17 pages • 34-minute read
Poem For A Lady Whose Voice I Like
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Themes
Female Creativity
When critiqued about her work and “talent” (Line 1), the female speaker responds by telling the story of creation in her own voice. This aligns her with the power of creation as she alludes to one of the oldest creation myths in history. At the same time, “she said: god created heaven and earth / and all that’s Black within them” (Lines 4-5), which also identifies her as part of creation. It reminds the reader that creativity is free and, according to the Bible, all people are part of God’s creation and ergo worthy of respect.
She also alludes to the fact God made chitterlings. Traditionally, women would be the ones expected to make or prepare food. When God sees that the chitterlings are “good” (Lines 10-11), he may be praising the work of women as well as his own work.
In the third retort to the man’s accusations, the woman replies:
then he took a big Black greasy rib
from adam and said we will call this woeman and her
name will be sapphire and she will divide into four parts
that simone may sing a song (Lines 15-18).
This retelling reminds the man of the way women were created in the Bible. Her calling the rib “greasy” (Line 15) is a subtle dig at men, comparing them to sub-par food. At the same time, she elevates women, saying that they were made and divided so that “simone may sing a song” (Line 18). This references Nina Simone and her song “Four Women.” In the song, Simone describes four archetypal Black women: Aunt Sarah, who is a maternal figure; Saffronia, who is the daughter of a white father and Black mother; Sweet Thing, a sex worker; and Peaches, who is streetwise and bitter from living a tough life.
This allusion to Simone and her “Four Women” suggests that God made all different types of women, and therefore all types are valid. God also made Nina Simone, which bulwarks the poem’s argument that women are made to create and express, even if men criticize them.
Male Attempts to Silence Women
Historically, women have been silenced by male criticism. Men are often the gatekeepers who elevate voices they approve of and squash voices they consider unflattering or inferior.
By using the pronouns “he” and “she” in the poem, rather than giving each character a name, the poem considers men and women more abstractly. It doesn’t seem that the male speaker has any purpose except to stifle the “she” and put her down. He has an oppressive voice, and his only aim is to stop the woman from expressing herself. The woman, by contrast, tells the story of creation, demonstrating her nature as a cosmic creator.
The attacks the male speaker makes on the female speaker are based on negative attitudes toward women. He claims she is only getting attention because she has a “face” (Line 2), i.e., because she is attractive. He says the “white folks” (Line 12) are “under / [her] skirt” (Lines 12-13). This is a demeaning way of claiming that she is debasing herself to other people for their attention. His attitude represents tropes and critiques that typically only apply to women. Men are not often accused of using attractiveness or sexuality to get ahead in the world, whereas women are often blamed for or accused of this kind of behavior.
The male speaker may be jealous of the woman because of her talent, or he may have legitimate critiques, but it is clear his main intent is to put her down, not to teach, train, or offer constructive feedback. He uses language that degrades her in a gendered way to attack her not for her work but for her being. It is a personal attack that he uses to try to silence her. The speaker goes on speaking as a way of showing she will not be cowed.
Self-Possession and Self-Esteem
One of the tactics Giovanni uses in this poem is to present the voice of the female speaker against the voice of the male speaker. It does not represent a typical conversation in which one person responds directly to the accusations of the other. Instead, the female speaker makes her own speech alongside his speech, as though she is not fully listening to him, but rather speaking to a different audience. It gives the impression that she does not feel the need to take his accusations seriously and is purposefully ignoring him.
This demonstrates self-possession and the speaker’s sense of self-esteem. It is her effective alternative to a more combative stance. In a situation where most people might feel compelled to argue back, this speaker chooses to persist through the critique rather than respond to it.
In the final two lines, the female speaker does respond to the make speaker directly, saying, “show me someone not full of herself / and i’ll show you a hungry person” (Lines 20-21). The poem demonstrates this ethos. When the woman does directly respond to the male speaker, it calls attention to her earlier decisions not to directly respond.
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