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

"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.

This poem is about having insomnia( not being able to sleep) and the fear and creepy realizations that come with it as you have to listen to the sounds that come from your own house. The connotation of the poem is negative based upon the diction that he used: “terrible clarity”, despair”, shifting in discomfort.” The author’s tone or attitude is somewhat regretful because now the insomniac is forced to listen to the objects that they “worked for these past years.” For example, they have to hear “the venting furnace, the floorboards underfoot,” and the neighboring family that they “learned how to ignore.” The poem shifts from describing the uncomfortable situation of insomnia through the list of things that have to been heard and seen to suddenly realizing of how empty and unsettling his own home can be at night.  I believe that the universal message here is that having a sleep disorder can make a person feel very uncomfortable and afraid during the night when they are forced to expe

This poem is about money, explaining what it is, how it impacts people, what people use it for, and what people wish that they could do with it. T he author's tone is neutral in this poem, and I know this because of the diction that he uses. He doesn't negatively talk about money, but he doesn't positively talk about it either. He's simply just relays the facts about how money can “Grease The Palms” Feather a Nest”(line 10).   The theme of this poem is that money is used in many different ways, and it has many different effects on people. There's no wonder why money is so easily obsessed over in society.

 Though this is my final poem discussion for Rita Dove, this is hands-down my favorite poem that I have read by her thus far! This point is about the speaker, which is Demeter , praying for her brother Hades to be wise and not consistently act on impulse / desire, as most of the time when he does this, he causes pain or hurt to the world. I believe that the setting or time period of this fantasy prayer was right after Hades tricked Demeter's daughter, Persephone, into becoming his wife and making her stay with him in the Underworld for half a year. There was a mix of good and bad connotative words in the poem ( "knowledge", "faith","dreamed", " curses", "dying"), making the prayer to be unbiased and truthful or realistic. The poet's tone in this poem is disappointment, sadness, but also wisdom. The theme is that acting on desire versus wisdom can cause pain to others and it might backfire on one's self also. Therefore, one

American smooth is about getting so caught up and doing something (in this case, dancing the ballroom dance "American Smooth") as well as losing yourself in another person. They were positive connotations throughout the entire poem. The poet's word choices all had good meanings to them like "romantic", "perfect", and "ecstatic". The speaker attitude seemed to be reflective and happy as she spoke about her reminiscence of the dance and how she felt doing it. The speaker also goes from reminiscing the dance to thinking about how she had gotten so caught up in it that she didn't even notice how her and her partner had "achieved flight" and "serene magnificence" dancing together ( lines 15-28). The overall message here is that sometimes, we lose ourselves in our efforts to pursue perfection or simply to meet a goal.

This poem is about love and/or falling in love, and she compares this lover with chocolate. The taste, smell, and "velvet" feel are all descriptions used to describe both the concrete object (chocolate) and the abstract idea of falling in love with such person. The poem has a positive meaning about love and how one feels about falling in love based upon the diction utilized. For example, words such as "Rich"," pleasure", and "exquisite" were used to describe the way in which chocolate (or in other words, her lover) makes her feel as well as how they are towards her. The author's attitude is admiring or loving as well as playful. The poem shifts from a mood of somewhat hesitance to decisiveness period in stanzas 2 through 4, the speaker explicates how she will be vulnerable ( or "melt") if she indulges in this "chocolate". Yet, she decides to give in to it in lines 15 through 16 when she says "enough chatter: I'm

      Born in Akron, Ohio on August 28, 1952, Rita Dove developed a love for learning and literature at an early age in a household that encouraged reading. She was honored as a Presidential Scholar, being ranked as one of the top 100 high school students in the nation, and as a National Merit Scholar attended Ohio’s Miami University, graduating in 1973 summa cum laude. She subsequently studied abroad in Germany before returning to the states and earning her M.F.A. from the University of Iowa.  Dove established a fine career in academia, eventually teaching at the University of Virginia and becoming an esteemed, award-winning poet. I n May of 1993, Dove was named the poet laureate of the United States.  She was the first African American appointed to the position as well as the first woman and the youngest, at 41 years old.  Dove has served as an editor as well, helming  The Best American Poetry 2000 and 2011’s  Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry. Dove still works as a p

Hi! Here's today's poetry blog victim: Rita Dove. This African American poet is well known for her love of writing and music, and she loves to include and/or extend ideas of previous works in her poetry. I especially love that about her! Her poetry is actually fairly easy to understand as well. In the poems that I will be introducing today, the themes predominately correlate with that of feminity, love, and relationships.

Dana Gioia, full name being  Michael Dana Gioia, was  born  December 24, 1950 , Hawthorne, CA , U.S.).  Gioia earned a B.A. (1973) in poetry at Standford University,  and an M.A. in comparative  literature  at  Harvard University   in 1975. He then returned to Stanford for an M.B.A. (1977).  The poet-businessman wrote his first book of verse, titled   Daily Horoscope   (1986), including the acclaimed poem “ Cruising with the Beach Boys. ” G ioia is known for working with a broad range of subjects that span the years from his youthful experiences of life on the California coast to the quotidian suburban existence of  Middle Ages!  Gioia’s collection of poetry  Interrogations at Noon  (2001) won the American Book Award in 2002. He became a professor of poetry and public  culture  at USC  in 2011, and in 2015 he was made state poet laureate of California. Work Cited: Blumberg, Naomi, and Ida Yalzadeh. “Dana Gioia.”  Encyclopædia Britannica , Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 16

Hello everyone! I'm back with another inspirational poet of history: Michael "Dana" Gioia. Now, this particular poet really caught my interest because he's the only poet( atleast that I know of) to have went to college for something other than a literature major! Its amazing how diverse and well rounded he is academically. I truly admire that, and I love the pieces that I have already read, some of which I will share with you all today, of course.