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10. Fern
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cane, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Navigating Identity
Racism in the Jim Crow Era
Feminine Allure
Nature vs. Society
The Power and Limitations of Language
Summary
Analysis
A single bunch of pine needles, golden with sunlight, falls onto a path marked with the prints of cows’ hooves. Nothing notices the needles fall, and nothing changes because they did.
This short poem written in free verse focuses on a very concrete and specific image. It suggests that the beauty of the natural world—beauty that exists even when it’s not being observed by human eyes—lies at the root of its power.
Themes
