Themes

Jasmyn Stewart

1.       In the poem A Historical Footnote To Consider Only When All Else Fails Nikki Giovanni uses sexual innuendos, setting and duality to establish justification for a piece of history that she wanted her audience to be aware of.

 

2.       In the poem Poem for Black Boys Nikki Giovanni uses games, color, and the duality between superiority and inferiority to establish an introduction of desire for uprising following the American Civil Rights Movement.

 

3.       In the poem Nikki-Rosa Nikki Giovanni uses negative emotion, happiness, and poverty to establish the justification of stereotypical views that were held upon African Americans who tried to move up in the world.

 

4.       In the poem The Great Pax Whitie Nikki Giovanni uses repetition, allusions, and similes to establish the idea of hypocrisy which lived throughout religion during the events of the Civil Rights Movement.

 

5.       In the poem Records, Nikki Giovanni uses repetition, color, and killing to establish the importance of recollecting the past and being able to stop, pause, and play those special moments.

 

6.       In the poem No reservations Nikki Giovanni uses war, repetition, and failure to establish the implication of lack of preparation and special placement for the Civil War when the time comes.

 

7.       In the poem Kidnap Poem Nikki Giovanni uses setting, culture, repetition to establish a radical or far-reaching point of view to capture the depth of her experiences and share them with her audience.

 

8.       In the poem Ego Tripping Nikki Giovanni uses spiritual, beauty, and setting to establish the implication of a new closeness within herself that has allowed her to have a spiritual awakening to the purpose of life.

 

9.       In the poem Mothers Nikki Giovanni uses affection, differences, and allusions to establish the idea that we must all learn to deal with happiness and affection to overcome the pains that are innate to us.

 

10.    In the poem When I Die Nikki Giovanni uses pain, anger, and lack of love to establish to idea that she wants the world to remember her as touching lies and guiding them to peace after the war but first she has to help them understand what it is that they are fighting for.

 

11.    In the poem A Very Simple Wish Nikki Giovanni uses balance, similes/metaphors, and images of violence/neglect to establish her position of trying to draw attention to the hatred within the world.

 

12.    In the poem Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day Nikki Giovanni uses emotion, objects, and the duality between dark and light to establish the idea of the world needing affection in order for it to change which would help “better” it as opposed to letting it just “melt away”

 

13.    In the poem Crutches Nikki Giovanni uses  to establish gender, weakness, and hurt the metaphoric view of being disabled to establish the impact of the world being impaired as opposed to just one person.

 

14.    In the poem Life Cycles Nikki Giovanni uses the duality between negative and positive sentiments and the repetition of the word “she” to establish the embracing of her purpose in life.

 

15.    In the poem Fascinations Nikki Giovanni uses first person, duality, and vivid imagery to establish the idea of enjoying the calm part of life but the risky part of it is still mesmerizing as well as tempting.

 

16.    In the poem Woman Nikki Giovanni uses third person, gender, nature, and the duality between desire and rejection to establish the idea of how women mold themselves to meet the needs of men.