Ego Tripping

The varying rhythms in “Ego Tripping” echo the distinctive sound of improvisational jazz music, which was an important influence on the Black poets of the Harlem Renaissance and contemporary poets. Like improvised melodies in jazz, Giovanni’s deliberate use of repetition, internal rhyme, and consonant syllables that vary in weight create a unique overall sound when the poem is spoken out loud.

The repetition of the singular first person pronoun “I” emphasizes the personal nature of the words that follow. The lengths of the complete thought are sometimes very brief, stating one simple message in clear terms on one single line of poetry; other times, the complete thought is lengthy and involved, drawing attention away from the speaker and towards the details of the accomplishment/event described for two or more lines. In these longer thoughts, the lines lack end punctuation, and the enjambment of the lines encourages a sense of flow.

The unique rhythm of the poem works with the hyperbolic claims to accomplishment. As a song gathers momentum to create an emotional effect on the listener, so does the gathering power of the speaker’s exaggerations. The speaker employs hyperbole to detract from the supposed negative qualities of her race and gender, and the rhythm of the poem enables the speaker to express her excitement and pride in her race to her readers and listeners.

Throughout the poem, Giovanni uses allusions, or passing references, to the Bible and to geographic locations around the world that enhance the speaker’s identity as a divine and powerful being.

llusions to the Bible include a mention of Jesus Christ, with whom the speaker identifies when she “turn[s] myself into myself and was / jesus” (Lines 30-31). Jesus, the Christian savior of mankind who sacrificed himself for the eternal life of all Christians, is the most important figure in Christianity, and the speaker of the poem channels his power by asserting she will be “the one who would save” (Line 34).

The poet combines a Biblical allusion with a geographical one, with the “new/ark” (Line 27) built by the speaker’s son Noah. Noah, a patriarch of the Bible’s Old Testament, is reputed to have saved his own life, the lives of his family members, and the lives of all of the animals of the world with his ark in the Book of Genesis. Newark is important to Black history for similar reasons related to rescue and rebirth. Jacob D. King, a former enslaved man, established a stop on the Underground Railroad in Newark in 1830, and during the Great Migration, many Black people fled the American South in order to make a home for themselves in the northern city of Newark.

Allusions to geographical locations in Africa like the Congo, which is the speaker’s birthplace; Egypt; the Sahara Desert, and the Fertile Crescent that links Africa to the Middle East, emphasize the poet’s celebratory tone and her pride in her African heritage. In contrast, Europe is a mere afterthought, a place that experienced “an ice age” (Line 11) when the speaker desired a cold drink, and ancient Rome is significant only for the fact that it is a Mother’s Day present from the speaker’s son Hannibal. Like most Mother’s Day presents, ancient Rome eventually gathered dust, and its decline and fall parallels the wilting of flowers that were once delivered fresh to mothers around the world in recognition of their love and nurturing.

Though the poem contains many proper nouns naming both individuals and geographic places, Giovanni has deliberately chosen not to capitalize them, choosing instead to capitalize only two personal, first-person pronouns: “I” and “My”. This choice elevates the commonly used personal pronouns to the level of a formal title, drawing the reader’s attention towards the speaker of the poem and communicating the message that the speaker is perhaps more deserving of respect than the proper nouns mentioned in the poem.

Some readers may find this dramatic use of capitalization as a stylistic literary device as subtly controversial. Two of the proper nouns refer to “allah” (Line 9) and “jesus” (Line 31), who have been mentioned earlier in this guide as politically and religiously significant representatives of the patriarchy. Though the absence of capitalization is noticeable, defenders of the poet’s decision can point out that no proper nouns are capitalized, whether they refer to patriarchs or to countries and continents. Giovanni’s decision to deny all proper nouns the capitalization that is their grammatical due emphasizes the speaker’s belief that she deserves more respect than male religious leaders, gods, and even places on the earth itself. Indeed, by decentralizing these traditional figures of authority through this grammatical deviance, Giovanni flips the paradigm, putting a Black woman at the pinnacle of power and authority.