The Women Of Plums Poem

Nichols uses humour as the main deconstructive strategy to be an efficient tool for subverting the myths that have oppressed black women. The woman’s body acquires relevance, as the poems focus on a black immigrant woman within a context of white supremacy. Nichols creates persona who she uses to represent the black female body and she constitutes a challenge to black women’s objectification in the Western (British) society, in which she is exiled. The writer occasionally speaks in the first person, has no name, so the third-person poetic voice refers to her as ‘the fat black woman’. The fat black woman refuses to be a victim and, therefore, rejects all the traps laid by racist and sexist society by means of stereotypes that aim at constricting her into limiting roles. It is her that

During the years of the 1920 's through the early 1930 's, African Americans established themselves artistically, culturally and socially. This intellectual period was known as the Harlem Renaissance. The period of the Harlem Renaissance brought together black authors, musicians, and poets. One of the most notable poets of this era was Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes is considered one of leaders of this period. He 's famously known for his controversial bodies of work. One of the most controversial poems created by Hughes is his poem called "Silhouette". Silhouette was written in 1936, where racial segregation and prejudice was emphasized. What makes this piece of work so controversial is how the tone within the poem takes a drastic turn when the speaker and gender are changed. This paper will analyze the ambiguous meanings of the poem once the speakers identity is transitioned.

Most poems, new and old, almost always have an important message to teach to all those who take the time to read it. Authors use poetic devices to get their message across in creative, yet effective ways. For example, Mary Oliver carefully uses several poetic devices to teach her own personal message to her readers. Oliver’s use of the poem’s organization, diction, figurative language, and title aids in conveying the message of how small, yet vital oxygen is to all living and nonliving things in her poem, “Oxygen.”

The beginning of the poem starts off with African Americans going to the North and seeing faces that resemble theirs in Harlem. They are remembered of the hardships in the South but their aim is to get to the North where there is a better life. The key words “cotton and green pastures” show us the escape route that those of color are leaving to get a better life. The poem cites that “Cotton still stuck in their shoes, Zotts ! waiting to be shipped back to green pastures. The idea of escaping and moving away is in the determination to move on even though you are tired and dirty from the cotton stuck in the shoes waiting for many different opportunities.

All three of the poems discussed in this essay relate to the struggles suffered by African Americans in the late 18th century to the early 19th century in many different ways. They had to live under harsh

The poem sits easily on a page and is visually satisfying, although this is in part due to the visual rhymes previously mentioned. This appearance though is false as the poems content is analysed but reinforces the theme of appearance and reality in the 4th stanza. Again, the "controlled" use of structure can be seen as adding to the poems "passion" showing a masterful combination of the two. The repetition of and permutations on the line: "my heart is breaking for a little love" is another structure that reinforces the poems meaning and show the despair that the poem communicates. The move away from the 1st person in the last two stanzas serves to provide a different perspective on the emotions discussed allowing a broader view than if the whole poem was in the first person, again this use of structure emphasises the underlying emotions.

Despite being from different countries, time periods, and social statuses, poets Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Natasha Trethewey seem to have similar social views as seen in Browning’s The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point and Trethewey’s Enlightenment. An examination of A Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point by Elizabeth Barret Browning and Enlightenment by Natasha Trethewey demonstrate that Trethewey and Browning used poetry to express their dislike of racial prejudice and slavery relevant to their time.

Poetry is the creative means in which emotion is expressed through the literary art of rhythm, rhyme and repetition. Over time, the distinctive style of poetry has been altered to create great diversity branching from the traditional poetic style of writing. Missouri born author, Naomi Shihab Nye, provides a great example of a unique style of writing. Nye is a poet, songwriter and novelist whose style incorporates everyday objects in her writing to create a spontaneous, yet thoughtful connection between these everyday items and the reader. In the most basic form, Nyes’ poem is about fame. She implies that it is essentially “these little things that we overlook – all these everyday, seemingly unimportant things – are really what deserve

In order to occupy her child, the mother dresses her daughter up to go sing in the children’s choir at church in the fifth stanza. She brushes her hair, bathes her, and puts on her gloves and shoes. Randall appeals to the senses in this stanza; he uses a metaphor here to inform the reader a visual that the family is African American. She has “night-dark” hair and small brown hands. She is dressed in white and smells of sweet rose petals. The mother takes the girls mind off of the Freedom March and fixes it on the children’s choir. The tone is one of content. The sixth stanza is a

The sound of poetry is the most important element than anything else involved with poetry. The sounds of poetry are basically a foundation of desire. It is how the syllables are arranged in a pleasant-sounding pattern to satisfy and please desires even if they have a small meaning or no meaning to them. A poem that is filled with sound but little meaning can be “The Word Plum” by Helen Chasin. It is a poem that uses the sound devices of alliteration and onomatopoeia to bring the plum to life. Using alliteration and onomatopoeia it gives the plum a sound, a savory sound, it’s almost like you can taste and touch the plum in the palm of your hand and the sounds are just rolling off the tongue with every “delicious” bite of “luxury”. In the first line there is just a brief description of how delicious the plum is, but wait there is more. Then Chasin uses alliteration in (line 2) with the two words “pout and push” because they begin with p’s, they’re verbs, four letters, and are not capitalized. Chasin also uses onomatopoeia with the second line, same words “pout and push” to give a new sound of delicious from the first line, and to explain why the plum is so delightful. Once more, she uses alliteration in the third line using “self-love and savoring”; creating that delightful sound of juices from the plum.

Great writers convey their message without bluntly stating it to their audience. Hardy’s insightful poetry conjures the minds of his audience and encourages them to reflect on how inhumane the social classes were and how poorly women were treated without every saying it. Because of its’ simplicity and relatability Hardy’s clever use of an everyday conversation between two women is more powerful than any lengthy lecture or straightforward statement he could have given.

Naomi Nye may be different, but her poems are ones that can be related to by people who understand what she’s trying to say through her writing. Her most famous poems are about cultural differences, and critics may call her one of the best modern day poets. Nye references to herself as wandering poet, and she takes most of her inspiration from her culture, and little things that happen everyday that inspire her, and her poems tend to be lyrical poetry. Nye’s poetry utilizes personification in order to prove a deeper thematic idea by letting her readers see the world in her point of view.

Lady Mary Chudleigh employs symbolism in her poem to challenge conventional gender roles in marriage. “To the Ladies” consist of 24 lines of couplets with a rhyme scheme of AABBCC making the poem organized and structured: For when that fatal knot is tied, Which nothing, nothing can divide; When she the word obey has said, And man by law supreme was made, (3-8). The structure of her poem can be seen as a symbol of the importance of social structure during her period.

The queen In her starched lace And powdered wig Her white evening gown And gold and jewels Ran through the courtyard The yelling in the distance Reminded her Of the yelling In the streets That she had ignored Her white shoes Stained black with mud The dainty hem of her gown

For many centuries, poetry has been at the center of communication and expression. Poetry has progressed, and styles have changed. However, there are some concepts in poetry that have stayed consistent; every single poem contains a theme that readers can analyze. Poets use different methods to make sure that readers understand their themes. For example, poets may use a variety of imagery, repetition, structure, and history to achieve their purpose. One poet who exhaustively uses devices to reach her goal is Dolores Kendrick. Kendrick’s renowned book of poetry, The Women of Plums: Poems in the Voices of Slave Women, contains a multitude of poems that encapsulate exactly how it felt to be a woman and a slave. Kendrick incorporates a different