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Nikki Giovanni Poetry Poem Analysis

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The poem I read this week which I would like to discuss and analyze is called Poetry (1975) by Nikki Giovanni. This poem is probably one of the most impactful ones I read because the tone and language that Nikki used spoke to the heart. It has a lot of hidden messages and emotion that we will discuss. The writer made a point that poetry is not a normal story that tells a narrative and ends there, but it is a life experience and life lesson. She stated “ the heart for poetry is joy, if it does not inform then close, off the brain for it is dead, if it cannot heed the insistent message, that life is precious.” (NikkiGiovanni, 1975) We will discussThis poem has deep meaning and hidden messages, and Giovanni uses beautiful figures of speech to …show more content…

Knowing the time were this poem was created give us an insight on the emotions and feelings the writer was going through. This was a big influence in this writing and you can validate this when Nikki refers to poetry, “ it never says accept me for poems seek not acceptance but controversy it only says I am” (Nikki,1975). The meaning of this allusion is that like poems who can’t be understood by everyone and not accepted by some, her feelings are similar. The racism during that time many did not accept but like a poem she is lonely at times but will continue to spread love and joy which is the essence of life. That is my interpretation of this line in the poem and I think the figure of speech used by Nikki was phenomenal. The simile used through the poem was on point for example stating: “ poetry is gentle as a teardrop strong like the eye”. This is very powerful hidden message because our teardrops are due to emotions and an expression but our eyes are powerful tool in our body. Without our eyes we cannot perceive life and the beauty of colors, shapes, and manifestation and she compared it to

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