Speak

“Speak” is a poem by James Wright, one of the leading American poets of the second half of the 20th century. The poem was first published in the New Yorker magazine in April 1968 and was reprinted later that year in Wright’s fourth collection, Shall We Gather at the River. This volume represents Wright’s work in mid-career, abandoning his earlier emphasis on traditional form and meter in favor of a more flexible, personal style.

The poem is an expression of loneliness and isolation on the part of a speaker who longs for some kind of fulfillment in his life. It is written in the form of a prayer, addressed directly to God, asking Him to reveal Himself. The speaker is in a morose frame of mind for himself and for others who face or have faced misfortune. His prayer, however, fails to produce any response from God.

The edition of the poem used in this study guide is from Collected Poems, by James Wright, Wesleyan University Press, 1971, pp. 149-50.

Poet Biography

James Wright was born on December 13, 1927, in Martins Ferry, Ohio, to a working-class family. His father was a glass factory worker, and his mother worked in a laundry.

Wright graduated from high school in 1946 and enlisted in the US Army. He participated in the post-World War II occupation of Japan. He then entered Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, on the GI Bill, and during his undergraduate career, he published poems in the Kenyon Review. Wright graduated in 1952, married Liberty Kardules, and studied for a year at the University of Vienna, Austria, on a Fulbright Fellowship. On his return, he studied at the University of Washington, where he received an MA in 1954, and a PhD in English in 1959.

Wright went on to teach at the University of Minnesota and Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, before accepting a position in 1966 at Hunter College in New York City. His first collection of poems was The Green Wall (1957), which was awarded the Yale Younger Poets Prize. His second volume, Saint Judas, followed in 1959.

Four years later, he published The Branch Will Not Break (1963), which is often regarded today as his finest work. It marked a transition from a formal style that employed traditional meter and rhyme to free verse that expressed a more personal point of view. Around this time, Wright also began to translate poems from Spanish and German, often in collaboration with his friend the poet Robert Bly. Poets he translated included Juan Ramon Jiménez, Pablo Neruda, César Vallejo, Hermann Hesse, and Georg Trakl.

Shall We Gather at the River, which contains “Speak,” followed in 1968. Wright’s first marriage, which had produced two sons, ended in divorce; Wright married his second wife, sculptor Edith Anne Crunk. His next publication was Collected Poems (1971), which won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972. Other volumes followed in the 1970s: Two Citizens (1973), Moments of the Italian Summer (1976), and To a Blossoming Pear Tree (1977).

Wright died of cancer of the tongue in New York City on March 25, 1980. Several of his collections were published posthumously. These include This Journey (1982) The Temple at Nîmes (1982), and Above the River, The Complete Poems (1990).

Poem Text

Wright, James. “Speak.” 1968. Poetry Nook.

Summary

A lonely and dissatisfied speaker addresses God directly. He has been asking God for support, but now he has given up hope and his search for a response is at an end. He feels as if he has been rejected. After some contemplation, he realizes, recalling a passage from the Bible, that it is not always the deserving people in life who are successful. The fittest and the strongest do not always win. His thoughts then turn to Jenny, a mythical figure who serves as his muse, but she has sunk to a low point and cannot offer him any assistance. He thinks back to a time when he was in trouble with the police, and he repeats to God that he feels defeated right now. To plead his case, he mentions that he has empathized and kept company with some of the unfortunate people in society, who are now dead. He has also loved God’s creation. He ends with a plea for God to show himself, questioning why God hides his face from him.