"The Heart of a Woman" (Metaphors & Imagery)
In the poem "The Heart of a Woman," the speaker compares a woman's spirit to what type of creature?
A lone bird.
What does the bird in "Your World" represent?
Answer: The human soul or a person seeking freedom/potential.
In "The Heart of a Woman," the heart is given the human ability to do what with its dreams?
Answer: Try to forget them.
Johnson's poems often dealt with the limitations placed on which group of people?
Answer: Black women.
In "Smothered Fires," what is the metaphor "deep covered through the years with ashes" describing?
Answer: Suppressed pain or lost ambition.
What do the "sheltering bars" in "The Heart of a Woman" symbolize?
Societal constraints, limitations, or domestic captivity.
In the first stanza, what does the "narrowest nest" represent?
Answer: A restricted, comfortable, or limited life.
In "Youth," what is described as a "shifting shadow"?
Time (or the dial-youth).
What is a common theme found in her poems about love?
Answer: Loneliness, longing, or resignation.
In "Black Woman," the speaker tells the child not to knock on what?
Answer: Her door (a metaphor for her heart/womb).
The "stars" that the heart dreams of in the poem represent what?
Aspirations, hopes, and freedoms.
What does the speaker do to break free in "Your World"?
Answer: She opens her wings (or flies).
What sound device is used in the phrase "weary war" in "Smothered Fires"?
Answer: Alliteration.
In "Common Dust," what does the poet say about the nature of all people?
Answer: That all are equal in death (or "Common Dust").
"To slumber on, as dead" is an example of what, used in "Smothered Fires"?
Answer: A Simile.
What time of day does the heart begin its journey?
Dawn.
What figurative device is used in the phrase "narrowest nest"?
In "Black Woman," what is the repetitive phrase that adds a sing-song, yet melancholic rhythm?
"Be still, be still".
What is the mood created by the "veils" in "Lost Illusions"?
Answer: Disillusionment or sadness.
What figure of speech is used when the speaker in "Lost Illusions" refers to herself as an "impotent atom"?
Answer: Metaphor (or Imagery).
What figurative language is used in the line "breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars"?
Repetition
How does the setting change from the first to the last stanza?
Answer: From a confined nest to the wide sky (or horizon).
Which poem includes the sound imagery of a "chirrup" from a robin?
Answer: "The Heart of a Woman" (often in collections with this image, though sometimes analyzed as a separate lyrical focus).
Which poem of hers emphasizes the need to break free from fear and insecurity?
Answer: "Your World".
What type of imagery is used to describe the speaker's mind in "Mirrored"?
Answer: "Tidal thoughts, like limpid waters" (Simile/Nature Imagery).