Sunday, December 16, 2012

When I Die

http://sbacari.tripod.com/poetry/whenidie.htm

In the poem When I Die by Nikki Giovanni, one can comprehend that this is a poem of remembrance. The audience in this case does not target one specific group but it targets all groups that have looked down upon her. Although the speaker is Nikki Giovanni, she is actually speaking for those who are just like her who have been hurt by their own people. She opens up her poem with stating that when she dies she hopes people of fake stature don’t try to show “respect” being that there was none when she was alive. In this poem the speaker speaks in first person to represent her opinion as well as that of many others, however; the “I” is not capitalized. I feel as though this is so because she feels as though the way people have treated her that she does not deserve such emphasis. This poem has a standard poem format, however; there are indents inserted in weird places. This could symbolize the way people hide their negative emotions towards her while she is still living. The speaker continues on to speak about how she hopes black people who make differences in life get the appreciation that they deserve instead of working so hard without being acknowledged. She ends this thought with stating “but it always seems to be that way” as though to show exhaustion as if it would never change. One motif that stood out to me the most was “lack of love”. This motif was represented the most in the third stanza where the speaker goes into depth of her OWN people degrading her before and after her death. The speaker concludes the poem with the message that fighting each other is not the answer. She wants the world to remember her has touching lives and guiding them to peace after the war but first she has to help them understand what it is that they’re fighting for (this can be inferred from the last line of the poem ending in “revolution”).

Mothers

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177837
Nikki Giovanni’s poem entitled Mothers embodies the reader with a tone of gratitude for the speakers surrounding comfort. The speaker in the poem is Nikki Giovanni as she explains her awkward affection for her mother who is her audience.  The format of the poem is written with no capital letters insisting that there are no emphases on the way that she feels. This could mean that this is a soft poem from the heart. She begins the poem with stating “the last time I was home to see my mother we kissed” and that “unpleasantries pulled a warm comforting silence around [them] and [they] read separate books”. This implies that being that things were left unsaid between her and her mother, it caused an awkwardness that put them in different places in their lives. The biblical allusion that the speaker makes is to Samson. Samson came at a time when the Israelites were accused of disobedience to God. They soon became oppressed by the Philistines. God gives them Samson to deliver them and God's advices Samson to never cut his hair. His strength came from God, and he lost it when he was disobedient to God. In the end Samson realized that the strength was not in the hair but it was in the obedience that he was to give to God. In the fourth stanza the speaker writes “her hair was three-quarters her height which made me a strong believer in the Samson myth.” In this quote Giovanni gives it away that her mother was a strong follower of God and believed in being obedient. The speaker concludes the poem with saying that she taught this affection and obedience to her generation in which they will recite it along the line of reproduction. In my opinion the speaker is not writing about any historical or racial events, but about her childhood. She feels as though we must all learn to deal with happiness and affection to overcome the pains in which are innate to us.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Ego Tripping

http://nikki-giovanni.com/page_51.shtml
Did I say I had a favorite already? That must have been a couple of poems ago, but I must say that Nikki Giovanni’s Ego Tripping, has certainly got me tripping! I mean it is hard to believe that nine stanzas could hold so much detail and meaning. Personally I had to read it a couple of times to realize just who exactly she wanted the targeting audience to be. Then I realized that Giovanni’s audience in this poem was actually herself! In this poem Nikki references a spiritual allusion. She uses words such as: throne, Allah, nile, and Jesus to explain her spiritual reincarnation into a “beautiful woman.” In the sixth stanza, Nikki writes “I turned myself into myself and was Jesus.” Like many others after reading this poem you since a hint of idiocy from the speaker, however; she is not trying to take Jesus’s place. Giovanni is implying that she found a new closeness within herself (that is similar to that of God and Jesus as they can sometimes be viewed as one) that has changed her into a divine woman. She has created a new being that is to be seen from the outside and the inside as well. Ego Tripping introduces the supernatural which in this case the speaker wants to bring to life as opposed to just talking about it. This radical poem can be viewed in many different ways but the theme finds comfort within the very last stanza. “I mean…I … can fly like a bird in the sky.” This simile ties the entire poem together. As she comforts herself through reassurance that she is new, the etc. punctuation suggests that she is second guessing her reincarnation of her new self. Finally she decides that she is new and everlasting like a bird soaring in the sky. Being that she didn’t suggest a land animal, it recommends that she feels majestic and glorious as if no one can bring her down.

Kidnap Poem

http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/poetry/kidnap.html

In the Kidnap Poem, the speaker (Nikki Giovanni) uses first person to justify the purpose of her poem. As you approach the poem, it is evident that the format of her poem is slightly different being that there are no stanzas. This could symbolically mean that she wants you to feel the rhythm of being kidnapped where there are no pauses or stops because it all happens at once. The audience she seems to be targeting is the white population as opposed to the black. You can infer this by her line “put you in my phrases and meter” as if she wants to hide the audience in her thoughts and rhythm so that maybe they would understand her point of view. The speaker uses a radical or far-reaching point of view to capture the depth of her experiences and share them with her audience. She begins her poem with a question which is a more complex approach than her other poems. She writes “ever been kidnapped by a poet”.  By analyzing this line the reader is able to take away that she wants to know if her audience has ever been taken from their home by words. She leaves the question unanswered by not using any punctuation marks as if to infer that these words are never ending. The effect of using the word “kidnapped” allows the reader to imagine someone being taken out of their control. In this poem you are also able to depict the motif of repetition as she begins her poem with restating it in the end as if she was referring to herself in the entire poem. She concludes by stating “yeah if I were a poet I’d kidnap you.” This in itself lets the audience know that if she was a poet, she transform them. I was also able to pull out the motif of culture within line 16, where she states “I’d wrap you in the red Black and green which symbolizes that she wants to wrap the audience in her culture (specifically black since it is capitalized).
The fact that she is speaking in first person using “I” and “you” permits the reader to better understand the message of the poem which is that she is willing to use her words and metaphors to change the world and see things from her perspective.

No Reservations

http://books.google.com/books?id=e9tpFY2cmCAC&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=no+reservations+by+nikki+giovanni&source=bl&ots=r-sUTGLpQl&sig=8wiXfhviowRWKtQuCxPgFUUlE3w&hl=en&sa=X&ei=nkTqUISvOoPA9QTAuoDgCg&ved=0CGoQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=no%20reservations%20by%20nikki%20giovanni&f=false (page 68-69)
The poem No Reservations is one that takes time and patience to understand the message that is trying to be portrayed. The speaker begins this poem with stating that “there are no reservations for the revolution.” In this the reader can infer that there are no special seats given for war. There are to be no special placements, it is to be sudden and whoever shows up just shows up. The metaphor provided allows one to see the truth within not being prepared for what could happen when it comes to forms of rebellion. The audience in this poem seems to be everyone. The speaker is warning the audience that she is willing to make efforts to lead her people to victory. In stanza three she proceeds to say “strike now shoot..strike now fire…strike now run.” The effect of her ending the war cry with run is as if she knows that there will be some sort of consequences for the actions that they take. The speaker then concludes her poem with implying that during this metaphorical “war”, there will be no time for relaxing and calling a quits once it has started. A motif that I was able to take away from this poem is repetition where she begins and ends her poem with the same line as if to wish emphasis on the fact that only special seats will be given if black people fail. This implies that special seats or “reservations” provide a negative effect to the poem being that it is something that the speaker desires.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Records


In the poem, Records, Nikki Giovanni justifies why it is so important to recollect the past or “remember”. She begins this poem by stating that t“it’s so important to record” this line in itself is repeated several times to emphasize that the significance of this line. The poem continues with the prominence of killing, which is another motif that I was able to pick out. The speaker uses lines such as “major assassination” to depict her attitude towards the killing of JFK. In Records, the message portrayed is somewhat of a negative one. The speaker sums up the poem by implying that if it had been a black man who would have killed, there would have been major consequences. She also closes the poem with a note that states if black people as a whole wanted to break free of their limitations, then the world would have to be born again for them to do so.  In my opinion, this poem has a different structure than the others that I have read so far. The effect of using words such as “germiest” and “beast” helps to paint of visual picture of what kind of monster Johnson was. When you think of these words, you have no choice but to feel an emotion along with them. This hatred comes from the fact that he is allowing the world to wipe out her people without consequence. The metaphors also provide effect because they elaborate on the bigger picture that Giovanni is trying to portray which is that of showing the double standards that occurred during this time period.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Great Pax Whitie

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177829
The Great Pax Whitie was a lot more complex for me to read than the other poems. I’ve tried several times to register what the title meant exactly. In my research, I’ve learned that the term “pax” is of the Christian Church faith. It is defined as the kissing by all the participants at a mass of a tablet depicting the Crucifixion or other sacred object. In this I was aware of the motifs that Giovanni desired to portray. Where white or “whitie” draped this sacredness.  These motifs consist of repetition as she strives to make her point valid, allusion as she uses religion to justify truth, and similes to compare her words to real life situations which occurred. The speaker opens her poem with speaking of the “beginning” in doing so, she introduces the reader to “genesis” as if to tell the prophecy of her people that was suggested by the law of religion. She carries on by issuing that “The genesis was life and the genesis was death”, with this the reader is capable of comprehending that the principle of life is to live and to die but to die meant to die in war where war was the purpose of life. The speaker uses repetition to justify that “they ain’t got no shame.” No matter what the white man does to bring down the black man, they have no shame in what they do because that is the “genesis” of life. In stanza eight, Giovanni digs deeper into trying to explain the allusion she is trying to portray. She implies that although they go against their bible and kill those who are not like them they do so and still claim their victory in the name of God. In my opinion, this poem was cleverly written and without the proper analyzing it is very easy to miss the message that the poem is trying to portray which is that hypocrisy lived in religion during the events of the Civil Rights Movement and Nikki decided to be the voice of the people and write about it. She concludes her poem with asking if black people had any pride. In other words, she was asking when the time would come for them to stand up for themselves.  

Nikki-Rosa

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177827
In my opinion, Nikki-Rosa would have to be my FAVORTIE so far. Giovanni uses the motifs of negative emotion, happiness, and poverty to justify the stereotypical views that were held upon African Americans who tried to move up in the world. In this poem,  Giovanni takes moments from her childhood and turn them into biographical images that the reader can visualize in their heads. In lines 5-9 in stanza one, “And if you ever become famous or something...when you got your hot bath”, Giovanni justifies that living and growing up as a black child doesn’t always mean that you have to live in hardship and struggle.  The poem seems to somewhat contradict itself. It begins by introducing the poor living conditions of black people for example by stating they had “no inside toilet”. It makes the reader feel very sad and frustrated towards the way the children had to grow up but Giovanni then changes the tone by stating that although this was true, the aspects that outshone this were never mentioned. These aspects were that of enjoying the time with your mother or how although you were poor you still had amazing holidays. I believe the purpose of this poem was to show that if you want to televise that of a “black childhood” to make sure that you get the entire truth and not just pieces of it. In Nikki-Rosa, Giovanni shows the duality between happiness and poverty and proves that there can be a balance and life does not just consist of one or the other.

Poem for Black Boys

http://www.aaregistry.org/poetry/view/poem-black-boys-nikki-giovanni
 Poem for Black Boys, introduces the desire for uprising following the American Civil Rights Movement. This poem seems as though the speaker is suggesting that the young black boys should rebel against the mistreatment that they are receiving from society, however; this is just Giovanni’s style of writing.  She writes “ask for CULLURD instead of monopoly”. The word “cullurd” if said correctly is equivalent to colored which introduces the reader to Giovanni’s clever style of writing. In stanza two, the speaker is suggesting that the young boys should ask for a game that they are familiar with and continues on with suggesting to them that if they knew their worth, they could do so much in the world with their victory. I am sure that many readers take this poem out of content when trying to denote it or as they see the word “revolution”. Giovanni seems as though she is trying to send a message to the generation of the black boys which is stating that they should work to be strong and revolt against the stereotypes that they have been stamped with.  In this time period, there were many judgments being passed among the young black boys. Giovanni writes that these boys should play “run-away-slave” something that their ancestors were good at which implies that they should free themselves from the limitations placed on them. This poem gives instructions to the younger generation of African Americans on how to accept themselves in a time where no one else would. In my opinion this poem was a very obvious one to get, whereas  Giovanni’s other ones seem a lot more difficult.

A Historical Footnote to Consider Only When All Else Fails

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177824
This poem is not an easy one to denote. The speaker uses the motifs of sexual innuendos, setting, and duality to justify the a piece of history that she wanted her audience to be aware of.  In stanza 2, the speaker mentions “LBJ.” Lyndon Baines Johnson was often referred to as LBJ, and he just so happened to be the 36th President of the United States. She continues on with stating that “he doesn’t give a good ----- what [she] thinks.” This one stanza ties the entire poem together. It explains that although America was supposed to be “for the people”, authority makes it clear that they don’t care about what “she” thinks. (Whereas Giovanni uses “she” as symbolization for “us” or the African Americans.)  The sexual innuendo came within the last line found in stanza two. “Else why would he continue to masturbate in public” expresses her dislike towards  authority figures such as LBJ who showed no consideration or appreciation for a Black man’s input. Instead people like him please themselves by the seeing the destruction of the public. This poem was very deep and intelluctually sound. The settings within the poem change the atmosphere from a subtle one to a powerful one. The symbols she uses in the last stanza shows her appriciation for her people and how she  wants to see them rise up.  As Giovanni rights “When Stokely is in The Black House and all will be right with Our World” where Stokely represented the African American population at the time. Stokely Carmichael (aka Kwame Ture)  was a Trinidadian-American black activist active in the 1960s American Civil Rights Movement. By concluding the poem with stating that “our world” will be alright when he is elected into office, she is stating that a black man in office would suggest change for the world.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Meeting Nikki Giovanni

It has been somewhat of a pleasure, more so of an honor to be introduced to such an elegant yet factual woman such as Yolande Cornelia Giovanni, Jr born in Knoxville Tennessee. This prominent poet and writer made her debut to the public as being a part of the Black Arts movement in the late 1960's. She is a very highly intellectual woman who graduated with honors from Fisk University in 1967. By the mid 1970's, this incredible woman had already established herself as one the leading poetic voices of the nation with many awards to show for it. Her artistic ability in where she expresses pride in her culture is shown within each line of her poem. She doesn't stick to one particular age group, but in her recent years, she’s written poetry for children as well as a picture book. These works include morals to learn within each and every one of her words. (Including Jimmy Grasshopper Versus the Ants) (which I'd love to read by the way). I believe that Nikki Giovanni would be an amazing person to study simply because of her ability to choose her audience. She is able to transform herself to be the orator of many ages. Giovanni’s creativity and artistic voice would make her (in my opinion…if it matters) very interesting to read! Who wouldn’t want to decode messages hidden within the lines of a poem? She is also a very clever woman who has graduated with honors. It’s very rare that you hear about an accomplished woman. I would love to hear her point of view on the various topics that she acknowledges. I also believe we should study Nikki Giovanni because of her history of being involved with the people. This is important because this means she is speaking from experience and her poems will be realistic and relatable which makes her extremely relevant to my life.