We shall not always plant while others reap
The golden increment of bursting fruit
The poem begins with the speaker stating they will not continue to cultivate fruit for others to take. On a concrete level, this appears to be a reference to plantations and the cotton that slaves were forced to pick, as those were the actual crops that they were forced to work on, solely for someone else's benefit. At the same time, the passage also comments more generally on the way that powerful white individuals "reap" the rewards of Black labor. In this regard, the "golden increment" of this "bursting fruit" represents the many different undertakings for which Black men and women did not receive proper compensation.
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;
We were not made to eternally weep.
This section occurs at the end of the first stanza, and works as a summation of the section as a whole. After detailing the ways in which the work of Black people has been taken without credit or compensation, the speaker here states that they exist for more than just "eternally" weeping. Building on the scenes from the earlier lines, this moment is the speaker's rallying cry. He is definitively stating that not only will these thankless efforts end, but that Black people's lives amount to more than just suffering. These lines are a rejection of the power of the "subtle" brutes that hold systems of oppression in place and allow these injustices to continue.
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds,
And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.
Following the traditional format of a Petrarchan sonnet, the first eight lines (the octave) state a problem, while the last six lines (sestet) move towards some sort of resolution. These last lines are not overly optimistic, but they do show that the speaker has some degree of faith that their Black community can move forward. They describe how they remain "in the dark" and attend to their "agonizing seeds," showing that while they still endure pain, they have hopes for the future. This also comes directly after the moment in which the speaker has described flowers that can only grow at night, underscoring the idea that there is beauty in what is being overlooked.
