Nikki Giovanni is a very interesting poet. The poems I've chosen are the ones that caught my eye the most. Love, revolution, life, fear, racism etc..... The poems she writes changes as she gets older. When she was younger she use to write about love and break ups. Later on she writes about racism and the revolution. After that she writes about motherhood and her kids. She writes her feelings or what she is thinking at the moment. Nikki has different ways of writing poetry either it can be a short and meaningful poem or a full blown well thought of poem. It feels as though when Nikki writes she's free as if she can write whatever she wants and not get judged about what she thinks or feels about on a certain subject. A poet is suppose to express themselves threw their work.
Housecleaning the title of this poem flows together perfectly. Its about cleaning and removing things whether its dirt or another person. In this poem she talks about how she use to love cleaning as a child and how it has now became a habit of hers. Now she must remove someone from her life. "Washing the refrigerator inside and out:" You can imagine her as a little girl cleaning which is perfect imagery. "I dug straightening the cabinets: putting new paper on the shelves." These are imagery but just about cleaning. You can go much deeper than you think you can. Cleaning the inside of the fridge could be her cleaning her house to get rid of all the memories they've once shared. I dug in straightening the cabinets could mean for her to get her life back together after meeting someone so imperfect. Putting new paper on the shelves, the paper could be photos of her and her ex love or even love letters. I feel as though Nikki feels like cleaning/removing people from your life is something you must do. At the end it'll benefit you the most. The shift is when she says, "washing the refrigerator inside out and unfortunately this habit has carried over and i find i must remove you from my life." I believe the theme of this poem is cleaning away your pain.
Balancing everything in life is something we must do whether its school or a job. The title helps you think about the balance you have in your everyday life. This poem is about how people must balance everything out in order to have peace within themselves. If you don't have balance then you don't have a stable mind set. "Three grains of salt one once of truth," can be used as a metaphor. She's saying how something so small like a grain of salt be or mean a lot like the truth. "Balancing like we do our mothers against our fathers," this part of the poem is a simile. It can have two meanings, whether it is asking when you ask your parent to go somewhere and they saying no so you decide to ask the other parent. Or this could mean when your parents are divorced and you have to balance out spending time with them. "We use to talk all night and do things alone together,' this is imagery. You can imagine them having late nights on the phone but it has come to an end since she said use to.Nikki feels as though without balance and managing time it can ruin your relationships with people who you care about. The poem shifts from,"we use to talk all night and do things alone together to the balance of pleasure of loneliness against the pain of loving you." I would have to say the theme of this poem would be balancing everything, like Yin and Yang two opposite things that attract and balance each other out.
Rituals the title of the poem helps a lot if it weren't for the title I'd be confused as to what the poem is about. In this poem she talks about how she also wanted to be a bridesmaid and lead one of her friends down the aisle. She feels as though weddings are perfect and it is an honer being in one. Its like being picked first in a game of kickball. " I could just see me floating down the holy aisle leading a dear friend to heaven. This an imagery but it can be interpreted by her wanting to walk her friend (the bride) down the aisles to heaven, which is really just the bride meeting her husband at the altar to be together. "Feet nestled gently in chandlers number 699 which was also the price plus one dollar to match it pretty near the dress color." This is also imagery she is saying how much money it it just to get the shoes to match the dress perfectly.Also meaning that everything has to be perfect and expensive.. ' I would even comb my hair to the back and put that blue sh*t under my eyes. I swear I wanted to be in the wedding." This is also imagery she saying how she'd do anything just to be in the wedding from combing her hair to wearing make up. Showing the beautification process that she's not use to but will do just so she can be in the wedding. The poem does't really have a shift, the whole time it talks about the wedding and its rituals. The theme of this poem in my eyes would have to be doing anything you have to do to accomplish a goal.
My poem the title is plain but for some odd reason it makes you think about what the poem is about. If it is about an actual poem or just a clever title. This poem is about the revolution and how it will not stop."If they kill me it won't stop the revolution." This is an example of diction it's informal. Instead of kill she should have said murdered. She's basically saying how deaths won't stop the revolution especially her death. "I have been robbed it looked like they knew that I was to be hit." This line is imagery you can see her being robbed and seeing her facial expression,this makes me think that she wasn't quiet during the robbery and how they'd have to hit her for her to be silent.""If I hate all black people and Negroes it won't stop the revolution." This is informal diction,instead of saying black people or Negroes she could have said African Americans. She is saying how if she had hate for her own race the revolution wouldn't stop. The shift is from when she says They caused me to turn on all my old friends, my new friends, and all my new lovers to If I hate all black people. You can tell she is against whatever revolution was going on at the time and that it was something she always thought of. Death,Robbery, and Hate couldn't even stop the revolution so it was kind of saying no one or nothing can stop it. The theme of this poem would have to be life goes on,if something were to happen to you everyone would still be living their life.
This poem in particular was written for Tupac Shakur. Without the title she could have been talking about any other brave and influential man. This poem is about how Tupac will be remembered by his people and everyone else. That he would become a great man. "A lover whose love was often deliberately misunderstood but who will live in the sun and the rains." This sentence to me is a metaphor; She is saying how his love was misunderstood since he was a "thug." His love and legacy will forever live through the bright sunny days to the gloomy rainy days. "Whose name will echo in all the winds whose spirit will flower." This could be a personification, everyone knows that a wind blowing can't echo your name. In this sentence she's explaining how his name will never be forgotten and how his life will bloom just like a flower even though he's deceased. "Who like Emmett Till and Malcolm X who would be remembered for the great man he could have become." This phrase is a simile it is comparing Tupac to Emmett and Malcolm.. All three of these men have been murdered at a young age. Even though they are deceased she is saying that they would have been amazing men. The attitude is really emotional you can tell that Tupacs death had an impact on her. The shift in this story goes from the great man that he would become to the most beautiful boy that he was. The theme of this story would be Nikki mourning for the lost of Tupac. It seems as though she was a really big fan.
The commonalities with Nikki Giovanni poems are her writing about love and her struggle. She talks about break ups and removing people that she loves from her life. She also talks about how she is woman and how she deserves equality just like everyone else. In some of her poems she talks about racism and how she wishes she can erase it from the world. Her writing style is more upbeat it isn't depressing like most poems are which is really amazing. Her work is mostly free versed so it doesn't rhyme, she sometimes repeat the end words of a stanza at the end of every stanza.
Housecleaning the title of this poem flows together perfectly. Its about cleaning and removing things whether its dirt or another person. In this poem she talks about how she use to love cleaning as a child and how it has now became a habit of hers. Now she must remove someone from her life. "Washing the refrigerator inside and out:" You can imagine her as a little girl cleaning which is perfect imagery. "I dug straightening the cabinets: putting new paper on the shelves." These are imagery but just about cleaning. You can go much deeper than you think you can. Cleaning the inside of the fridge could be her cleaning her house to get rid of all the memories they've once shared. I dug in straightening the cabinets could mean for her to get her life back together after meeting someone so imperfect. Putting new paper on the shelves, the paper could be photos of her and her ex love or even love letters. I feel as though Nikki feels like cleaning/removing people from your life is something you must do. At the end it'll benefit you the most. The shift is when she says, "washing the refrigerator inside out and unfortunately this habit has carried over and i find i must remove you from my life." I believe the theme of this poem is cleaning away your pain.
Balancing everything in life is something we must do whether its school or a job. The title helps you think about the balance you have in your everyday life. This poem is about how people must balance everything out in order to have peace within themselves. If you don't have balance then you don't have a stable mind set. "Three grains of salt one once of truth," can be used as a metaphor. She's saying how something so small like a grain of salt be or mean a lot like the truth. "Balancing like we do our mothers against our fathers," this part of the poem is a simile. It can have two meanings, whether it is asking when you ask your parent to go somewhere and they saying no so you decide to ask the other parent. Or this could mean when your parents are divorced and you have to balance out spending time with them. "We use to talk all night and do things alone together,' this is imagery. You can imagine them having late nights on the phone but it has come to an end since she said use to.Nikki feels as though without balance and managing time it can ruin your relationships with people who you care about. The poem shifts from,"we use to talk all night and do things alone together to the balance of pleasure of loneliness against the pain of loving you." I would have to say the theme of this poem would be balancing everything, like Yin and Yang two opposite things that attract and balance each other out.
Rituals the title of the poem helps a lot if it weren't for the title I'd be confused as to what the poem is about. In this poem she talks about how she also wanted to be a bridesmaid and lead one of her friends down the aisle. She feels as though weddings are perfect and it is an honer being in one. Its like being picked first in a game of kickball. " I could just see me floating down the holy aisle leading a dear friend to heaven. This an imagery but it can be interpreted by her wanting to walk her friend (the bride) down the aisles to heaven, which is really just the bride meeting her husband at the altar to be together. "Feet nestled gently in chandlers number 699 which was also the price plus one dollar to match it pretty near the dress color." This is also imagery she is saying how much money it it just to get the shoes to match the dress perfectly.Also meaning that everything has to be perfect and expensive.. ' I would even comb my hair to the back and put that blue sh*t under my eyes. I swear I wanted to be in the wedding." This is also imagery she saying how she'd do anything just to be in the wedding from combing her hair to wearing make up. Showing the beautification process that she's not use to but will do just so she can be in the wedding. The poem does't really have a shift, the whole time it talks about the wedding and its rituals. The theme of this poem in my eyes would have to be doing anything you have to do to accomplish a goal.
My poem the title is plain but for some odd reason it makes you think about what the poem is about. If it is about an actual poem or just a clever title. This poem is about the revolution and how it will not stop."If they kill me it won't stop the revolution." This is an example of diction it's informal. Instead of kill she should have said murdered. She's basically saying how deaths won't stop the revolution especially her death. "I have been robbed it looked like they knew that I was to be hit." This line is imagery you can see her being robbed and seeing her facial expression,this makes me think that she wasn't quiet during the robbery and how they'd have to hit her for her to be silent.""If I hate all black people and Negroes it won't stop the revolution." This is informal diction,instead of saying black people or Negroes she could have said African Americans. She is saying how if she had hate for her own race the revolution wouldn't stop. The shift is from when she says They caused me to turn on all my old friends, my new friends, and all my new lovers to If I hate all black people. You can tell she is against whatever revolution was going on at the time and that it was something she always thought of. Death,Robbery, and Hate couldn't even stop the revolution so it was kind of saying no one or nothing can stop it. The theme of this poem would have to be life goes on,if something were to happen to you everyone would still be living their life.
This poem in particular was written for Tupac Shakur. Without the title she could have been talking about any other brave and influential man. This poem is about how Tupac will be remembered by his people and everyone else. That he would become a great man. "A lover whose love was often deliberately misunderstood but who will live in the sun and the rains." This sentence to me is a metaphor; She is saying how his love was misunderstood since he was a "thug." His love and legacy will forever live through the bright sunny days to the gloomy rainy days. "Whose name will echo in all the winds whose spirit will flower." This could be a personification, everyone knows that a wind blowing can't echo your name. In this sentence she's explaining how his name will never be forgotten and how his life will bloom just like a flower even though he's deceased. "Who like Emmett Till and Malcolm X who would be remembered for the great man he could have become." This phrase is a simile it is comparing Tupac to Emmett and Malcolm.. All three of these men have been murdered at a young age. Even though they are deceased she is saying that they would have been amazing men. The attitude is really emotional you can tell that Tupacs death had an impact on her. The shift in this story goes from the great man that he would become to the most beautiful boy that he was. The theme of this story would be Nikki mourning for the lost of Tupac. It seems as though she was a really big fan.
The commonalities with Nikki Giovanni poems are her writing about love and her struggle. She talks about break ups and removing people that she loves from her life. She also talks about how she is woman and how she deserves equality just like everyone else. In some of her poems she talks about racism and how she wishes she can erase it from the world. Her writing style is more upbeat it isn't depressing like most poems are which is really amazing. Her work is mostly free versed so it doesn't rhyme, she sometimes repeat the end words of a stanza at the end of every stanza.