Webas the white house enters its third century, it remains a powerful symbol of the american presidency and the nation‘s enduring commitment to democracy. Webthe poem’s text is inseparable from its title—the door which the speaker angrily confronts is that of the white house. That is, the speaker is shut out of the “white house” as a. Fiction | poem | adult | published in 1919. It is a measure of the problem with racism in america that a poem written more than a century ago by an angry and frustrated black man. Webfor more than two centuries, the white house has stood as a symbol of democracy and resilience in the face of change—a symbolism that carries particular. Fiction | poem | adult | published in 1919. Webharlem renaissance poet, claude mckay, presents the poem the white house on the identity struggles that oppressed americans often face. Webwritten at a time when black americans lacked many basic civil rights, the poem's speaker bitterly laments being shut out of a gleaming white house: A metaphor for the way.