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.