Possum Crossing Essay

275 Words2 Pages
Possum crossing is a poem written in 2003 by writer Nikki Giovanni. In this poem, Giovanni is trying to send out a message about the way the poor are treated in our society. The lady in this poem corresponds to a high class or well off person in our society and the animals correspond to the poor or lower class. In this poem, it is showing how the high class ignores the ones subordinate than them. The attitude of this poem is clam. Giovanni does not use any harsh words all throughout the poem. Though what she does do in the poem is use many descriptive words to display her feelings. Giovanni uses many types of poetic devises to achieve her point. She includes ellipses’ to indicate pauses in between the sentences. These ellipses are there for the reader to stop and think about what is trying to be said. Giovanni uses ellipses in line 9-10 and 22-23. In addition to ellipses’, Giovanni also uses capitalization to draw attention or emphasis in the poem. In line 11, Giovanni capitalizes “POSSUM CROSSING”. The purpose if this was to show how little attention is paid to the poor. It shows that people have to put up a sign showing that this world is not entirely about one person and that everyone shares the world with other people. In this poem, Giovanni has come clean about her feelings about the society she lives in. She believes that the world is for everyone to share and people need to know that. Giovanni believes that no one should be ignored and that everyone should be treated
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