Power Point Presentation POETRY ANALYSIS by jj nathan Room 18 10/28/12 Nikki Giovanni Ego Tripping vs. Emily Dickinson Discovering Poetry

Quotations of Nikki Giovanni & Emily Dickinson

Ego Tripping (there maybe a reason why) Nikki Giovanni “I was born in the Congo I walked to the Fertile Crescent and built the sphinx I designed a pyramid so tough that a star That only glows every one hundred years falls Into the center giving divine perfect light I am bad”

Emily Dickinson The Word is DEAD! “A word is dead When it is said, Some say, I say it just Begins to live That day.”

Poetry Comparison/Contrast Nikki and Emily are both women so they are similar in their focus on relationships and that love is one of the most important aspects of the human situation. Nikki was focused that fact that black Americans were being still treated unfairly in every aspect of the American society you could name. She felt that revolution by the black man and woman was being called for and believed in the rights of every human being. Emily was more interested in her personal relationship with God, her relationships with two different men that she couldn’t marry, and she studied Nature and for some reason insects. Some people think she might have been left at the altar is the reason she never married.

Comparing and Contrasting the Lives of Nikki and Emily Nikki’s Biography Nikki Giovanni lived in the 1960’s when Black Power Movement and The Black Panthers were fighting for the rights of African Americans who had previously been called: niggers, Negroes, and then were being called BLACK people. Other people who were fighting at this time were: Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King , Jr., Malcolm X., and many others.

Comparing and Contrasting the Lives of Nikki and Emily Emily Dickinson’s Biography Emily Dickinson grew up in New England, attended an all girls school, cooked, sewed, and was also known as a sad child. Emily Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachusetts, on December 10, 1830. She seemed to have fallen in love with two different married men and one died and the other was a Pastor of a Presbyterian Church. She went into seclusion only wearing white, doing household tasks writing poems and sending her poems with a cherry pie or batch of cookies as a gift to friends and family. She told her family to destroy her poems after she died, but they did not follow her instructions instead they took the neat little bundles of poems and letters and had them published, so she never knew she was famous. Thank heavens; because the world would have missed a genius that has become one of my most favorite female poetess.

NIKKI and EMILY: Illustrations & Biographies By looking at the facial expressions in these two pictures, it appears that they were very different in their approaches to their lives and poetry. Obviously Nikki is a black woman in the 20th Century and Emily is a white woman in the 19th Century. I think that Emily did not struggle with the outside social world but rather with her internal challenges. Nikki , on hand, was focused on the world outside of herself first and then with her inner self later in life. Both women are highly respected commentators on the strangeness of human nature.

WHO IS THE WINNER. OF THIS CHALLENGE. It is a tie, because I WHO IS THE WINNER OF THIS CHALLENGE? It is a tie, because I cannot chose a favorite. Nikki is the fighter. Nikki is the famous revolutionary, while she is alive. Nikki did not like injustice. Nikki was seeking for her identity. Emily is the lover. Emily did not like the public. Emily was seeking for her soul.

MY COPY CAT POEM I am the field of flowers “I was born in a field I walked to the wet and marshy land and built a barn I designed a tractor so tough that in a field that is full of flowers That only bloom every one hundred years I drove Into the center it gave the world divine perfect blossoms I am the earth.” jj nathan

THEMES of EMILY and NIKKI POETRY Nikki’s themes appear to be: Afro-American Pride and Afro-American History and Love of Self and others with Black History and Pride. Black Feeling, Black Talk (1967) Black Judgement (1968) Ego-Tripping (1973) Love Poems (1997) Quilting the Black-Eyed Pea: Poems and Not Quite Poems (2002) Bicycles: Love Poems (2009) (William Morrow) 100 Best African American Poems (2010) Emily is known for the main theme s of God, Nature, Love, life and death. She is preoccupied with these ideas as you can see from some of the titles: A Bird Came Down the Walk I Died for Beauty Because I Could Not Stop for Death I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died I Am Nobody! Who are You? Hope is a Thing with Feathers

Citations of Sources The Language of Literature: World Literature Mc Dougall Littell Emily Dickinson Poetry: Bing Images Wikipedia Encyclopedia: Nikki Giovanni

FINAL WORDS