Nikki Rosa

“Nikki Rosa”

Nikki Giovanni‘s poem “Nikki Rosa” reflects her childhood experiences.  The poem takes place in 1968 because that’s when all of her poems were published but the poem is initially referring back to her childhood. Along with the previous poem, Nikki Giovanni was writing during the civil rights movement. I believe this poem was written to her story. This poem wasn’t created to make someone feel bad or sad but to understand her struggle and how times have changed. I think the speakers message was trying to show how, you tend to understand something you have experienced for yourself, rather than trying to understand someone else’s struggle.  The structure of this poem is a little different from the other poems.  Instead of incoporating several stanza’s this poem was written as one big stanza and I think that  changed the context of the poem. Nikki Giovanni includes several of her family members in this poem, which shows how family oriented she was. There weren’t many big words used in this poem but she does mention the word ‘remember’ a lot. The tone of this poem gives off a proud attitude. I say this because; although Nikki Giovanni had a hard life she was still proud of her struggle and her childhood experiences.