Stanza 2 Summary

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

These lines start us off with a couple of metaphors. The "[s]tony" road that the speakers refer to is, of course, a metaphor for the very difficult history that African-Americans have had to live through in the U.S. Heck, they not only had to live through slavery, they lived through Jim Crow.
Likewise, the reference to the "chast'ning rod" is a metaphor for all the violence that African-Americans have had to endure in their time in America. African-Americans were literally beaten with whips and rods back during slavery. Nowadays, if a mom spanks her kid that's considered bad. So this image of a "chast'ning rod" works to evoke all the violence that African-Americans have experienced.
In line 13, the speakers describe those difficult days in terms of a hope that was "unborn" and that "died." The speakers' description of hope as something "unborn" is an example of personification. That's when something that isn't human is given human characteristics. In this case, the description of hope as something "unborn" evokes an image of a fetus that's died in the womb.

Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

There's a change in the speakers' perspective here. Up until this point in the stanza, the speakers have been describing what a difficult path African-Americans have had to tread. But with these lines, the speakers show us just how far they've come despite all of the great obstacles they've had to face.
The descendants of those first slaves are now at a place that their ancestors only dreamed of: they've come to the place "for which [their] fathers sighed." So these lines put an emphasis on the huge strides that African-Americans have made since they first arrived in America. From slavery to freedom is a big, giant step indeed.
In these lines the speakers also use metaphor. The description of "weary feet" moving with a "steady beat" is a metaphor for the progress that the speakers (and African-Americans more generally) have made since their ancestors' enslavement. Those feet are also a synecdoche, a part that represents the whole of the speakers' struggle.
What's more, "weary feet" and "steady beat" are rhyming phrases. So we're getting a sense of the rhythm of these feet moving forward through the rhyme in the words "feet" and "beat." Check out "Form and Meter" for more about the poem's rhyme and rhythm.

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered.

Using more anaphora, these lines again suggest what a grim history African-Americans have had to live through. The "tears" and the "blood" recall all the violence and sorrow that African-Americans have had to deal with, beginning with slavery all the way through to the Jim Crow era.
In these lines, we'll also find the speakers using metaphor. The "path" the speakers refer to is a metaphor for the difficult experiences that African-Americans have endured. And the images of the "tears" and "blood" are metaphors for the sorrow and violence that African-Americans have had to contend with.

Out from the gloomy past
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

These lines emphasize a sense of renewed hope. The speakers have made it out "from the gloomy past." That is, they've made it through the really tough times, and thank goodness for that.
The image of the "white gleam of our bright star" is another example of metaphor. It's used to suggest a new beginning. The "gleam" of the star and its "bright[ness]" give us a sense of just how hopeful this new future is. It's a future that will be full of liberty. Ahh… we're all looking forward to it.