Nikki Giovanni: An Influential Afro Poet of the 20th Century

         The speaker of this poem is telling someone to admit that they love them. He or she is saying that time may have passed, fights might have happened, and that lover's  “surroundings” may be trying to discourage them to tell the speaker how they feel, but those things don't mean anything if the lover truly loves him/her: just say it. This poem utilizes words that express strong emotions about love and how obstacles are trying to get in the way of it: “bridges burn”, “ affects”, “alone”, “forget “. I'd describe this poem to have a negative meaning towards the idea of not telling the person you love that you love them. The poet's tone is emotional as the narrator trying to convince their lover to admit their feelings to the narrator. In the first and last lines of the poem, the speaker literally asks the mate to “ say so..” if they love them and to “Tell me [speaker] what it means to you [lover].” The speaker just wants answers and his/her feelings are getting ti

         The speaker, whom i believe is Marvin Bell, compares himself to the characteristic of the Mulberry Tree: calm and serene. This poem’s connotation appears to be neutral due to the fact that the diction displays positive and negative words :” sturdy”, “productive”, “ weep”, “ill”. More than likely this indifference shown in the word choice symbolizes man’s indifference towards nature; however, Bell is quite fond of nature, and he goes as far as to compare is personal traits to nature. The poet's attitude in this poem is inspiring and watchful as if he is searching for something that may have been initially overlooked. He aspires to find these things through his use of similes to compare himself to the Mulberry Tree (lines 10-13). Based upon my reading, I was not able to see any significant shifts in the poem. It appears as though Bell goes throughout the entire poem comparing himself to nature as well as identifying society's potential neutrality towards nature. Nevert

This poem is about the Holocaust or the ruthless time period of Jew extermination. Marvin Bell is talking specifically to Donald Justice, another American poet of Iowa City, about the aftermath that the Holocaust has had on the Jews. Expectedly, the poem has a negative connotation on the event of the mass Jew murder, and it uses diction to display that: “ defeats”, “ruin”, “weapon”, “survive”. These words just further emphasize the harshness that the Jews experienced from the Germans. The author's attitude or tone in this poem is informative and reflective upon the effects of the Holocaust on the Jews. The speaker feels as though the Jews are brave for getting through that rough time period, but he also fears that the actions of the Holocaust can come back (stanzas 1 and 4). There isn't any significant shifts in this poem. It strictly just generalizes the effects of the Holocaust on the Jews and points out the possibility of it happening again. I believe that the theme of thi

Marvin Bell, born August 3, 1937 in New York City, is a Jewish American poet and teacher who was the first Poet Laureate of the state of Iowa. Bell was raised in Center Moriches, Long Island. He served in the U. S. Army from 1964 to 1965 at the rank of First Lieutenant. He earned his bachelor's degree from Alfred University, his master's degree from the University of Chicago, and an MFA from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. He is the author of more than 20 books of poetry, including his series of “The Book of the Dead”, “Nightworks: Poems 1962–2000” (Copper Canyon Press, 2000), ‘Mars Being Red” (Copper Canyon Press, 2007), and “Vertigo: The Living Dead Man Poems” (Copper Canyon Press, 2011). Bell taught forty years for the Iowa Writers' Workshop, retiring as the Flannery O'Connor Professor of Letters. He currently serves on the faculty of the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at Pacific University in Oregon. CITATION: “Marvin Bell.” Wikipedia, W

Hey everyone!!! I'm back with another inspirational poet: Marvin Bell. I wanted to switch it up and just picked someone I know absolutely nothing about; thus, I chose Bell, and I'm so glad that I did! I find his life pretty interesting being that he was a victim of the Holocaust, a First Lieutenant in World War 2, and that he's written over 20 poem books! I thought that it'd be cool to analyze some of his poetry, so here it is!

"I am the Angel with the Broken Wing, The one large statue in this quiet room. The staff finds me too fierce, and so they shut Faith’s ardor in this air-conditioned tomb. The docents praise my elegant design Above the chatter of the gallery. Perhaps I am a masterpiece of sorts— The perfect emblem of futility. Mendoza carved me for a country church. (His name’s forgotten now except by me.) I stood beside a gilded altar where The hopeless offered God their misery. I heard their women whispering at my feet— Prayers for the lost, the dying, and the dead. Their candles stretched my shadows up the wall, And I became the hunger that they fed. I broke my left wing in the Revolution (Even a saint can savor irony) When troops were sent to vandalize the chapel. They hit me once—almost apologetically. For even the godless feel something in a church, A twinge of hope, fear? Who knows what it is? A trembling unaccounted by their laws, An ancient memory they can’t dismiss.