Cotton Canday on a Rainy Day

In the poem " Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day" , Nikki Giovanni shows where she's fading away in the midst of her own world. The title of this poem gives the poem a very complex tone.However , I believe I took this poem from different perspectives. When kids are given cotten candy it is normally suppose to bring them happines or in some state of feeling better. Once cotten candy touches something wet or our salvia it dissolves.On a rainy day the cotten candy is destroyed or dissolved in the rain , and the cotten candy would eventually disappered or turn into a hard piece of candy. I think Giovanni was comparing herself to the cotten candy. On this rainy day she began to feel like she was fading away and everything around her seemed so gloomy.This also reflects the tone of this poem giving it a very sad and lonely attitude/tone.  The poet uses imagery to illustrate the way things occur in her life. She notes "  Things keep popping out on my face or of my life". The reader could imagine bumps popping out of her face to connect the idea of things falling out of her life.  Life seemed to be sweet but would soon turn into something negative because of the occurences in her life. Giovanni began to feel very transparent due to this gloomy day.

Fascinations

In the poem "Fascinations" , Nikki Giovanni explains her fascination of taking risk to only experience the outcome.  This poem is about Giovanni’s risk taking behavior and how she decides to take these risks because of the overall learning experience. A Fascination is a power to capture attention. From the title the reader can assume that the poem would be about what captures her attention the most. Giovanni begins the poem talking about her type of experiences. She writes “finding myself still fascinated by the falls and rapids I nonetheless prefer the stream”. This line shows where she much rather have an experience or journey instead of rushing through something without learning anything. The tone of this poem contains a lot of mixed emotions. In the poem Giovanni seemed to incorporate things pertaining to nature to convey her feelings. Her words were very ambiguous, which made the diction of the poem seem complex.  She displayed where she has experienced hurt, but she wasn’t afraid to try again in order to reach the outcome. The use of imagery, allegory and analogies were present in this poem. There particular Rhetorical Devices were very effective. For example the use of imagery was shown in the second stanza. “My head is always down for I no longer look for you”. The use of an allegory would be her comparison of the stream and taking things slowly. Overall the message that can be concluded from the poem says, “Because I’m fascinated by what the outcome will be”. Nikki Giovanni wasn’t afraid of life she wanted to take things slowly and experience the right and wrong things to do. However , no matter how risking the situation is her captured attention of power connects back to the outcome of the situation.

 

 

Woman

“She wanted to be a blade of grass amid the fields but he wouldn’t agree to be the dandelion”.  In the poem “Woman” Nikki Giovanni, highlights the significance of women and their role in ones life. The audience Giovanni speaks to would be society in general. This behavior is very common amongst various male and female relationships. The poem shows how a woman wants to be a man’s crutch , when he make it nearly impossible to do so. She wanted to grow but he wouldn’t be there to give her what she needed. “She spun herself into a web and looking for a place to rest turned to him but he stood straight declining to be her corner”. This line shows the lack of support the male gave Nikki Giovanni when she needed it the most. A spider isn’t able to survive without having a place to spin their web. The most prevalent rhetorical device used in this poem would an allegory. Most of Giovanni’s examples held a literal and a symbolic meaning. This also incorporates ambiguity, which could possibly confuse the reader as to what the speaker is trying to convey.  The tone of this poem is very critical. I say this because Giovanni finds fault in herself rather than the person who doesn’t show any care for her existence. In the end Nikki Giovanni, shows that she is will be there to the end regardless the of the outcome. “She decided to become a woman and though he still refused to be a man she decided it was all right”. This line and the overall message of this poem was to show how women experience so much and get treated terribly but still remains loyal until the end.

Life Cycles

In the poem “Life Cycles”, Nikki Giovanni talks about how her occurrences in life seem very continuous. The title connects back to things being continuous because of the word ‘Cycles’. A cycle is a repeated sequence of events.  I believe the poem is written from a 3^rd person point of view. The poet use the word ‘she’, which means it is spoken from a different point of view. Words like ‘dark’ and ‘sadness’ gives the poem an upsetting tone. The speaker talks about a hard life filled with darkness and negative behaviors. The poem then transitions to this young lady being around a boy that she liked and her mood changes. She’s no longer sad but nervous and anxious to be around this special individual. However, this made her life more frustrating than before. Giovanni closes the poems stating “she boxed her life like a special private seed planting it in her emotional garden to see what weeds would rise to strangle her”. This seem to show how she knew her feelings for anonymous lover, wasn’t how she should be feeling.  She wanted something in her life to capture her before she fell too deep. This is revealed when she talks about the weeds strangling her in the emotional garden. The rhetorical device that is used in this sentence would a personification.  The effect of the rhetorical device gives the reader an image and better understanding of obtaining something before it caught. The speaker wanted the reader to feel how strong the emotional connection was between her feelings and how she was suppose to feel , in order be to stay safe.

Cructhes

 A crutch is something providing help or support to somebody or something. It is used to help heal someone after they’ve been injured. In the poem “Crutches”, Nikki Giovanni speaks from both a male and female perspective. From that, one can assume the audience would be older women and men in the African American society.  I believe the message that is being conveyed in this poem would be the importance of needing someone or something in order to be strong. In the second stanza the poet talks about women and how they aren’t allowed to need help and be strong.  She notes, “Women aren’t allowed to need so they develop social smiles and secret drinking problems and females loves whom they never touch except in dreams”. This line basically shows the end result of women not being to show who they truly are. In the next stanza, Giovanni talks about men and the idea of being strong from their perspective.  After looking at both perspectives, it shows how men and women are emotionally different. Men worry more about their bodies while women worry about the importance of their emotions. The structure of this poem helps convey the message of this poem. In every stanza Giovanni gives a different example of how a crutch can be used. The male and female example of a crutch was expressed individually but last stanza brings everything back together. Nikki Giovanni says “emotional fall always are the worst and there are no crutches to swing back on”. This line brings together the emotional strength of the male and female perspective. It reveals that when you fall emotional no matter how strong you may seem there aren’t any crutches for you use to help keep you strong.

A Very Simple Wish

“ 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 we might make a world if I do that “. In the poem “A Very Simple Wish”, Nikki Giovanni illustrates her emotional side and care for the world to convey her message to society. The poem seems very personal, and one can assume the speaker is Nikki Giovanni. I believe the idea of the poem is about taking care of people around the world.  During this time it seemed to be a lot of lonely, hungry and evil people in the world. However, the people who have the necessities to survive are too selfish to extend a hand to cure the loneliness and feed the hungry. The first stanza in the poem highlights one of the main problems in the world today. (Quoted at the beginning) People have the tendency to judge people based off this they are unable to control and Nikki Giovanni wanted to change that. She believed the world would be a better place if we only got along. She uses “I want “a lot, which shows her ideal wishes as to what she would like to happen to the world. A wish is having a strong desire to want something or wanting something to happen. Giovanni held a strong desire to change the world and make it suitable for every individual’s lifestyle. The message that has been shown in this poem would be the idea of having a wish and being able express it , even if it doesn’t come true.

The Way I Feel

In the poem “The Way I Feel” Nikki Giovanni, expresses her emotions towards a special friend in her life. The title gives the reader a general idea about what Giovanni will be expressing throughout the poem. I assumed the speaker would be Nikki Giovanni, given that she uses words like “I’ve”, “I’m” and “I”, who can help give the reader an idea of the speaker.  This poem seemed to be written based off of the poets feelings at the moment. It seemed as if she has held these feelings in long enough and now she wanted to talk about how strong her feelings were towards this special individual. Giovanni uses a lot of metaphors to compare her feelings to various objects. For example she notes, “most time when you’re around I feel like a not Roberta flack is going to sing”. Roberta flack, is a famous jazz, R&B and folk singer , who has been recognized for her strong but peaceful music.  When Nikki Giovanni compared her feelings to this famous singer, one can assume her feelings were very strong for this individual but she was very content about it.  This poem has a very lyrical tone because it conveys the poet’s inner feelings or emotions. The tone reveals a lot about the poet’s attitude and feelings at this particular moment. The Rhetorical device in the poem gives an effect on the poet’s feelings of being happy with this person. Nikki Giovanni’s emotions were shown throughout the entire poem with just metaphors and her written language.