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.