Conformity & Rebellion - Jacquelyn Engel

homage to my hips

By  Lucille Clifton  

                            

these hips are big hips

they need space to

move around in.

they don't fit into little

petty places. these hips

are free hips.

they don't like to be held back.

these hips have never been enslaved,  

they go where they want to go

they do what they want to do.

these hips are mighty hips.

these hips are magic hips.

i have known them

to put a spell on a man and

spin him like a top!

 

Lucille, Clifton. "Homage to My Hips." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2014. <http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/179615>.

 

Clifton is not per say rebelling against what she is but rather appreciating herself. Her hips are “free hips”. They “don’t like to be held back”, “they go where they want to go”, and “they do what they want to do”. Ultimately, Clifton is referring to herself and her strong-will personality; she is proud of being female. Lucille Clifton suggests through this poem the power of women. She embodies the females species not only for who they are but also for their figures. Women can do what they want, and they also have a superior and more intrigue body than man. Clifton strongly believes in the power of women to stand for themselves since they have always been considered inferior to men. By voicing the power of women she is rebelling.

She is also rebelling literally in her poem. Clifton uses a free verse poem. There are no capitalizations and barely any grammar. Without these, Clifton suggests that she is rebelling against the standard rules of poetry. She purposely left out these to show that she does not live by conformity.