The Poem by Gladys Casely Hayford’s Poem, Rejoice, sets the poem ready for its development. The opening/introductory lines of the poem state with certainty that the people should rejoice and shout with laughter and throw all their burdens down.
The rejoice and laughter as mentioned in the first two lines of the first stanza of the poem are indicative of joy and happiness. But why should there be happiness? The persona states that the people should be happy if God has been gracious to make them black or brown.
According to the persona, it is by God’s grace that one can be black or brown, and not an accident. As a result, the people black or brown should be happy to have been touched by the grace of God to be black or brown. This is seen in the third and fourth lines of the first stanza of the poem.
Analysis of the Second Stanza of Gladys Casely Hayford’s Poem: ‘Rejoice’
In the second stanza, the persona refers to the black or brown people as a people of a great nation and a people of great birth. This is seen in the first two lines of the stanza of the poem.
In the third and fourth line, of Gladys Casely Hayford’s Poem: ‘Rejoice’ the persona poses a rhetorical question:
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For where would you spring the flowers
If God took away the earth?
The Christian perspective and Stanza of Gladys Casely Hayford’s Poem: ‘Rejoice’
It is known per Christian perspective that man was created from soil (earth) and the soil is black or brown, depending on the area. With this, the persona compares the black and brown race to the earth, thereby indicating that humanity will not exist without the black or brown race. It is also common knowledge that only planet earth supports life. In Gladys Casely Hayford’s Poem: ‘Rejoice’, if the black and brown race is the earth as implied in the rhetorical question, then the entire human existence and survival is completely dependent on the black and brown race. And with this, the persona charges the black and brown race to rejoice and shout with laughter for they are indispensable.