Similarities Between Sojourner Truth And Lucille Clifton

‘
Sojourner Truth and Lucille Clifton’s Voice in Poetry

Although Sojourner Truth and Lucille Clifton were born more than a century apart, they share similar views toward social equality. Sojourner Truth was born into slavery around 1797. Her exact birthday can not be determined because at the time, slave’s birthdays were not recorded. While in slavery, she suffered horrific conditions, including sexual abuse and beatings. Truth fled from her master in 1826 and eventually became a free woman. After she became a free woman, she used her past experiences to create powerful poetry that was able touch many people's hearts. Sojourner’s ability to connect with many people cemented her as one of the most respected, women’s rights activist in history.

Another well known women’s rights activist is Lucille Clifton. She was born in 1936 and worked her way through school. Clifton made a name for herself as a poet. She became a well known poet by using her powerful voice, repetition, and lowercase letters. Clifton and Truth were born into different environments and the difference in time is reflected in their poetry. Truth was raised in a time period where slavery and racism existed greatly. Clifton was raised when slavery was abolished, but racism still existed. Because of this, Clifton and Truth’s poetry share similarities and differences.

One

In Truth’s poem, the phrase “Ain’t I a Woman” is repeated throughout. By continuously repeated this phrase, Truth is telling the audience that all women are important, and by doing so, creates a call to action effect. Clifton also uses anaphora in her poem. At the end of the poem she repeats the words “here lies”. She uses anaphora in a different sense, to create an image. Everytime she says “here lies” an image is created of her walking down the graves and acknowledging the unnamed slaves. Both uses of anaphora add to each poem positively, and help establish the poet’s