Poetic Element in the Poem Poetry by Nikki Giovanni - Essay Sample

The poem as suggested by the author is about poetry. The primary poetic element identifiable in the poem is imagery. The persona of the poem skilfully appeals to the reader's senses to deliver his conceptualization of what poetry entails. In the poem's first stanza, the persona makes it clear that poetry is as comfortable as the eyes can see, and that it only gets complicated as the reader makes it be. According to Marianne Moore's idea in the first stanza, understanding and getting to love poetry requires flexibility as the hair does to rise, the hands to grasp, and eyes to dilate. She uses imagery to craft this lines and the next (Moore, Marianne 710).

The persona goes further to describe the benefits of poetry to those who understand through imagery. According to the second stanza, a similar understanding is required to impute meaning to a bat hanging, an elephant pushing against a tree, a lazy wolf under a tree and so on. Her idea of what poetry entails is rightfully fetched (Moore, Marianne 710). She uses simple language and deliberately avoids diction to drive his point home. However, she does not fail to caution the reader about flexibility, which enables the reader to derive multiple meaning from a poem.

This poem made me think of poetry differently, and not as a deliberately complicated piece of literature. I the poem made me assent to Moores idea of poetry and creativity. What makes the poem even more interesting is the irony created by the first stanza. The author claims that flexibility is necessary to understand a poem and yet uses the simplest of terms to explain this.

Poetic Element in the Poem Poetry by Nikki Giovanni

Poetic Element- Personification

The poem is about poetry and the life of a poet. The author mainly relies on personification as the central poetic element to deliver his message. In the first stanza, she metaphorically describes poetry as a seamless process that is akin to a peaceful eye in a crowded place. She further claims that poems are evidence of speaking emotions behind a poet's life experience. Giovanni uses personification to describe poems as compelling pieces of literature waiting to be unleashed.

In the poem's second stanza, the author goes ahead to personify poetry by describing his relationship with the art. Despite her isolated morning hours trying to make a poem, the final product (poem) doesn't seem to satisfy (Giovanni, Nikki 711). She claims that poets would not stop even if they arrived at a perfect piece because they are beyond that, beyond love. Giovanni's idea about poetry seems to suggest authenticity concerning the author's emotions. According to her, to understand a poem one has to read it from the author's emotional perspective. In the first stanza she claims that their works are not always golden but stained with emotion, here, emotions are personified (Giovanni, Nikki 711).

To me, the poem is about the author's relationship with poetry. By looking at poems from her perspective, she ignores the diversity in poetry and thus provides a limited concept. Reading the poem, therefore, made me condescend the author's idea about poetry. I like the fact that he acknowledges the efforts and commitment required to create poems. However, that should not expose the poet to loneliness as suggested in the last stanza (Giovanni, Nikki 711).

Works Cited

Giovanni, Nikki. The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998. Harper Collins, 2009.

Moore, Marianne. Complete poems. Penguin, 1994.