Reflection of the Introduction

Giovanni expresses her perception by using her feminist literary theory, historical events and leaders, emotion and racial opinions and events to establish herself as a poet and to establish her opinions. Giovanni is usually grounded to the historical era that she is referring to in her poems like the Civil Rights Movement of the assassination of Martin L. King or John F. Kennedy. She also isn't afraid to voice her opinion about how she feels towards a certain individual, a specific group or event. Giovanni's writing always represents a struggle and an emotion that is provoked. Giovanni also most importantly tells the truth. The majority of Giovanni's writings have allusions of historical events and eras and emotion. The allusions usually associate with the struggle with Africans and African-Americans regarding their lack of freedom and being oppressed by the oppressor. Giovanni has an overflow of her emotion in her writings because she wants to not only tell the truth in her writing, but to express her perception, for example, about President Johnson. The reason why she didn't like President Johnson was because after Kennedy was assassinated, she would hate any other President that replaced him. Giovanni's emotions were always expressed in her poems because Giovanni rather express the way she feels versus not expressing her emotions at all. Giovanni believes emotions and connections to the true realities is true art. Giovanni always uses allusions of historical events to express her feelings towards the struggle and the fight for freedom and liberation like the Punic Wars and the Civil Rights Movement. She also expresses her feelings towards the struggle and fight for liberation and independence in women. She considers the gender role of a woman versus a man and how that plays in society.

Woman

Woman
CC: http://poefrika.blogspot.com/2007/03/woman-by-nikki-giovanni.html

Giovanni uses universal gender roles, the motif of "plants" and the motif of "want" to capture the female perspective of trying to achieve independence and liberation.  When one thinks of the title of the poem, Woman, one thinks that the poem will be in a feminist theory perspective. The tone of the poem is judgmental, which is Giovanni expressing her critical opinions about men and women and at times disdainful, which expresses Giovanni’s scornful attitude towards males. The style of the poem is organized in six stanzas, but free verse and occasionally couplets. To the reader, the speaker is Giovanni’s perception of the male and female. Giovanni conveys the tone of disdainful in the first stanza by stating, “she wanted to be a blade of grass amid the fields but he wouldn’t agree to be the dandelion.” Giovanni expresses that the female wanted to be a blade of grass amid the fields, which means she wanted to be the strength of the plant and the male wouldn’t agree to be a dandelion. When the one thinks of a plant, one thinks about growth and development. This suggests that since the male didn’t want to be the dandelion, he didn’t want to be seen as less dominate than the female who is the blade of grass amid. Giovanni shifts the tone from disdainful, to judgmental, when she says, “she spun herself into a web and     looking for a place to rest.” This suggest that the female is no longer free and instead is becoming submissive to the male and becomes trapped. In the end, this is what the male wanted. Giovanni also says, in the end, “she decided to become a woman and though he still refused to be a man she decided it was all right.” Giovanni declares that the female finally decided to not get married and instead become free and independent.

Fascinations

Fascinations 
CC: Well I don't have a hyperlink but I will type the poem below.

Fascinations ~ Nikki Giovanni

finding myself still fascinated

by the falls and rapids

i nonetheless prefer the streams

contained within the bountiful brown shoreline

i prefer the inland waters

to the salty seas

knowing that journeys end

as they begin

the sailor and his sail

the lover and her beloved

the light of day and night’s darkness

i walk the new york streets

the heat rising in waves

to singe my knees

my head is always down

for i no longer look for you

usually i am cold no matter

what the temperature

i hunch my hands in the pockets of my pants

hoping you will be home

when i get there

i know i’m on dangerous ground

i misread you smile all year

assured that you and therefore everything

was all right

i wade from the quiet

of your presence into the turbulence

of your emotions

i have now understood a calm day

does not preclude a stormy evening

con edison after all went out

why should you

and though it took longer than anyone thought

the lights did come back on

why shouldn’t yours

electricity is a product of the sea

as much as the air

coming from turbulence

as much as generators

if you were a pure bolt

of fire cutting the skies

i’d touch you risking my life

not because i’m brave or strong

but because i’m fascinated

by what the outcome will be

Giovanni uses the duality between the light of the day and the darkness of the night, the motif of “water” and emotion to capture her fascination in regards to life. As the reader, when one thinks of the title Fascination, one thinks of being intensely interested at whatever one is focusing on. To the reader, Giovanni is the speaker. The tone throughout the poem is lyrical, which expresses her emotional and inner feelings and reflective, which illustrates her innermost thoughts. The poet’s style is free-verse and not rhyme, but Giovanni does clearly provide five, organized stanzas. The motif of “water” was used to symbolize emotion. Giovanni constantly uses the motif of “water” to express her fascination with life and its jovial times, gloomy times and its trials. Giovanni opens with the first stanza with, “I nonetheless prefer the streams contained within the bountiful brown shoreline, I prefer the inland waters to the salty sea.” This expresses Giovanni’s reflective tone and highlights that she is constantly fascinated with nature. She also says “the sailor and his sail, the lover and her beloved the light of day and night’s darkness.” This again expresses Giovanni’s reflective tone and highlights the duality between the light of the day and the darkness of the night. The importance of the duality was to convey the light and dark merging together like the lover and her beloved and the sailor and his sail. Giovanni then shifts the tone from reflective to lyrical when she says, “I know I’m on dangerous ground, I misread your smile all year assured that you and therefore everything was all right.” This expresses her fascination with someone and not something and to also express her inner feelings for the person she is mostly fascinated about.  Throughout the poem, Giovanni’s message to the reader was to convey that one should always take risk and go through different experiences to know what life has to generate and the aftermath.

Life Cycles

Life Cycles
CC: http://www.afropoets.net/nikkigiovanni13.html
Giovanni uses similes, repetition, the motif of dark and black and the motif of secrets to capture the gender role and racial role of a black female. Giovanni, to the reader is the speaker in Life Cycles. The title Life Cycles has the reader thinking that life is a cycle. Cycles repeat and have a series and sequence that people create for themselves. The tone expressed in the poem is gloom because it is a dark atmosphere. Giovanni begins the poem with, “she realized se wasn’t one of life’s winners when she wasn’t sure life to her was some dark dirty secret that like some unwanted child too lat for an abortion was to be borne alone.” Giovanni explains that the female that she is referring to isn’t lucky in life and that life is a struggle itself. The simile in the first stanza declares that the female that she is referring to has a child and she feels alone. The word alone is in one line of the first stanza to focus on the harsh reality of the black female that she is uncared for and unaided. Giovanni also uses the motif of black and dark by saying, “in the dark sadness is not an unusual state for the black woman or writers”. Giovanni expresses that sadness, gloom and depression is the normal state of the female black woman that she is referring to. She also expresses that life is cruel. Giovanni also declares the gender role of a female and the racial stereotype of a black female is to resist, fight and to always be miserable. In the end, Giovanni says, “she boxed her life like a special private seed planting it in her emotional garden to see what weeds would rise to strangle her.” Giovanni ends with declaring that the female put away her like a seed that needs plating. This means that her problems that need to be fixed, needs to blossom. The weeds represent the horrible people in her life or the trials in life.

Crutches

Crutches
CC: http://www.afropoets.net/nikkigiovanni18.html

Giovanni uses universal gender roles, descriptive words and problems to describe stereotypes. Since the title of the poem is Crutches, Giovanni suggest that the poem would mean supporting someone or that something is saving the targeted group of people of person. The tone of the poem, Crutches, is judgmental to express her critical opinion and sometimes shifts to condescension to express her feeling of superiority. As the reader, we would guess that Giovanni is the speaker, based on Giovanni's feminist perspective. The pattern of the poem is ironically perfect and organized stanzas. Giovanni still expresses her poems in free-verse format. Giovanni opens the poem with, "it's not the crutches we decry, it's the need to move forward, though we haven't the strength". Giovanni suggests that as a person or a group of people,  it is the need to advance and develop, but we lack strength and perseverance. Giovanni then shifts the tone of the poem as judgmental when she says, "women aren't suppose to be strong so they develop social smiles and secret drinking problems and female lovers whom they never touch except in dreams." Giovanni suggests that women are supposes to be gentle and not strong. This also suggests that women smile to hide their emotion. In society, the gender role of a woman is to be gentle and to basically be a perfect wife. To the reader, that stanza expresses the group of people are hurting themselves by trying to be accepted in the society by social stereotypes. Giovanni makes another stereotype about woman when she says, "and female lovers whom they never touch except in dreams". This expresses that women drink to hide their troubles and to tell themselves that they are inferior and less strong than men. Giovanni makes a judgmental remark when shifting the focus on another group of people, which are men. She says, "men are suppose to be strong, so they have heart attacks and develop other women who don't know their weaknesses and hide their fears behind male lovers." Giovanni suggest that men have heart attacks. Heart attacks are known to be a disease of the athletes or people who have a lot of stress like work, which is suggesting that men are over-achievers. This is because men are seen in society as strong and not weak. This also suggests that men might need comfort and support to lessen their heart form being strained. Giovanni ends with the poem to declare that each group of people should not want to conform in society.

Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day

Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day
CC: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976851315

Giovanni uses analogies to compare the era and elements of the 1970s, colors to reflect the emotion and a specific tone and repetition of the word change, the phrase "Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day" and loneliness. The tone conveyed through throughout the poem is reflective by describing the drastic change during the 1970s. The pattern of the poem is complete stanzas, but Giovanni never rhymes and instead writes as a free-verse. Giovanni, to the reader, is the speaker. Giovanni opens the poem with, "Don't look now/I'm fading away, Into the gray of my mornings/Or the blues of every night." Giovanni describes herself as vanishing into the color of morning and night. Giovanni uses the colors of gray and blue to shift the mood to gloomy. Giovanni then says, "It seems no matter how I try I become more difficult to hold, I am not an easy woman to want." She expresses her emotion and feminist theory perspective of the difficulty to be loved in a relationship sense. Giovanni provides her female perspective on how it is difficult to be in love or in a relationship. We as the reader notice that she capitalizes "I" when she begins to express her emotion or perception. This may suggest to the reader of her arrogance and self-pride. She then suggest to the reader in the next stanza that, "They have asked the psychiatrist    psychologist   politicians and social workers/What this decade will be known for/There is no doubt   it is loneliness." The allusion created is the jobs that change and help people create a thematic topic of hope and wisdom they will provide for the people. She ends the stanza with the allusion creating loneliness. Loneliness is constantly repeated to highlight that loneliness is having emptiness. This suggests that loneliness isn't new for whatever group of people Giovanni is targeting. Towards the end of the poem, Giovanni shifts the tone as optimistic about hope and change. Giovanni repeats the word change constantly throughout the 10th and 11th stanza. Change is used to promote the meaning of transformation and morph oneself into a different person. Giovanni says, "Or perhaps But whatever you do change /Something needs to change/Everything   some say    will change, I need a change of pace   face   attitude and life/Though I long for my loneliness." Giovanni suggest to the reader another theme of/one will have to change in order to grow and mature. In Giovanni's perspective, Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day highlights specific and alluding word to portray different parts of life. The title conveys a duality of sweet and happiness versus gloom. The cotton candy represents the sweet and happy times in your life while, the rainy day represents the miserable times of life.

A Very Simple Wish

A Very Simple Wish
CC: http://books.google.com/books?id=e9tpFY2cmCAC&pg=PA172&lpg=PA172&dq=a+very+simple+wish+nikki+giovanni&source=bl&ots=r-sUREUpRl&sig=tYJWAHk_VmvDRknatpbsHoxpNHc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cQznUITBFpCE8AT634HYDA&ved=0CF8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=a%20very%20simple%20wish%20nikki%20giovanni&f=false
Giovanni uses simile, repetition and many different expressions to covey the motif of "want" to capture the tone of reflective and fanciful. As the reader, we guess that Giovanni is the speaker, since it is describing what she personally wants. Giovanni's reflective tone highlights the poem as Giovanni illustrating her innermost thoughts and emotion when she introduces the poem with the first stanza. The beginning of the first stanza is, "i want to write an image, like a log-cabin quilt pattern and stretch it across all the lonely people who just don't fit in." Giovanni starts the poem with the motif of "want" and a simile to capture that she wants to create a picture or different image as dynamic as a quilt. Like a quilt and in life, we have panels that capture a different experience. Giovanni also declares that the misfits will be apart of her quit, alluding to the fact that the lonely people are never included in America. Giovanni's fanciful tone highlights the poem as Giovanni using her imagination to express her want for diversity, equality and peace. She uses the repetition of the phrase "if i do that", to end with what she described she would do to save the world in her perception. Giovanni must importantly describes in the fourth stanza that it is easier to touch by fighting or in violence than it is to use your touch for loving and respecting other people. In her perception, she wants to create a stew of diversity. With the leftover stew, she could probably end world hunger. Giovanni closely ends the poem with "i want to make a quilt of all the patches and find one one pole to lift it up". Giovanni still uses the motif of "want" to want to make a quilt that creates the picture and image of the strength of her people. She ends the poem with"want to play". Giovanni leaves the reader with an open-ended question. She asks the reader if they would like to join the "game" that is being played. The "game" can interpreted in different ways. In this case, the reader would interpret that Giovanni has an idealist mind to build a new world. She, in the end is asking the reader if they would like to join her movement into innovation.