listen,
you a wonder. you a city of a woman. you got a geography of your own. listen, somebody need a map to understand you. somebody need directions to move around you. listen, woman, you not a noplace anonymous girl; mister with his hands on you he got his hands on some damn body! |
Analysis:
“What the mirror said”, not unalike from “homage to my hips”, is a testimony to a “hard-won self-love” (1124 Norton Anthology). In this poem, which was published in her 1980 collection, Two-Headed Woman, “using the exclamatory style of a gospel song, Clifton infuses wit into a poem of self-affirmation” (72 Holladay). The inspiration from this poem comes from visiting her husband once, who was teaching at Harvard, and looking around the campus and noticing that it seemed “everyone there was eighteen, except me [Lucille Clifton]”. They were all thin and young, and she felt out of place; Clifton decided to write a poem about “being a woman in a world of girls” (23:33 youtube). “What the mirror said” depicts Clifton standing in front of a mirror and it speaking to her about her body. Full of sass and encouragement, this poem through and through speaks to the perfection and marvel of a woman’s body. The poem reads, “listen, you a wonder./ you a city of a woman./ you got a geography of your own./ listen, somebody need a map to understand you./ somebody need directions to move around you.”; these lines allude to every woman being different, but equally empowering and enticing in her own way. Stating, “listen, woman, you not a noplace anonymous girl;”, “what the mirror said” allows women to understand that they are seen, and that they can make a difference. Finally, this poem ends with the exclaiming of, “mister with his hands on you/ he got his hands on/some/damn/body!” These last few lines are a perfect ending to the already spirited poem because they tie in that sexual power and allure that some of her other well-known poetry expresses. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2014. Print. Holladay, Hilary. Wild Blessings: The Poetry of Lucille Clifton. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2004. Google Books. 2004. Web. 28 Apr. 2015. https://youtu.be/PPr6EOggzm0?t=1366 |