This ancient hag
Who sits upon the ground
Selling her scanty wares
Day in, day round,
Has known high wind-swept mountains,
And the sun has made
Her skin so brown.
First of all, Hughes calls her an ancient hag. ANCIENT. Generations before and after this woman have and will be in this market place selling their scanty wares. I just thought that was and interesting thing to say.
HEN the old junk man Death
Comes to gather up our bodies
And toss them into the sack of oblivion,
I wonder if he will find
The corpse of a white multi-millionaire
Worth more pennies of eternity,
Than the black torso of
A Negro cotton-picker?
Hughes poses a powerful question with this poem. Is the white man better than the black man? Is the corpse of a white man more significant than that of a black man?
Lets first look at the context: During slavery, slaves were and had to be strong and fit to work in the harsh conditions in which they were forced. So consider the body of a slave cotton-picker as a parallel to the white slaveowner's bank account.
