orphanage and wound up living on the streets. Baca was convicted on drug charges in 1973 (at the age of xx-one) for half-dozen years, four of them in isolation. In his imprisonment years, he learned to read and write poetry.

In Working in the Dark: Reflections of a Poet of the Barrio (1992), a collection of stories and essays by Jimmy Santiago Baca, he recounts:

It was tardily when I returned to my cell. Under my blanket I switched on a pen flashlight and opened the thick book at random, scanning the pages. I could hear the jailer making his rounds on the other tiers. The jangle of his keys and the precipitous click of his kicking heels intensified my solitude. Slowly I enunciated the words… Even as I tried to convince myself that I was merely curious, I became and so captivated in how the sounds created music in me and happiness, I forgot where I was. Memories began to quiver in me, glowing with a strange simply familiar intimacy in which I found refuge. For a while, a deep sadness overcame me, as if I had chanced on a long-lost friend and mourned the years of separation.

"Who Understands Me only Me" taps on a similar retentiveness of discovering the "long-lost friend" residing within his middle. The discovery led him to the realization that he was never alone. It was he who failed to feel his presence amidst the darkness of the cell that managed to penetrate his mind.

Questions and Answers

What is the verse form "Who Understands Me merely Me" virtually?

The poem "Who Understands Me merely Me" is about the imprisonment experience of the poet Jimmy Santiago Baca. In this poem, he describes how he was treated and how he discovered strength within himself. This discovery transformed him into the person he is at present.

What is the meaning of "Who Understands Me merely Me"?

"Who Understands Me just Me" recounts the journey of the speaker (Jimmy Santiago Baca) from hopelessness to spiritual renewal. The experiences he had in prison house tried to brand him feel he was worthless to order. When he looked inside, he found the long-lost voices that fabricated him realize he is truly a beautiful person.

Reread lines 29-38 of "Who Understands Me but Me" and interpret the tone.

In lines 29-38, Baca describes the spiritual quest in his heed. The tone of these lines is in stark dissimilarity with the preceding lines. It is inspiring, happy, and wise.

What is the tone of the poem "Who Understands Me simply Me"?

The overall tone of "Who Understands Me but Me" is sorry, confirming, and angry. In the final few lines of the verse form, the tone changes along with the greater realization of the speaker. In these lines, the speaker'southward attitude or tone is happy and inspiring.

When was "Who Understands Me but Me" written?

The poem "Who Understands Me but Me" was written in 1973-1979, while Jimmy Santiago Baca was in prison. It was published in the enlarged collection of his first book, Immigrants in Our Own Land and Selected Early Poems (1990).

In "Who Understands Me but Me," how do the images in lines 17–18 relate to the images in lines 1–14?

In lines 17-18, the speaker describes his inability to fly or brand something appear in his hand. Neither can he make the heavens open or the earth tremble. These images create a contrast with that in lines 1-fourteen. Though he is just a human being beingness, "they" (order) brand him feel like he is extremely dangerous, hideous, and fiendish.

What is the theme of "Who Understands Me merely Me"?

The theme of "Who Understands Me merely Me" is the experiences of a speaker in prison. Information technology also explores the themes of freedom vs. solitude, suffering, and spiritual enkindling.

What is the setting of "Who Understands Me but Me"?

The setting of the verse form is a prison where the speaker is placed. This piece is virtually the poet's imprisonment years. He was incarcerated in 1973 for half-dozen years.

What does the line "who understands me when I say I have constitute other freedoms" mean?

Through this line, the speaker says that nobody can empathize that he has institute other freedoms within the prison prison cell. Only he tin.

What does Jimmy Santiago Baca write nearly?

Jimmy Santiago Baca writes near his troubled childhood, lost youth, and 6-twelvemonth imprisonment that brought about his personal transformation. His works are deeply concerned with social justice and sympathy for the marginalized and disenfranchised.

Similar Poems nigh Suffering and Transformation

"As I Grew Older" past Langston Hughes — This verse form is about an African-American speaker and his struggle to achieve his dream.
"Identity Card" past Mahmoud Darwish — This poem contains an Arab refugee'due south description of the injustices inflicted upon them.
"One'due south Self I Sing" by Walt Whitman — In this poem, the speaker celebrates the individuality of a person.
"The Enkindling" past James Weldon Johnson — This piece is nigh the spiritual awakening of a speaker ignorant of his true purpose.

Useful Resources

Scout A Place to Stand — Inspired by the International Prize-winning memoir, A Place to Stand (2001), this biopic tells the true story of Jimmy Santiago Baca, from life in prison to becoming a celebrated writer.
In Chat with Mr. Baca — Watch this interview of the poet describing how words changed his globe.
An Interview with Baca — Read this interview to acquire his views on verse as an art of conversing with others.
Most Jimmy Santiago Baca — Learn about the poet'south life in his own words.
Poet Profile of Baca — Read more virtually the poet's life and his works.

At Poemotopia, we try to provide the best content that you tin always detect. Each article is the fruit of a rigorous editorial process.