Who Understands Me but Me

“Who Understands Me but Me” depicts a psychological journey one man takes to reclaim his sense of self amidst the degrading conditions of incarceration. Though the speaker never says it directly, he implies he discovers the voice of the “soul” in his isolation. He finds this aspect of himself, emerging a changed man, through overcoming challenges. Paradoxically, it is through facing degrading circumstances and inhumane treatment that he confronts his fear, hatred, and failure, and only in so doing is he able to love himself.

At the start of the poem, the speaker tells the reader what “they” did to him. “They” may be the guards of the prison or anyone in society who denied his livelihood, dignity, or sense of self. “They” take away his physical comforts, including water, a view of nature, the sunlight, and the ability to move freely. They “lock my cage, so I live without going anywhere” (Line 4), says the speaker. Then they take psychological attributes, including his tears, his heart, and his life, which they crush so that he “live[s] without a future” (Line 7). They tell him he is “beastly” (Line 8) and “stop up each hope, so [he has] no passage out of hell” (Line 9).