The Sky
The opening line situates the sky as being white, dry, and pitiless. This image sets the stage for the poem’s commentary on the erasure of names of Black women from history. The sky—this particular sky—written history as lacking color, empathy, and, most importantly, color. It is a vast whiteness that seems overwhelming and incapable of change. The sky can change color, however, as well as become moist and show pity.
Mountains and Oceans
In the second couplet, there are mountains of men juxtaposed against oceans of bone. Mountains are traditionally masculinized as symbols while water is one of the defining symbols of femininity. Notice that the mountains are made of men, anatomically complete. The ocean is made of bone, by contrast, the flesh is ripped away. The two images together complete a symbolic union of the patriarchy which allows the history of men to rise to the sky on the contributions of the woman they have stolen from and allowed to sink without a trace.
“Our Name”
The phrase “Our name” ends the second line of each couplet constituting the poem. It is the central and controlling symbol of the poem. The collective names of all those Black women that the historical record erased symbolically represent their individual identity as well as the shared identity of all those Black women whose contributions have, are, and will be erased from the written account of the facts as they actually occurred.
Goats on a Rock
Those goats that call the jagged cliffs of a mountain of rock home provide one of the most interesting symbols in the poem. The cautious manner in which they navigate the precarious topography seems to place them at a far greater danger that the rock itself. And yet the goats remain eternally present while the cliffs change form over time. The symbolism here is situated within the long-term danger to the solid rock which becomes just the slightest bit weakened with every cautious step of the goat’s hooves. Eventually, over time, the rock loses solidity, pebbles slide down into the lake below, and the mountain changes shape. This is the symbolic history of the collective identity of Black women who today live in a world where just the patriarchal mountain controlling history has been chipped away just enough that it no longer looks exactly as it did a century ago and will likely look even less imposing a century from now.
Moaning, Growling and Braying
This change in the status quo is also symbolically portrayed through the intensification of sound. What was once just a slow moan barely heard by anyone represents the earliest efforts to attain justice for the forgotten and give them back their name. Because a few people listened to the moan and took action, it rose in intensity to become a growl. And this process will continue—slowly but inexorably—until it is a thunderous explosion heard around the world.
