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19. Avey
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cane, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Navigating Identity
Racism in the Jim Crow Era
Feminine Allure
Nature vs. Society
The Power and Limitations of Language
Summary
Analysis
In the darkness of night, “a million bees” swarm in and out of the moon, dripping honeyed silver moonlight. The speaker imagines himself as a drone, tucked in a cell of honeycomb in the beehive that is earth, drinking the honey (moonlight) that will give him the strength to fly past the moon and into the fields of flower beyond.
This poem describes the bustle of a beehive. Nature is a more distant force in the Northern section of Cane, but it nevertheless continues to serve as a source of inspiration and power. The beehive also reflects the way the narration describes Washington, D.C. in “Seventh Street” and “Avey,” as a place with tremendous energy and potential that offers a launching pad for Black flourishing.
Themes
