Exploitation
Exploitation is a prominent theme in "From the Dark Tower." The poem's opening lines allude to the history of white abuse of Black labor in America. The speaker comments that they will no longer plant the seeds of fruit that other people will reap for themselves. This is a clear reference to the fact that Black slaves were forced to pick cotton in the fields, used harshly for a job that provided them with nothing but suffering. In this way, the poem viscerally captures the theme of exploitation, as it shows how Black Americans were forced to perform harmful and uncompensated labor.
Hope
One of the other main themes of the poem is hope. In the first section of the poem, the speaker enumerates the ways in which the Black community has been abused, saying that these forms of exploitation will all come to an end. They describe how they were forced to provide both agricultural and artistic labor to white people while being robbed of any benefit from or recognition for it. At the conclusion of the poem, they comment that they will remain in the dark, concealing their "bleeding hearts" and tending to their "agonizing seeds." These lines work as an expression of cautious hope for a better future. They show that the speaker has faith that things could improve with time. When the speaker first describes the theft of the "bursting fruit" they planted, their depiction of these seeds suggests a time when they will reap what they sow. This hope is still tentative, as the speaker only describes seeds and not a fully grown plant, but it is strong enough to give them motivation. Cullen portrays hope as something that allows the speaker to persist in the face of this struggle, even when the outcome is not immediately clear.
Beauty
Another important theme in the poem is beauty. In the second stanza, the speaker describes how the dark parts of a night sky are no less beautiful than the stars. They then go on to add that certain flowers wilt in the sunlight, and can only bloom in the dark. These natural images are part of Cullen's efforts to show that while the traditional notion of beauty and value is tied to whiteness, darkness can be just as beautiful. He uses these scenes to demonstrate that this beauty is worthwhile, despite being overlooked, in much the same way as work by Black individuals is.
