Choices Poem Analysis

“An Anti-Semitic Demonstration” was the more effective poem by using metaphors to explain the fear one feels during the arrival and anticipation of being sent off to a concentration camp by Nazis. During this time period life as a Jew must have been unbelievably frightening, for one was unsure of when they would be collected and where the would be taken away too. All just because of their religious beliefs or the fact they may be considered “undesirable”. Whereas in “The Family Album” they explained more about how the Jews were before their life changed forever. Neufeld does not go to explain the way they felt during the tough times of the Nazi ruling. However, he instead talks about how life was instantly changed when no one saw it coming.

“’ But this is merely a negative definition of the value of education’” (23-24). Mark Halliday wrote “The Value of Education” from a first person standpoint. The introduction and the use of “I” demonstrates the poem is about the speaker. Likewise, the speaker uses imagery, self-recognition, and his own personal thoughts throughout the poem. He goes on throughout the poem stating external confrontations he is not doing because he is in the library receiving an education and reading books. With this in mind, the speaker goes on to convey images in your head to show a realization of things he could be doing if he were not in the library getting an education.

Richard Blanco is a Cuban- American poet who was given the oppurunity to write an inaugaration poem for Barack Obama's second swearing-in. He wrote a poem titled "One Today" that praised the good and unique things about the United States and also the everyday people who's daily routines help to make America the proud country that it is.

Lorna Dee Cervantes' poem, “Poema para los Californios Muertos” (“Poem for the Dead Californios”), is a commentary on what happened to the original inhabitants of California when California was still Mexico, and an address to the speaker's dead ancestors. Utilizing a unique dynamic, consistently alternating between Spanish and English, Cervantes accurately represents the fear, hatred, and humility experienced by the “Californios” through rhythm, arrangement, tone, and most importantly, through use of language.

She was influenced by the Civil Rights Movement and the Black Power Movement. During the 1970’s she began writing children's literature. Giovanni’s poem are unrhymed incantations of childhood images and feelings. Nikki giovanni uses personification, figurative language, and symbolism in “Choices” to explain her feelings of making the right choice.

Do you feel that your movement is limited due to your appearance? Nikki Giovanna, author of the poem Choices, is an activist, writer, educator, and poet who originally published this poem in 1972 in a collection of poetry titled My House. Furthermore, Giovanna’s inspiration towards creating this poem is the Black Arts Movement, Civil Rights Movement, Equal Rights Amendment, and through her personal experiences as an African American female. This poem cornerstones the dilemma of the African American race.

In the essay “The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action”, Audre Lorde described the cause and meaningful that why we need to break the silence. Lorde believes silences will not protect ours, so people need to make contact to build a communication in order to bridge our difference. People exist difference due to the different race, gender, and sexual orientation. Then, keeping silence also a kind of fear that people afraid to face contempt, censure, judgment, re cognition, challenge, or annihilation. Lorde wrote this essay due to her was told by two doctors that she might have to have breast surgery because her tumor might malignant. Then, there was a three-week period between the telling and the actual breast surgery, so she started to reorganization her entire life. She realized that death is the final silence, and she needs to speak herself because silence cannot protect her as a Black lesbian poet. Honestly, I am curious about that the

In the poem “Eating Poetry” the author writes weird behaviors that happen to “him.” One behavior the speaker does is barks and licks the librarians hand. On line fourteen the author writes, “When I get on my knees and lick her hand,” this is an example of the behaviors in the poem.

While reading both stories, they both seemed to share the same theme. The theme that both stories shared is the dedication to do work even if it isn’t necessary. In, “Clearing Paths to the Past” The person states they have an obligation to clear their sidewalk so others can use the sidewalk to get somewhere. In, “To be of use” the person telling the poem explains how they love to be dedicated to doing work even when they do not need to do the work with any effort.

Born in Tennessee, Nikki Giovanni spent the majority of her childhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, after moving with her family. Well acquainted with Knoxville, because of her family’s frequent trips to Tennessee from Ohio, Giovanni decided to go to college at Fisk University. Giovanni had trouble complying to the foreign rules and way of life at the University, which ultimately resulted in her expulsion. After being expelled, Giovanni thought about priorities and the importance of a college education. Giovanni negotiated a deal with the dean of Fisk University to allow her to re-enroll and graduate with the class of 1966 (Giovanni). Without her college education, Giovanni would be incapable of birthing her thought-provoking, mind-rendering poetry at the caliber in which she does. Shortly after receiving her graduate degree, Giovanni 's grandmother, Louvenia Watson, passed away. To help cope with the loss of her beloved grandmother, Giovanni started to write and eventually produced her first book of poetry, Black Feeling Black Talk. Wanting to publish her newly written work, Giovanni asked numerous publishers to give her an opportunity, but to no avail. Instead of waiting for the greenlight from a publisher, Nikki Giovanni self-published Black Feeling Black Talk using her personal finances (Giovanni). After composing several collections of poetry, Giovanni became a New York Times best-selling author and an acclaimed professor at Virginia Tech. Following the tragedy of the Virginia

Take a minute to imagine “Men looking like they had been/attacked repeatedly by a succession /of wild animals,” “never/ ending blasted field of corpses,” and “throats half gone, /eyes bleeding, raw meat heaped/ in piles.” These are the vividly, grotesque images Edward Mayes describes to readers in his poem, “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976.” Before even reading the poem, the title gave me a preconceived idea of what the poem might be about. “University of Iowa Hospital, 1976” describes what an extreme version of what I expected the poem to be about. The images I

In “Conte” by Marilyn Hacker, Cinderella shows the reader a glimpse of her life after the childhood tale ends, a less happier ending than the original story implies. She feels trapped in a constant state of misery and boredom in the royal palace. Without life experience guiding her, Cinderella is in a dilemma caused by her ignorance of the potential consequences of her actions. With the use of irony, structure, and diction, “Conte” shows how innocence and naïveté result in regrettable mistakes that create life experience.

Poetry can be divided up into different forms, more easily expressing an author’s emotions and intent with their poetry. For analyzing purposes I chose the poems Self-Help by Michael Ryan, Ghazal by Agha Shahid Ali, Psalm 150 by Jericho Brown, and Emergency by Michael Dylan Welch.

Poetry is a reduced dialect that communicates complex emotions. To comprehend the numerous implications of a ballad, perusers must analyze its words and expressing from the points of view of beat, sound, pictures, clear importance, and suggested meaning. Perusers then need to sort out reactions to the verse into a consistent, point-by-point clarification. Poetry utilizes structures and traditions to propose differential translation to words, or to summon emotive reactions. Gadgets, for example, sound similarity, similar sounding word usage, likeness in sound and cadence are at times used to accomplish musical or incantatory impacts.

Some of the poems and essays I have read during this class were relatable to me. Being away from college, I have struggled with not being at home. I have become a different person when I am at school, but when I am home, I feel like I am my normal self again. Some of these authors of the poems and essays that I have read throughout this class has struggled with being somewhere where they don’t belong and that they are someone else when they are not home. Unlike the other poems and essays we have read throughout the course. I enjoyed reading the ones about “home” because I actually understood what they are going through and that I can relate. Some of these poems and essays include “Going Home” by Maurice Kenny, Postcard from Kashmir”, by Agha Shahid Ali, “Returning” by Elias Miguel Munoz and “Hometown” by Luis Cabalquinto. All of these poems deal with duality.