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

       This is my favorite poem so far! It's so hopelessly romantic and honest. Also, this is my last poem analysis for the day. The  narrator is speaking to his love (i assume), Dorothy, and he tells her that he believes that she's beautiful because of her imperfections. He feels as though he could not be in a world without her and his life would be useless if he ever lost her. This poem has exploits a positive meaning due to the poet's use of words: “beautiful”, “flower”, “true”. The author's attitude or tone is loving or hopelessly romantic. When reading this poem, the speaker uses a lot of imagery to describe the way in which Dorothy Makes him feel and how her leaving would make his world miserable ( i.e.” If I lost you, the air wouldn’t move, nor the tree grow.). There is a shift in the narrator's thoughts. In the first stanza, he is generally speaking about his feelings for Dorothy, expounding upon how she is beautiful despite her flaws (lines...

         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 ...

         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 toward...

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. ...

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 ...

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 A...

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: Blumb...

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.

This is my final Giovanni poem for you all! This is actually the poem that I chose to do my analytical paper on as well. The picture is an excerpt from the poem. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a picture of the full version. "Habits" is about Nikki's reflection on what habits are and how they are formed or picked up. After reading and rereading the poem hundreds of times, I've concluded that the universal theme is that the habits that one acquires over doing something for a long period of time are the ones that stick with you. The habits that one obtains because of laziness or observation can be forgotten just as easily as they are picked up. Giovanni uses a lot of consonance in her piece in order to show that. The repeated suffix"-ing" in stanza 5( not shown in the picture) helps to emphasize that her lover presently and consistently does things that makes her feel unloved. When you do something for a long period of time, whether it is good or bad, it...

"A Poem of Friendship"! The message and the poet's viewpoint here are quite clear. To Giovanni, what makes a friendship true is much more than how often you spend time with them or what you do for them. She goes into detail about the characteristics that she believes make a friendship genuine, loving, and everlasting. The theme of the poem is simply that true friendship isn't just about the material things and the good times shared when in one another's presence; it's about the love and care that they have for each other despite the defying odds. " We are not lover's because of the love we make, but the love we have... I will never miss you because of what we do, but what we are....". Nikki Giovanni applied a lot of repetition in the literary piece ( i.e "we are, we make, we spend, we save..."). These repeated words emphasize the point that true friends are always there for each other, but not just because of what they do. It's bec...

                   The Poem “ Choices” explicates how Giovanni feels being an oppressed, black woman in a white man’s world. Clearly, this is one of her works written during the Civil Rights Era. The piece is trying to convey that everyone within a society doesn’t have equal opportunity and choices because of certain factors( in this case, race and gender). Because of this, citizens learn to develop frustration and bitterness towards their own society. " If I can't do what I want to do, then job to not want what I don't want to do... and none of it is equal." Here, she is trying to say that if she cannot do what she wants because of her limits as black and female American, then she is not obligated to do anything that she doesn't want to do. She uses some imagery in her writing as well," Mankind amongst the animals learns to cry." This phrase is perhaps the most important part of the po...

 I've had the pleasure of reading and analyzing quite a few of Giovanni's wonderful poems, so I just chose a few of them to share, picking the ones that were very touching to me.   Now this poem was hands down my favorite!!! I'm a bit of a romantic, so this poem just naturally spoke to me. "Resignation" is about Nikki's undying, deep, and intense love for someone. According to her, loving that person is only natural; it's like a habit because she picked it up one day, and now it is just stuck on her. She simply cannot imagine a life without loving the person. The poem's theme is that loving someone is simply the nature of human beings, as we look for it, live for it, and depend on it:" I love you because it is the natural order of things." She also wrote " I love you because it’s been so good for so long that if I didn’t love you, I’d have to be born again." This hyperbole, or exaggeration, was used to emphasize how truly and...