http://www.afropoets.net/nikkigiovanni13.html
In the poem Life Cycles, the speaker uses the duality between negative and positive sentiments and the repetition of the word “she” to embrace her purpose in life. From annotating the poem, it is evident to the reader that negative emotion appears more than a positive one. In the first stanza, the speaker (Giovanni) targets a new audience. She is speaking in third person as opposed to first as if “she” represents more than one person. The format of the poem is standard and the alignment is even which suggests that the message should be straight forward. The poem seems as though it is targeted to the opposite sex being that the speaker uses the repetition of “she” to emphasize a more feminist point of view for the poem. In stanza one, the speaker implies that she realized that she was unwanted and purposely meant to be shutout from the world. From this the reader can imply that the speaker is writing about her purpose in life. As the poem goes on, the speaker continues to explore her journey to finding her resolution. In stanza two when Giovanni writes “she had so many private habits…in the dark”, one can denote that when “she” or the “average woman” is alone she’d do things that were pleasing to her to help overcome her sadness being that she was alone or shutout in the first place. As the poem continues it also seems as though this poem is to justify how the women change who they want to be because they are molded into something else by society. The poem speaks about how they react to the change which has more of a negative effect rather than a positive one. The poem concludes with “planting in her emotional garden to see what weeds would rise to strangle her” implying that as society continues to toy with “her” emotions, she will watch the obstacles rise and try to take her over.
In the poem Life Cycles, the speaker uses the duality between negative and positive sentiments and the repetition of the word “she” to embrace her purpose in life. From annotating the poem, it is evident to the reader that negative emotion appears more than a positive one. In the first stanza, the speaker (Giovanni) targets a new audience. She is speaking in third person as opposed to first as if “she” represents more than one person. The format of the poem is standard and the alignment is even which suggests that the message should be straight forward. The poem seems as though it is targeted to the opposite sex being that the speaker uses the repetition of “she” to emphasize a more feminist point of view for the poem. In stanza one, the speaker implies that she realized that she was unwanted and purposely meant to be shutout from the world. From this the reader can imply that the speaker is writing about her purpose in life. As the poem goes on, the speaker continues to explore her journey to finding her resolution. In stanza two when Giovanni writes “she had so many private habits…in the dark”, one can denote that when “she” or the “average woman” is alone she’d do things that were pleasing to her to help overcome her sadness being that she was alone or shutout in the first place. As the poem continues it also seems as though this poem is to justify how the women change who they want to be because they are molded into something else by society. The poem speaks about how they react to the change which has more of a negative effect rather than a positive one. The poem concludes with “planting in her emotional garden to see what weeds would rise to strangle her” implying that as society continues to toy with “her” emotions, she will watch the obstacles rise and try to take her over.
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