A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs. Long Analysis

Free verse always sounds so light and liberated and... well... free. But don't be fooled. While Giovanni doesn't have to abide by a strict formula for meter and rhyme, she has to use other devices...

We always want to be careful about identifying the speaker of the poem with the poet herself. But in this case, it really can't be avoided. Giovanni speaks of how she learned to love jazz, coffee,...

Don't be fooled by Giovanni's mention of Nashville in line 9 (where the radio station was located). The library and Mrs. Long were located in Knoxville, Tennessee. We know this because Giovanni men...

Our best advice to give you when dealing with a Nikki Giovanni poem is this: listen to her read and perform her poetry. While there doesn't seem to be a recording of this exact poem, you can still...

It might seem silly to discuss a title as self-explanatory as this one, but we like to leave no stone unturned. Giovanni uses her title as a dedication, telling us that she means to praise Mrs. Lon...

Giovanni has developed a signature style of poetry that leaps out at you from the page. Her goal is to take the emphasis off grammar and literary conventions and to keep us focused on the storytell...

This poem is a fairly straightforward recollection of an important childhood experience—without rhyme and all those pesky figures of speech that normally make poems a bit of a slog for readers. W...

Giovanni once told her parents that she wanted to visit her grandparents in Knoxville, TN—but really intended to stay there to attend high school. (Source.) Our poet has a "Thug Life" tattoo on h...

This poem gets appropriated for almost every sixth- through eighth-grade literature class in the U.S. It's also a reflection on her childhood love of reading. The only love affair going on here is...

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass (28)Alfred North Whitehead (28)C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe (46-50)JFG sign (4): Giovanni's grandparents' house in Knoxville would have...