Analysis of Imagery in Loving From Vietnam to Zimbabwe

After reading Janice Mirikitani's poem "Loving from Vietnam to Zimbabwe" there is a profound amount of imagery used by Mirikitani that explains a reality of sex, love, and war. Mirikitani uses an interesting and unique format in the way she has written her poem. The "I" that Mirikitani uses is not referring to herself but rather another woman who is Vietnamese, or many women whom are Vietnamese. She has essentially divided her poem into two sides. One side, the left side, is where she reveals images of sex and love. On the other side, the right side, is where she reveals the imagery of war. By dividing her poem into two sides, she is able to describe two conflicting issues that are part of the woman's life or at some point had an impact on her life and emotions. It seems as though Mirikitani is explaining images from Vietnam. These images of sex, love, and war that she has written in respect to, are not the sex and love that we know as Americans, but the sex and love that was prevalent during the Vietnam War. Mirikitani wrote this poem in 1980, so it is possible that, she has some repressed images and feelings about the war o

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She feels her anger and then goes on to describe the man's death. By writing this poem, she has given a voice to many women from a country torn apart by War. Because of their relationship, the Vietnamese woman feels troubled because there is anger within her due to what she feels the American soldiers have done to her people and their land. The woman is left in a painful and agonizing state after the man has been murdered; which gives the poem a slight twist at the ending. Mirikitani uses several extended metaphors to describe his body, "As I move into the grassy plain of your chest" (Stanza 12, lines 3-5) is an example. She shows that she does not understand what the man is saying, "As you call me strange names. " (Stanza 20 line 4-5) She sees love as dangerous and painful.

The relationship that the woman has with the soldier is quite difficult to understand, but without reasonable doubt, these two people have engaged in sexual activities. After she has left the images of the man's death with us, she reveals that love is dangerous and that, "loving in this world, is the silver splinting edge.

One way to look at their relationship is to visualize that this woman and man are in a relationship of love and that one woman's lust for a man ultimately leads her to pain when he is killed. There is no love involved in their sex; it is merely a physical relationship that has no meaning. " (Stanza 20 line 1-3) Love has been painful to her and she has been maddened and angered by it. " She is not actually referring to Mt.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1320
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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