Heritage

Summary: The ideals of modern society clash with the speaker's feelings about his heritage, and result in an internal conflict regarding which side should shape the speaker's life, which goes largely unresolved.
Paraphrase: What does the land of my ancestors' mean to me? Is this land beautiful, or a wasteland?

Something within me yearns for the sights and sounds of this land. Society encourages me to repress these urges and not think about my homeland. I attempt to do this, but my heritage seems poised to pour out of me at any moment.

I am pushed by my society to see my homeland as a insignificant, ancient, wild place. The place I am now contains no elements of my homeland, and places little importance on the idea of heritage. This society is built on individualism and the present. What is my homeland to me?

Despite my attempts to deny my heritage, it continues to influence me. I feel it coursing through my veins at all hours of the day. It is calling me to rejoin the life of my ancestors.

The 'heathen' gods of my ancestors' were made to resemble their ethnicity. I have denied these gods, and my new god is Jesus Christ.

Although I have accepted Jesus Christ as my savior, I have some lingering doubts. I often wish that the god I served was black. I will craft my own religion to satisfy my wishes. I will worship a god of my own design.

Whenever I feel urges to embrace my heritage, I must repress these thoughts. I am still conflicted as to how my heritage should influence my life in this society.

Close Reading: 'From the unremittent beat'
The object of this line is 'the unremittent beat'. The adjective 'unremittent' means lacking occasional abatement of symptoms. This word is usually used to refer to a fever. This seems to be a strange choice of word when referring to a beat. However, within the context of this stanza, it makes sense. Within the first seven lines of this stanza, the speaker uses an extended metaphor to descibe the influence he feels from his heritage. This metaphor compares this influece to people walking through his body. This metaphor can be seen by the line 'Walking through my body's streets.' This explains why the speaker would choice a word normally reserved for describing symptoms felt by the human body to descibe this 'beat'. The first word of this sentence, 'from', indicates that this line is a prepositional phrase. This means that the object, 'the unremittent beat', is related to part of the previous line. The line prior to this one, ends with 'no slight release'. This means that the speaker constantly feels this metaphoric beat in his body. This reinforces that the speaker always feels the influence of his heritage.