As the poem begins, the first-person speaker takes a good "look at the world" and doesn't like what they see.
First, the speaker briefly sketches a self-portrait—telling the reader who is doing the looking. The speaker has "awakening eyes"—a metaphor for fresh insight and renewed perspective—"in a black face." This line suggests that the speaker's Blackness interweaves with their newly awakened powers of sight; this will be a poem about what one can see from a Black perspective.
Through metaphor and imagery, the speaker then reveals what they observe:
And this is what I see:
This fenced-off narrow space
Assigned to me.
These lines create an image of a prison, a claustrophobic space in which the speaker has little freedom to move. Note, too, how this space has been "assigned"—that is, appointed to the speaker without their consent or input. This isn't a real physical location, but more a feeling. The speaker lives a restricted life merely by virtue of being a Black person in a racist society, and this makes them feel trapped. Their "awakening eyes in a black face" allow them to see this truth plainly.
Notice the shortness of lines 3-5 compared with line 2. The poem itself narrows to support the image of constricted space. The meter also becomes tight and restrained, with lines 3-5 using strict iambs (metrical feet with a da-DUM rhythm):
And this | is what | I see:
This fenced- | off nar- | row space
Assigned | to me.
These iambs give the poem little room to breathe when compared with the looser meter of the first two lines.