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.
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.
Damn Good Job.
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