Visual Poetry Assignment - Legacy by Nikki Grimes

It talks about and how African Americans were taken from their home and brought to a land of freedom which is not true. They also hoped that one day they would be treated as equal. A metaphor is when you compare two unlike things directly. A metaphor is used in the first stanza Ancestral blood water cotton fields and the earth. This metaphor compares blood to water which “waters” the cotton fields. This could be interpreted as the slaves harvesting cotton in the fields. Irony is a literature device evident in the poem. It connects because the poem says “My people’s allegiance to the country was wrung from hearts of hope to one day be treated equal to sons of the ones who shipped us naked to these shores, under freedom’s flag.” This shows that they are in a land of freedom but were taken there in a brutal manner and treated unequally once there which is ironic. The rhyme structure is pretty simple there aren't many rhymes being used, just normal punctuation. Two themes found are fake promises and hope.