Throughout the poem, Hughes narrates in the four different voices of a tenant, a landlord, the police, and the press. Each of these voices has its own perspective on the action of the poem and serves to dramatize the experience of a black man in a white-dominated society. Furthermore, “Ballad of a Landlord” is a poem in which an African American man tries to tell his white landlord about his living conditions. The poem's main voice, the lodger, is characterized in the opening stanza by his informal speech: "Don't you remember that I told you about it / A lot last week?" The tenant tries to let the landlord know that there is a leak in the roof. He goes on to complain about the state of the staircase; “Master, master of the house/ These steps are messy/ When you climb up yourself/ it's a miracle you don't fall.” The African American wants him to know that his living conditions are unacceptable and after being ignored several times the tenant declares that he will not pay rent until these problems are resolved. A change in tone can be seen in the fourth stanza when the tenant begins to respond more emotionally after the landlord threatens to evict him. Finally, by the fifth verse it is clear that the tenant is angry: “Um-huh! You speak loud and powerful./ Keep talking until you can't speak./ You won't be able to say a word/ If I throw my fist at you. For the first time in the poem the tenant raises his voice which is represented through the first exclamation point. Furthermore, he threatens to use violence when the argument becomes more heated and he is tired of not getting what he wants. In the sixth verse, Hughes introduces a new voice, the owner of the house: “Police! Police!/ Come get this man!/ He's trying to ruin the government/ And overthrow the country! The host's tone is frantic, clearly in response to a small threat. Rather than dealing directly with the tenant