For Women Who Are Difficult To Love By Warsan Rela Poem Analysis

For this alternative assignment, I listened to an assortment of poetry by Warsan Shire. I chose her for this assignment because of her subject matter and style. For most of her poetry, Shire speaks about love and what it means to be a woman in today’s world; in addition to, social problems such as the topic of refugees. As a fellow writer, I feel inspired by what she is accomplishing in the literary world. She uses her voice as an African American to give her poetry a specific flavor that speaks of the black experience. Overall, performance wise, her poetry is captivating. Shire is not at the level of the late Maya Angelou when it comes to the art of performing poetry rather than reciting it, but the way she articulates each line of each stanza breathes a life into her poetry. She becomes the voice of her poem as if she is the speaker in physical form. Despite her lack of physical representation; for instance, using gestures to enforce specific lines, her voice carries a softness that tells a story of hurt. An example of this is in her poem, “For Women Who are Difficult to Love” with a story of a journey through love and losing it all. This hurt is voiced in her poetry in words but the way she chooses to …show more content…
I agree it helps bring the poem to life but it limits the power the poem can have as well. To maximize the impact a poem can have is by reading the poem first and creating a personal interpretation before hearing the poet’s interpretation. By creating your own judgements, as an individual, you can see what you can take out of the poem. How the poem makes you feel and regard the world. Listening to the poet’s take on it limits the audience’s opinion on it. On later rereads, the audience will only see what the poet wanted you to see. Instead of creating your own voice for the poem, the audience will be stuck using the poet’s