Love: “Ballad”
The speaker in “Ballad” is mature and has profound familiarity with love. The speaker contemplates that her discernment of love cannot be comparable to the addressee’s for the addressee is youthful and naive. The speaker says, “ forgive me if I laugh/you are so sure of love/ you are so young/ and I too old to learn love.” For the addressee, who the speaker refers to ‘heiress’, love is a dream that she is yet to live. The addressee’s conviction about love is due to her contracted acquaintance.
Legendary Talent: “A Poem for Ella Fitzgerald”
Sonia Sanchez particularizes Ella Fitzgerald’s endowment in “A Poem for Ella Fitzgerald.” Fitzgerald’s voice was so commanding that people considered her as a queen. People wondered, “ whose voice is climbing/up this morning chimney smoking with life/ carrying her basket of words.” Ella mesmerized her audiences through her voice. People were moved by Fitzgerald’s songs as Sanchez notes, “she became Ella, /first lady of tongues.” The metaphors: queen and ‘first Lady of Tongues” uphold that Ella was renowned.
Learning: “This Is Not a Small Voice”
“This Is Not a Small Voice” underlines the noteworthiness of learning. The speaker decrees, “This is not a small love/you hear this is a large/love, a passion for kissing learning/on its face.” The longing for learning is a dominant voice among the blacks, for it means that they are hankering for empowerment. Learning is a cascade that would cultivate ingenuity among black people.
