Speaker

The poem “Merry-Go-Round” has an unnamed speaker who plays an active part in the poem’s story. The speaker is most likely a child, as the first part of the poem reveals:

Where is the Jim Crow section

On this merry-go-round,

Mister, cause I want to ride? (ll. 1-3)

Here, the speaker addresses an unknown man – who is probably white – with “mister” (l. 3) and announces the intention to ride the merry-go-round. 

The speaker comes from the Southern United States: “Down South where I come from” (l. 4). Because of this, the speaker appears rather confused when it comes to this new context, as the experience in the South was different from what happens in the North. For the speaker, the new context brings new opportunities which the speaker was most likely n...