homage to my hips Essay Questions

Using one example of each, discuss this poem's use of assonance and alliteration.

Clifton uses assonance and alliteration in this work to create a feeling of relentless focus, which further emphasizes the speaker's confidence, thoroughness, and unfaltering determination. Assonance often appears using the short "I" sound, which creates a subtle echo of the word "hips." Through this assonance, Clifton keeps the poem's central focus on the reader's mind even when it is not explicitly mentioned, as in the sentence "they don't fit into little / petty places." In the very same sentence, Clifton uses alliterative P sounds. The quick, plosive sound of this consonant evokes the limiting nature of the "petty places," creating a contrast with the open vowel sound in the midst of "hips," "fit," and "little."

How does Clifton use enjambment to convey information about her speaker?

Many of the lines in this work are end-stopped, meaning that the end of a phrase, or a pause in it, occurs at the same place where the line is broken. These end-stopped lines get across the speaker's decisive firmness, but they also cause enjambed lines to stand out all the more. An enjambed line is broken in the middle of a phrase, as in Clifton's sentence "these hips / are free hips." In this work, enjambment demonstrates the speaker's freedom, and her ability to do exactly as she pleases. The line break in the middle of the above sentence conveys the speaker's decision to express herself without adhering to arbitrary external structures.