Hips
In the poem “Homage to My Hips”, the hips are symbolic of femininity. The hips are huge, free, and mighty. The speaker is a woman who is proud of her body based on the adjectives that are used to describe the hips. The desires of the hips such as: “ don’t like to be held back”, and “have never been enslaved” are feministic. These desires embody the speaker’s inclination to be comfortable in her body regardless of the societal standards for ideal heap sizes.
“A Black Man Hanging from a Tree”
The symbol of a “Black Man Hanging from a Tree” appears in the poem “The Photograph: A Lynching”. The black man is symbolic of black oppression. Based on the title of the poem, the man has been lynched and the moment is captured in the lynching. The man’s situation is contrasted with the situation of the white woman that is described in the second stanza of the poem. The woman’s photograph is about to be taken, hence her situation is better than that of the black man. The two contrasting photographs, which are in the same album, underscores the ubiquity of racial inequality and the brutalization of black people.
The Motif of Lost women
The poem “The Lost Women” is about obscure women whose voices cannot be heard. What is more, the women do not have the chance to be in solidarity with each other, as men. The motif of the lost woman, explicates the obstacles that hamper sisterhood from flourishing among the women.
