High to Low

The form of the poem is one stanza of 25 lines. The absence of stanza breaks denies the poem space and room for the addressee or listener to breathe. The relentlessness of the lines mimics the speaker’s strident tone. The “high”-class Black person is exasperated with the “low”-class Black person, and their dramatic distress allows for no pauses. The form furthers the condescending attitude, turning the poem into a lecture. The lecturer expresses their ideas without interruption from the audience. The lecture dynamic mimics the relationship between the speaker and the addressee, with the speaker presenting themselves as the wise professor, educating the addressee—the student—about the errors of their ways. At the same time, the jagged line lengths suggest the volatility of the speaker, hinting that they’re an unreliable narrator. 

The poem’s meter is free verse. As the label implies, Hughes is free to have as many beats as he wants in his lines. He doesn’t have to follow iambic pentameter or any other preestablished pattern of unstressed-stressed syllables. The free verse has less to do with the specific poem and more to do with Hughes’s general appreciation for jazz and the blues.