Nikki Giovanni's The Poem for Saundra: Analysis

The poem “For Saundra” by Nikki Giovanni is a poem that really caught my attention because while reading it, it felt as if I can compare it to one of my own piece of writings. The poem “For Saundra” uses the literary thoughts of imagery and symbolism to see a different journey of transformation, also including a moment of self-realization. It is like one of those funny poems that not only include sarcasm but at the same time it is also self-spoken.

Analysis of the Poem

Nikki Giovanni stated, “I’ll write a beautiful green tree poem/ peeked from my window”, and Giovanni followed up with the phrase, saying, “noticed the school yard was covered with asphalt/ no green – no trees grow/ in Manhattan”. Is there any valid reason why she wouldn’t have quite recently contemplated the substance of the poem before she began composing? Giovanni wants to write poetry about beauty, however she is still in the process of discovering what to write about. Poetry can be perceived in a variety of ways in order to be poetry, it can come from emotions, behavior, and perspectives.

Nikki Giovanni repeatedly expresses this action in her piece of writing. In the beginning of the poem Giovanni states, “I wanted to write/ a poem/ that rhymes/ but revolution doesn’t lend/ itself to be-bopping”. From the start Giovanni admits that her thought of how poetry is expressed is changing, forcing her to lose faith in her way of expressing not only her feelings but her way of thinking. Furthermore, Giovanni’s most important words finish her poem because it gives her reason why she struggled. Her last three stanzas were “perhaps these are not poetic/times/at all” earlier she stated “but all the clouds have winged/low since no-Dick was elected” no-Dick is Richard Dixion and he was elected in the late 60s. This was a time period where America was not at its best. This was Giovanni imposed that it was not a good poetic time.

The poem “For Saundra” uses the literary thoughts of imagery and symbolism to see a different journey of transformation, also including a moment of self-realization. Nikki Giovanni expressed this self-realization by showing us how much of what was going on in our country impacted her way of living life, it was a hectic time. Even though this social change was forcing her to lose faith in her way of expressing not only her feelings but her way of thinking the effort to reach out to oppose the stigmatization. This influenced Nikki Giovanni to write such a poem which showed people how this impacted her train of thought on being able to write poetry at the time.