Nikki Giovanni Poem Analysis

Nikki Giovanni is one of the best known African American poets across the globe. During the 1960s and early 1970s is when Nikki began to reach fame. As a black woman she defined the African American voice through her poetry. She was a major force in the black art movement. Ms. Giovanni was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on June 7, 1943. Some major accomplishments that have occurred during her career is when she sold more than 100,000 copies of her poem, Truth within the first six months in 1971. Although she has won numerous awards she was the first recipient to receive the "Rosa Parks Women of Courage Award". In mid January of 1983 she gets diagnosed with lung cancer and later on survived with one lung.

Do you feel that your movement is limited due to your appearance? Nikki Giovanna, author of the poem Choices, is an activist, writer, educator, and poet who originally published this poem in 1972 in a collection of poetry titled My House. Furthermore, Giovanna’s inspiration towards creating this poem is the Black Arts Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Equal Rights Amendment, and through her personal experiences as an African American female. This poem cornerstones the dilemma of the African American race.

Maya Angelou is terrific performer, singer, filmmaker, and civil-rights activist. She is a phenomenal woman, one thing that she does best is writing. She is still living today, I believe her legend will never die. If one would talk to her, he or she would think she has lead a normal, happy life. Her life is blissful now, it was not always perfect. Maya beard enough emotional stress in a time frame that most people do not experience in a lifetime. Her experiences and the lessons learned encouraged her to help others become strong. Maya Angelou is one of the best examples of someone overcoming rape, being mute for several years, and having a child at a young age to achieve success of becoming an accomplished

Many poets have conversations with other authors within their literature. They do not talk directly, as if addressing each other face-to-face. Instead, they choose topics that relate and continue the conversation. This is what Nikki Giovanni’s “Nikki Rosa” and Terrence Hayes’ “Talk” does. These two poems exemplify the issue of racial misinterpretations using different literary devices to describe the issues that many black people, faced and continue to face today.

The poem, “Nikki-rosa” written by Nikki Giovanni, an African American poet, who was born in 1943. During the sixties, she emerged as a black poet whose militancy during the civil rights movement made her immensely popular. In 1968, she published the poem “Nikki-rosa”. In the poem “Nikki-rosa”, she uses her childhood as the basis of this story. Nikki-rosa communicates through her childhood memories, the belief that white people and black people have fundamentally different ideas about wealth and happiness. That white people and black people see their personal life experiences differently. Wealth for black people is love, family, and togetherness; not tangible items. The sense of community and acceptance was more valuable than having even an

“Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims is an excellent of example of an author using many types of literary terms to emphasize his theme of a love that is imperfect yet filled with acceptance. In, this poem Nims uses assonance, metaphor, and imagery to support his theme of “Imperfect, yet realistic love”.

She has also written essays, reviews, and books. She is also a prolific poet, becoming extensive in writing poetry which moves from the traditional ones to even the unrestricted free verse. Her characters are mostly from the underclass of the black neighborhoods which shows the impact of city life to the people within. As one of the most visible poets in the United States, she is active not only in public readings and poetry workshops but she also participates in contests and classes

Giovanni brilliantly uses the literary devices of imagery, paralleled repetition and symbolism to depict a vivid journey of transformation, concluding with an exquisite moment of self-realization.

“The Harlem Renaissance was a time where the Afro-American came of age; he became self-assertive and racially conscious… he proclaimed himself to be a man and deserving respect. Those Afro-Americans who were part of that time period saw themselves as principals in that moment of transformation from old to new” (Huggins 3). African Americans migrated to the North in great numbers to seek better lives than in the South as the northern economy was booming and industrial jobs were numerous. This movement brought new ideas and talents that shifted the culture forever. Black writers, such as Langston Hughes, used their work to claim a place for themselves and to demand self-respect in society. Poems that Langston Hughes wrote captured the essence of the complexity of a life that mixes joy and frustration of black American life through the incorporation of jazz and blues in order to examine the paradox of being black in mostly white America, the land of the not quite free.

Nikki Giovanni's "Poem for Black Boys" is a poignant literary work that addresses several issues concerning the young black male in America and the conflicting views taken by members of the African-American community during the Civil Rights Movement with an inclination towards the peaceful movement perpetuated by the likes of Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. and his non-violent contemporaries. Giovanni's use of allusion, imagery and the sardonic humor of the speaker blend effortlessly to denounce all of the negative connotation of the young African-American male and to sound the battle-cry to black male youths that while society-at-large may place them in a box, it is up to them to prove society wrong.

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

Just as poetry is a permanent mark of feelings that last forever on paper, tattoos are permanent symbols that last forever on the skin. Tattoos and poetry can easily be combined such as in Kim Addonizio’s sonnet, “First Poem for You,” the speaker admires her partner’s nature themed tattoos in a darkened room. This may seem to be a simple poem, but by utilizing tattoos as symbols, including tactile and visual imagery in her poem, and using the sonnet as her structure, Addonizio laments about the true meaning of relationships and their longevity.

Giovanni gives us a mental image of a mother’s love for her child saying that “the tears from my birth pains created the Nile.” For all the mothers whose been through the pain during birth has put their sweat and tears into everything in order to make their child the best they can be. As Nikki Giovanni puts it, African women are the creators of the world. Giovanni writes, “I am a beautiful woman,” which will hopefully lift women up and give them a voice of their own. If women are able to stick together and not bring each other down, then this will prove what Giovanni has been speaking about throughout her poem.

Unlike Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou devoted her life to inspiring African Americans to do whatever they wanted to do no matter what other people said. She also wanted to inspire people. Her poems Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise inspired not only the African American people, which is was intended to, but the whole world including men. Like Hughes, Maya Angelou did not think that one day she would be reading one of her poems at President Clinton 's inauguration. But she did think that she would inspire young African American writers that they too could become wonderful writers in a white society. Angelou is hailed as one of the great voices of contemporary black literature and as a remarkable Renaissance woman.

I want you to stop and think about tone in day to day conversations. It mostly depends on the body language, volume of voice, and pitch of the person speaking. Written poems, on the other hand, develop their tone through imagery, language use, and form. To show this, I will be using the poem “Tonight I can write” by analyzing how Pablo Neruda works with distant imagery, nostalgic past tense, and repetitive form to develop a grief-filled tone. Through my analysis, I will be mentioning that the author generates loneliness in the persona. I expect the reader to agree that solitude is a state naturally feared and unwanted by humankind because of our undeniable biological drive to reproduce and survive, which requires the company of others. With that being said, I hope that we can assume loneliness is essentially connected to grief.