James Wright’s “Speak” is a plea by the narrator for God to show himself. It is written in a familiar, almost conversational tone for the majority of the first four stanzas, but changes to a very biblical form in the fifth stanza.
The poem is written in five, eight-line stanzas of rhymed verse with the scheme A-B-A-B-C-D-C-D. Only a few of the lines are in perfect rhyme; 16 of the 20 lines are in near rhyme, and one line is not rhymed at all.
Wright’s poem begins somberly: “To speak in a flat voice / Is all that I can do” (1090; lines 1-2). The reader can presume from the tone of these lines that the speaker is dejected or unhappy. The lines also set a sort of slow, dark rhythm for the poem: it would be difficult to read the remaining lines aloud in a singsong voice or a lively rhythm.
In the next lines, Wright reveals the poem is directed at a specific person: “I have gone every place / Asking for you” (3-4). The narrator continues by wondering where the search will end, but does not reveal who it is he is searching for. Wright employs perfect end rhyme in lines 2 and 4 with the words “do” and “you,” but lines 1 and 3 are in near rhyme: “voice” and “place” depend on the consonance of the “s” sound at the end of each word. The first stanza ends with four more lines in near rhyme: “turn” is rhymed with “spin” and “end” is rhymed with “blind.” Wright brings forth an image of an urban landscape with the lines, “And the last streetlight spin / Above me blind” (7-8).
The second stanza concerns the narrator’s return from his search:
Then I returned rebuffed
And saw under the sun
The race not to the swift
Nor the battle won. (9-12)
Still, the identity of the person for whom he is searching is not revealed. However, the biblical paraphrase in lines 10-12 gives a clue as to whom he is seeking. This change in vocabulary and structure seems out of place in comparison to the colloquial tone set by the first stanza.
Wright returns to a more informal tone in the following lines: “Liston dives in the tank / Lord, in Lewiston, Maine” (13-14). The natural rhythm of the lines sounds almost like that of an excited sports announcer, finally imparting some liveliness to a poem which thus far has been dreary and somber. However, another way of reading these lines could make it sound like a dejected sports fan using the word “dive” derogatorily, accusing Liston of purposely losing his iconic fight with Muhammad Ali. Regardless of the mood in which the line is spoken, Wright deliberately calls attention to the word “Lord” by putting it on a new line; the word seems more naturally related to the first line than the second. Breaking the line between “tank” and “Lord” makes the reader acutely aware of the narrator’s call to God.
Besides enjambment, Wright also uses alliteration to call attention to the word “Lord,” as it begins with the same sound as the words “Liston” and “Lewiston.” This is also the first time the narrator makes a direct claim to a specific person. It can now be assumed that the “person” he has been searching for is God.
Wright also refers to a person named Ernie Doty, who has taken his own fall: “And Ernie Doty’s drunk / In hell again” (15-16). As the poem progresses, Wright introduces characters who have fallen from grace.
The third stanza introduces a female figure:
And Jenny, oh my Jenny
Whom I love, rhyme be damned,
Has broken her spare beauty
In a whorehouse old. (17-20)
Jenny seems to be an old flame of the narrator’s, but has, like Liston and Doty in the stanza before, fallen from grace. Lines 18 and 20 introduce a form of meta-poetry to the poem by warning the reader that the narrator has no ambition of making a rhyme. It gives the passage a feeling of sincerity; in lieu of conforming to the self-imposed structure of the poem, the poet speaks frankly about his feelings for the girl he once knew and loved, but has become a prostitute.
Line 20 also uses a bit of hyperbaton: instead of writing “In an old whorehouse,” Wright prefers to say “In a whorehouse old.” The effect of this switch in word order is a line that ends without a falling rhythm, propelling the remainder of the stanza:
She left her new baby
In a bus-station can,
And sprightly danced away
Through Jacksontown. (21-24)
Besides continuing the story of Jenny, these four lines add a sense of incongruity: the dark subject matter of a woman who literally threw away a newborn baby is presented in a rhythm that sounds quite a bit like a child’s jump-rope rhyme. This juxtaposition serves to make the subject matter even darker by revealing the narrator’s indifference to the situation.
In the fourth stanza, the narrator speaks of his own defeat. He refers again to Jacksontown:
Which is a place I know,
One where I got picked up
A few shrunk years ago
By a good cop.
Believe it, Lord, or not. (25-29)
The speaker now puts himself in the same group as Jenny, Liston and Ernie Doty; all have fallen from grace. He also speaks directly to God for the second time. Wright again draws attention to the communication with God by continuing a thought on the fifth line, which until stanza four has been reserved for introducing a new thought for the final four lines of each stanza.
The speaker once again places himself in the company of the other characters in the poem in the fifth stanza:
I have gone forward with
Some, few lonely some.
They have fallen to death.
I die with them. (33-36)
Clearly, the narrator feels he is no better than Jenny, Liston, or Ernie Doty. He likens their falls and defeats to death, and says his defeat is much like theirs.
The final four lines are a direct plea to God to show himself:
Lord, I have loved thy cursed,
The beauty of thy house:
Come down, Come down. Why dost
Thou hide thy face? (37-40)
Wright draws more attention to the fact the narrator is speaking to God by writing in biblical verse for the final four lines of “Speak.” Besides adding a sense of desperation, the lines come across as a reverent plea. The speaker is asking for reciprocation from God. He tells God that he loved the cursed people mentioned in earlier stanzas, as well as the earth He created. As a reward, he asks God to show himself on Earth.
In “Speak,” Wright uses alliteration, rhythm and rhyme to paint a picture of a man who has searched for God and watched the demise of the people he loves, all the while descending himself. By employing biblical verse, a constant rhyme scheme, and occasional incongruous rhythm, Wright has written a desperate plea to his God.
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