“Southern Road” by Sterling Brown consists of seven stanzas and forty lines of entertaining, sometimes hard to understand, vernacular of the Southern negro during the time of slavery. Being a slave in the South during this time was a life of toil, sweat, sorrow, and hard, hard work. Sterling makes this poem about a slave working on the chain gang come to life not only by using the vernacular, but also in his use of repetition, punctuation, and word choice.
Check out other African American artists using their art to depict the chain gang life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2XHYKWLGTg&list=RDL2XHYKWLGTg
Repetition- “Southern Road” is structured almost entirely using repetition. The lines alternate repeating each other to create a steady, monotonous rhythm. This contributes to the overall message of the poem by reflecting the endless and painful nature of the long days on the chain gain. Each line addresses something that has gone horribly wrong in this man’s life. These lines are repeated as if he can’t escape his horrible thoughts as the day drones on.
Punctuation- the poem contains some unusual punctuation, mostly referring to the hyphens and semi-colons. These strange punctuation create a visual and rhythmic effect that draw the reader in to the life of the man in the poem. The poem seems to be structured by the punctuation op mimic steps; the slow stepping of a man on a chain gang. The hyphens also serve to separate the “hunh’s” from the normal speech. The reader is encouraged to pause at the hyphens before getting the full effect of the labored groan.
Word Choice- Brown chooses words that operate as sounds, otherwise known as onomatopoeia, to re-create the sounds associated with a life on the chain gang. The word “hunh” is used over and over and give the reader a specific rhythm that is associated with the hard work on the chain gang. You can imagine that these were the types of sounds emitted from the workers as they toiled away. Brown gives us the total picture by including these words.