Ego Tripping By Nikki Giovanni: Poem Analysis

As we look deeper into this poem, the metaphors portrayed throughout the poem stress just how improbable these dreams are in the chance of becoming a reality. Santos describes her imagined runway model as “leggy, outworldly as a mantis” (9). While once again hitting on the imagery, also compares this woman to that of the graceful creature that walks around on seemingly the thinnest legs on earth. Picturing this woman is exactly how every Victoria’s Secret model looks, as she glides up and down the runway, inspiring jealousy in every elegant step she takes. This is the type of image we are portraying to the young women of our generation. No wonder our dreams are being overshadowed by the reality we live in. She goes on to portray “a head/ like a Faberge egg on the longest, most elegant neck” (9-10). She compares the face of perfection to Peter Carl Faberge’s most renowned work, his golden jeweled eggs. How much more outlandish can we get? And yet we imagine this to be how we should look, and spend the rest of our lives trying to

How many times a day do you make choices? Too many to count some would say, you made a choice just now to think about if you wanted to count how many times you made choices. Sometimes you have a choice and other times you do not. Most times you only get stuck with one choice and you have to deal with it. In addition, it might not be the choice or decision you would have hoped for but you go with it. A choice is making a decision between two or more possibilities. In the poem, Choices by Nikki Giovanni she writes a very short but meaningful poem about decisions and choices that she makes. Giovanni wrote this poem in the year of 1978; the year her father passes away. Throughout the poem Giovanni expresses her need to feel conform

Giovanni gives us a mental image of a mother’s love for her child saying that “the tears from my birth pains created the Nile.” For all the mothers whose been through the pain during birth has put their sweat and tears into everything in order to make their child the best they can be. As Nikki Giovanni puts it, African women are the creators of the world. Giovanni writes, “I am a beautiful woman,” which will hopefully lift women up and give them a voice of their own. If women are able to stick together and not bring each other down, then this will prove what Giovanni has been speaking about throughout her poem.

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.

The woman being described in Maxine’s poem is confident in her own skin, where Maxine says, “The woman I am in my dreams, is taller than I am, she sees the world as she walks” this suggests that the woman always has her head up high and takes in the world as she walks. The woman wears red “spike heels” and “that woman walks only when she feels like not running, not jogging” would suggest the woman is physically capable of both running and walking. The verse “they don’t hide under long skirts; her legs and feet are well” would elude that the woman in the poem isn’t afraid to show off her legs which would support the idea that she is physically able.

And it's hard not to pay attention. Ernestine Johnson’s, The Average Black Girl conveys her message about how black women are seen in society compared to what they are like in reality through a historically, cultural form of spoken word. Instead of just giving a speech, Johnson’s use of poetic cadence allows for dramatic interruption and build that

Just as poetry is a permanent mark of feelings that last forever on paper, tattoos are permanent symbols that last forever on the skin. Tattoos and poetry can easily be combined such as in Kim Addonizio’s sonnet, “First Poem for You,” the speaker admires her partner’s nature themed tattoos in a darkened room. This may seem to be a simple poem, but by utilizing tattoos as symbols, including tactile and visual imagery in her poem, and using the sonnet as her structure, Addonizio laments about the true meaning of relationships and their longevity.

After a complete analysis of “Beauty” by Tony Hoagland, there are multiple ways he succeeds in writing a meaningful poem. Each of the literary devices used played an important role in perfecting his poem. Hoagland did an excellent job at sending a message and his tone played an important role in making the message more sincere. Hoagland's use of imagery, figurative language, and personification made his poem more entertaining to read. Throughout this poem, Tony Hoagland shows that beauty, along with poetry, goes deeper than the

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 poem Ego Tripping, Nikki Giovanni uses the voice of a woman speaker who is strong, proud and independent.The word “ego- trip” describes an act of behaving in a self-seeking manner(“Ego- Trip”). Therefore, this is one of the main messages the poem tries to send across to its readers.Although Giovanni targets this poem at an audience of men and women of color, she also aims this poem at herself. She tries to see the good inside of herself. Giovanni inculcates the themes of Religion, Identity, and Africa into her poem. Although Nikki Giovanni penned this poem in 1972, when racial discrimination was at its peak, its messages are still very useful to us even today. The world today, is not much different from 1972.

Giovanni brilliantly uses the literary devices of imagery, paralleled repetition and symbolism to depict a vivid journey of transformation, concluding with an exquisite moment of self-realization.

Although embracement or celebrations of this stereotypically black feature may empower these women who reverse or redirect the hegemonic gaze that had been centered on their backsides for so long, these Eurocentric derived presumptions and idealizations of female blackness, nevertheless, remain. However, attempts to redefine these social constructions, while accentuating this feature Beyoncé refers to as “bootylicious,” has transformed beauty industries and ideas of sexual desirability which “subverts social hierarchies and normalcy” (Hobson 88). These redefinitions of beauty, more specifically, black beauty, from the “grotesque, carnivalesque body,” (Hobson 88) seeks “a healthier body image than their white counterparts” who are exclusively depicted as slender and petite (Durham 36-37). Thus, black women begin to visualize their own bodies and other black women bodies in ways that lead to non-sexualized, non-deviant conclusions. Challenging these “controlling images,” as Patricia Hill Collins identifies in Hobson’s article, only “unmirrors” black femininity and its history, a term Hobson cited from black artist and theorist, Lorraine O’Grady, because in order to “name ourselves rather than be named we must first see ourselves” (89). She later adds

Lyrical Ballads were written in a time of great change. They were dominated by the French Revolution and both Wordsworth and Coleridge felt great impact from this. There was disruption all over with the American War of Independence and other wars worldwide. Britain itself was changing rapidly due to colonial expansion, which brought new wealth, ideas and fashion, and there was much disturbance to both the people and the land with the act of enclosure, which may have meant more effective farming but less work. The introduction of the Poor Laws meant that landowners paid their remaining staff very little knowing that they would be supplemented by poor relief. However the conditions stated by the Laws before aid would be given were very

Nikki Giovanni uses free verse, hyperbole, and symbolism in her poems, Nikki- Rosa, Ego Tripping, The Beep Beep Poem, and Kidnap Poem. Her style is to make the audience to create a descriptive picture and a deep understanding of Nikki’s perspective of her life of being a Black- American, which she didn’t let the color of her skin stop her from dreaming, creating her own imaginative life in her poet’s world.

The duration of Maya Angelou’s life saw African Americans being looked down upon by and oppressed by whites. People like Angelou weren’t seen as equals or professionals that strived for success which is something Angelou greatly defends in poetry. Angelou believes that anyone can be successful and prosper with hard work regardless of the color of their skin. In the poem “Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition,” Angelou depicts a day in the life of an African American shoe shiner in Times Square, and a white man’s pity and refusal to support the shoe shiner’s business which can relate to all. In her poem “Times-Square-Shoeshine-Composition”, Angelou creates a distinct speaker’s voice using sound elements and structural variations to prove that African Americans can achieve success and prosperity despite being looked down upon.