Homage to my hips Lucille Clifton extended notes.pdf

Homage to my hips by Lucille Clifton and answers to the questions in the MacMillan English textbook.

1. HOMAGE TO MY
HIPS
Classroom Activity 3 p.82

2. HOMAGE TO MY HIPS
B Y L U C I L L E C L I F T O N
1.these hips are big hips
2.they need space to
3.move around in.
4.they don't fit into little
5.petty places. these hips
6.are free hips.
7.they don't like to be held back.
8.these hips have never been enslaved,
9.they go where they want to go
10.they do what they want to do.
11.these hips are mighty hips.
12.these hips are magic hips.
13.ihave known them
14.to put a spell on a man and
15.spin him like a top!

3. A PRAISE POEM ABOUT THE FREEDOM OF
MODERN BLACK WOMEN
•Type of poem:Praise poem
•Tone:Celebration/Rebellion
•The speaker is celebrating her personal identity, her unconventional (according to
WESTERN SOCIETY) beauty, and her attractiveness.
•She is also celebrating the freedom of the cultural identity of black women in
modern society, as she and all modern black women have broken free from the
shackles of slavery, and now live freely.
•She is rebellingagainst conventional beauty standards and the expectations of
women to subscribe to a standard of being quiet and withholding their sexuality to
appease the world around them.

4. HOW THE STRUCTURE CONTRIBUTES TO A
REBELLIOUS TONE
•The poet uses little punctuation, which strengthens her rebellious tone.
•The poem’s shape is unconventional, and might remind the audience of the subject of her
praise: A woman’s hips.
•There are 15 lines, with no set rhyme pattern.
•Line lengths differ by line, and syllables in each line are not the same.

5. ANSWERS:
1. A) Big, need space, don’t like to be held back, go wherever they want and do
whatever they want.
B) She’s paying homage to her hips because she wants to celebrate the power she
has found in herself as a woman, not controlled by anyone else in society.
2. A) They are not under anyone’s control (a reflection of independence and self-
worth, refusal to be controlled.
B) At least one man has been affected by her hips.
3. A) Links the two words to emphasise the size of her hips. Draws our attention to
the combination of words. Petty usually describes people, not places. Maybe this
hints at her not wanting to be involved with petty situations, just as her hips don’t
want to be in small places.
B) Assonance creates rhythm in this section of the poem, and links to the contrast
between “free space” and “enslavement”. This develops the theme of freedom vs
enslavement.

6. ANSWERS:
C) The poet gives her hips agency to go where they want and do what they want to
do. They are personified in line 7. They are a symbol that represents the poet herself.
4. The mood starts light and becomes serious. Simple sentence structure and
repetition (e.g“these hips” and “they don’t”) and emotional words like “free”,
“enslaved”, “mighty” and “magic” create a sense of gravity (seriousness, heaviness)
in the poem.
5. The form is free-verse, which aligns with how her hips are free, and how she is
independent.
6. The western stereotype of bigger bodies being “unattractive” is contradicted in
this poem. Her hips are her source of power, independence and freedom. She
rejects any attempts to be controlled, to hinder her sensual nature or change the
way she acts to be “more of a woman”. The theme is: Celebrating individuality and
sensuality, and declaring independence.