The title of the poem contains several meanings, all of which underscore the main theme: the inner turmoil the speaker feels because of his (or her) mixed racial heritage. These meanings include the following:
Anger: The speaker has been angry, or "cross," with his father and mother for passing on to him an amalgam of genes. After his anger subsides, he forgives them but remains in turmoil over his mixed heritage.
Burden: The speaker "carries a cross," his mixed racial heritage.
Crucifix: The speaker hangs nailed to a cross, like Christ, suffering persecution even though he has done no wrong.
Traversal: The speaker "crosses over" from anger to forgiveness, leaving behind his bitterness.
Crossroad: After forgiving his father and mother, the speaker stands at a crossroad. The road to the right is for white people. The road to the left is for black people. But he must go straight, into an uncertain future.
Crossbreed: The speaker is a mulatto.
Structure, Rhyme, and Meter
.......The poem contains three four-line stanzas (quatrains). The first stanza has 28 syllables; the second, 30; and the third, 30. The first ten lines present declarative sentences establishing the situation; the last two sum up the conflict and theme in the form of a question. Lines 2 and 4 of each stanza contain masculine end rhyme (black, back; hell, well; shack, black). (Masculine rhyme occurs when the final syllable of one line rhymes with the final syllable of another line. Feminine rhyme, on the other hand, occurs when two final syllables of one line rhyme with two final syllables of another line. Examples of feminine rhyme are repeat, deplete; farrow, narrow; scarlet; varlet.)
.......The meter of the poem varies, but it is dominated by iambic feet.
Musicality
.......The poem moves along rhythmically, like a song. Stress, rhyme, and alliteration all contribute to this musical effect. Note, for example, the use of the alliterating m and w sounds in the poem:
My old man's a white old man
And my old mother's black.
If ever I cursed my white old man
I take my curses back.
If ever I cursed my black old mother
And wished she were in hell,
I'm sorry for that evil wish
And now I wish her well.
My old man died in a fine big house.
My ma died in a shack.
I wonder where I'm gonna die,
Being neither white nor black?
Repetition of key words and phrases also promote musicality in the poem, like the refrain of a song. For example, the word old occurs six times and the phrase if ever I cursed occurs twice.