Literary Analysis Week 14

Literary Analysis 

Week 14

This week for my analysis I chose to focus on the poem from the author Leopold Sedar Senghor ,"Black Women". This was a poem that caught my attention because of the imagery it gave from the descriptions of black women and just how beautiful they are. Just from the depth that Senghor goes into saying "And your beauty strikes my heart like an eagle's lightning flash"(pg.680). This comparison of how black women's beauty is so powerful it is compared to lightening and helps me as a reader understand how much the beauty affected the narrator in the poem. I wonder why the author related "Naked women black women or dark women" because was it to magnify how he believed black women were disrespected and just subjected to their beauty only. The tone it also is giving off with the repeating of those lines is black women beauty is the way to determine their value and also the poem continues to show the degrading actions happening to these "black women". Senghor writes, "Moaning under the hands of the conqueror, Your deep contralto voice is the spiritual song of the Beloved, Naked women, dark woman"(pg.680-681). The poem goes on to explaining how the "black woman" had to experience being raped by her conqueror and he wasn't able to resist her beauty. Making it even more clear how all of this imagery of how beautiful "black woman" are is true and they get even more credit for being strong by being able to bear all of these trails being made transparent in this poem. Senghor poem had me interested the whole time and the shortness of the poem made me want me especially because I don't understand fully of how it ended. For example
"I sing your passing beauty and fix it for all Eternity, before jealous Fate reduces you to ashes to nourish the roots of life". In my opinion it sounds like the "black woman" losers since it says she was reduced to ashes but I hope I am wrong on my guess.