Joy Thompson

I chose this spoken word peace because shes speaking up against a problem that remained unspoken for years. She feels used because the boy that shes in love with is in love with her for a temporary time. This happens to a lot of females because they are used for their body and they don’t understand why boys will say they love you one day and ignore you the next week. The boys want you to be the girl who is committed to them,while they are committed to the game.

Alliteration Metaphor Onomatopoeia

From the poems that alysia harris writes, I can tell that shes a very emotional female, she has a warm heart. In her poem “Cab Rides and the Morning After” she starts her poem off with a transition that would normally be in the end. She starts off by saying “ Amen”, and to me i feel like she is continuing from the last poem she wrote. The message that it sends me is that true love and humanity is endless. Alysia stands up for herself and other females that need help walking through life. Shes the voice that breaks silence.

Maya Angelou - Still I Rise Maya Angelou was born on April 4th, 1928 in Missouri. As a teenager she loved to study dance, and art but she dropped out to become the first African American female to conduct cars. She soon had a son, Guy, and moved to New York to work as a Harlem Writer. She then moved to Cairo, Egypt to join the English language weekly. Dr.Angelou traveled all over the world. once she got back to the united states, Malcolm X was killed and MLK was killed on her birthday. It left her discouraged and devastated. She then wrote the book ” I know why the caged bird sings” The theme of “ Still I Rise” is having courage and having pride. Not giving up no matter how people treat you, or how hard life may be you must keep your head up at all times. Never let anyone see you fall. This poem is a lyric poem because it contains a lot of held in emotions, she doesn't care what everyone thinks of her because everyone doesn’t think the same way. She rises above all the racism, hurt, violence and criticism. The figurative language in the poem is mostly similes, metaphors and repetition.

Tupac Shakur- In The Event of My Demise Tupac Shakur was raised by his mother, and he didn't know his biological father until he was an adult. He had a stressful childhood growing up, and constantly moving throughout the Bronx of Brooklyn New York. Tupac took art, and dancing classes throughout his teenage years. When he moved to Baltimore is when he started rapping as the MC of New York. The theme of this poem is grief, and pain. Tupac grew up in a very violent neighborhood, this poem was trying to get us to realize the pain that he went through. His choice of words substitutes the language and the violence in the cities of america. The figurative language that was used in this poem was repetition. Tupac had a broken point in his life that he hasn't reached yet. But he knew that death was approaching him, so he kept repeating demise.

Emily Dickinson- We Grow Accustomed to The Dark Emily Dickinson was born on December 10th, During her childhood she did a lot of learning, reading, and religious activities with her poetry. That’s how she expressed herself. When she started to isolate herself from the outside world, everyone’s opinions gave her more reason to keep writing. Unfortunately, Emily died on May 15, 1886 and then thats when her poems started to publish. The theme of this poem was night and darkness. In the poem she said “When not a moon disclose a sign- Or star- come out-within”. She is writing about how shes felt throughout her life, she feels like shes been in the dark for way too long and shes learning how to overcome it. When she was alive, none of her work was noticed for its beauty ( which means she was in the dark). As soon as she passed away, every one of her poems were published. She finally overcame The figurative language that was used in this poem was alliteration, metaphor and repetition. She continued to say that there wasn't any light shining through her life at the time, but then again she says that no matter what you have to work through it. She never gave up on her writing.

Alice Walker- Women Alice Walker was born on February 9, As a child, her brother blinded her right eye playing a dangerous game. She soon became antisocial and shy because she was teased in school because of her scarred eye.The poems that she's written are based on the civil rights movement and her experience traveling around the world. The theme of this poem is courage and strength. When all the wars were going on and when all the violence was taking place we, women, took care of our own. How we knew so much while everyone was left clueless. The type of poem that she wrote is Cinquain. Cinquain is a poem that has no rhyme scheme but has a certain number of syllables in each line. The figurative language that i saw were metaphors.

Countee Cullen- Yet I Do Marvel Countee Cullen was born on May 30, He lost his mother and his brother so he was raised by his grandmother until she died when he was only 10 years old. He then moved with the ministers at his church. After high school at DeWitt Clinton High School he went to New York University then, he graduated with a masters from Harvard University. The theme of this poem is religion and courage in what you can do. In the first line he said “ I doubt not god is good, well-meaning, kind. And he stoop to quibble could tell why”. The figurative language that Countee Cullen used in this poem was repetition, and metaphor. I think he was motivated to write this poem because he’s reached all his life goals, including getting a masters degree so he had no way of being convinced that god hadn’t been good to him.