Black Woman

Black Woman

The Poem
“Black Woman” is a short poem in free verse, with eighteen lines divided into three stanzas of five lines each and one stanza of three lines. It is written in the first person and is addressed directly to the woman of the title, the black woman who gives the poem its theme. This was one of many poems

written when Léopold Senghor was living abroad, away from his own country of Senegal. During this period, he was a student in Paris and wrote about his childhood, which he viewed as a
kind of paradise. These poems abound in his memories of Africa—an Africa seen in his mind’s eye—and are
an imagined return to an idealized Africa.
Having experienced a feeling of estrangement amid Western society, he set out on a poetic quest for his
homeland. He looked back to the time of his childhood and to the place where he was reared. The main
themes in his first collection of poetry are a longing for his homeland, a nostalgia for his childhood, and
especially an affirmation of his African heritage. “Black Woman” is one of the best-known poems from this
collection. When Senghor writes of Africa, it is frequently in terms of a woman, a woman who is both wife
and mother; she is the “promised land” mentioned in the poem.
The first stanza gives the theme of the poem: the natural black woman whose color is life and whose form is
beauty. The poet has grown up in her shadow and has felt the gentleness of her hands. Now that he is grown,
he returns to find her as if he were coming upon the promised land. He views her through a mountain pass at
noon in the midst of summer, and her beauty strikes him directly to the heart, like the flash of an eagle.
In the second stanza, she is seen as a lover, a woman with the flesh of ripe fruit, a woman who can transport
the poet with somber ecstasies of black wine, a woman with a mouth that makes his own mouth lyric. The
poet elaborates, finding her a woman who is like a limitless savanna that shudders beneath the caresses of the
east wind; a woman who is like a tight, well-sculpted drum that resounds under the fingers of the conqueror; a
woman whose solemn contralto voice becomes the spiritual song of the loved one.
In the third stanza, she is almost a goddess, so perfect that even her skin is smooth as the oiled skin of an
athlete or a prince. She is like a graceful gazelle with celestial adornments. Pearls become stars on the
darkness of her skin. The reflections of the setting sun on her glistening skin are delights on which the mind
can exercise itself. The poet’s anguish is lightened by the sunlike glance from her eyes, when he is in the
shadow of her hair.
In the fourth and last stanza, the poet—more philosophical—informs the black woman that he is celebrating in
verse her beauty, which is passing, and her form, which he establishes eternally in his poetry, before fate can
turn her to ashes in order to nourish the roots of life.
Black Woman 1
Forms and Devices
The poem is a hymn of praise to the black woman—not only as an individual, but also as a symbol of African
women and as a representative of her race. The first two lines serve as a statement of the poem’s theme: the
beauty of the natural black woman, who though naked, is “clothed” in her color, which is life. There is also
the poet’s response to this beauty, as the black woman is perceived in both sensory and emotional ways. The
poet has experienced the touch of her hand, and he is struck to the heart by her beauty.
Even though the musical language and the rhythm of the original poem may lose something in translation—and
many of Senghor’s poems were written to be accompanied by African musical instruments—one nevertheless
perceives the impact of this poem through the imagery, metaphor, and personification that the poet employs.
In an enumerative style, similar to that of a litany, Senghor presents a series of images that are, in effect, the
attributes of the black woman. He thus seems to summarize her qualities, beginning with a description of the
natural woman, then—elaborating metaphorically—he describes her as the promised land, a plain that rustles,
and the nocturnal sky. The poet thereby sees her not only in terms of a person, but in terms of the earth itself,
and even the universe.
There are other metaphors: In the second stanza—more erotic than the first—the black woman is seen in terms
of ripe fruit, black wine, a savanna that shudders beneath the “caresses” of the east wind, and an object—a
sculpted drum—that responds to the touch. Even her voice is the song of the loved one. In the third stanza, the
oil on her skin is seen by the poet as the oil on the limbs of an athlete or on those of the princes of Mali. She is
now more of a goddess, a graceful but celestial gazelle, perhaps a totem for her people.
Associating her with eternity, the poet uses terms dealing with things eternal: earth, wind, summer, noon,
stars, night, suns. The poet thus sees the woman not only in terms of a person, not only in terms of the earth,
but also in a more cosmic sense. The poet also employs words dealing with color, many of which are
synonymous with black—shadow, dark, and somber. These words that are images of darkness are contrasted
with words that are images of light: brighten, gold, stars, and suns.
The poet also uses the device of inversion. The first line of the first stanza—“naked woman, black
woman”—becomes “naked woman, dark woman” in the second stanza, and these words are inverted in the
first lines of the last two stanzas. Inversion is again used, as the repetition of the theme in the final stanza uses
the words of the first stanza—life, form, and beauty—but in inverted order.
Use of punctuation is sparse, the ends of the lines serving as the ends of the word groups. A change of tense
occurs only in the third line of the first stanza, where the poet uses the past tense in order to recall the comfort
that black womankind has given him. He immediately resumes the present tense for the rest of the poem. This
effect helps to connect the past with the present. He had grown up under the black woman’s shadow; now he
seeks solace again in the shadow of her hair.
Personification is another device, as the poet writes in the fourth stanza of Fate, which is jealous and capable
of reducing one to ashes. It is in this stanza that he reveals his vocation of poet, as he informs the black
woman that he is celebrating her beauty and her form in poetry, before she returns to ashes in order to nourish
the roots of life. Thus the poet has moved, by means of description, metaphor, and personification, from praise
of the black woman herself to an affirmation of the continuation of life. He has saved the best for last as he
ends on a note of optimism.
Forms and Devices 2
Themes and Meanings
The meaning of this poem revolves around Senghor’s contemplation, description, and glorification of the
natural black woman. Woman holds a place of importance in Senghor’s life and in his poetry. When he writes
of Africa in his poetry, it is frequently in terms of a woman. His glorification of the black woman is quite
different from that of Western poetry, which had so often glorified women of Western society. The black
woman of this poem is more than an individual person; she is also the progenitor of his race, and thus
symbolic of Africa itself and an embodiment of Senghor’s African heritage. Senghor takes pride in his race,
and here especially, he shows his love and respect for the black woman. He uses her very color as part of his
praise and seems to abstract her characteristics into an idea of a black woman in order to praise her.
This deservedly famous and often-quoted poem was written when he was away from his homeland. The
nostalgia that one finds in the other poems of his collection Chants d’ombre is reflected in this poetic return
to an Africa that was almost unspoiled by the ways of the Western world and that was, for him, a sort of
paradise where all seemed to be in harmony and at peace, where he felt secure in his place in the world. In this
Africa of his childhood, there was a sense of a life spent in common with his family, his village, his clan, his
tribe, and even his ancestors.
In this poem, he sees, in his imagination, an idealized African woman in several roles: in the first stanza, as
mother, and thus comforting; in the second stanza, as lover, and thus erotic; and in the last line of the last
stanza, as nourisher of life. There is a certain sweetness in this poem, a contemplative quality, a quiet
appreciation of the African woman, and the emotions the poet experiences at her sight and at her touch. He
details his pleasure in contemplating her and the comfort he experiences in her presence.
He realizes that life is transitory, that even though beauty seems permanent, time works on the individual
woman. He is a poet, however, and he informs this woman that he is celebrating her beauty and her form in
poetry, before she returns to ashes. The final stanza affirms the gift and the mission of the poet as someone
who can relate the temporal to the eternal; as Pierre de Ronsard wrote to immortalize the passing beauty of his
Helen, or Cassandra, or Marie, so can Senghor immortalize the beauty of the black woman. Thus the last
stanza, even though potentially tragic as to the fate of the individual black woman, ends on a note of hope.
These very ashes will be used to nourish life anew.