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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Some common words found in the essay are:
War Mirikitani, Mai Haiphong, Vietnam Zimbabwe, Vietnam War, Mt Inyangani, Strange Names, sex love, vietnamese woman, stanza 20 line, stanza 20, 20 line, Janice Mirikitani's, Fazeli English, relationship vietnamese woman, love war, images sex, relationship vietnamese, strange names, figurative language, images sex love, war mirikitani, Bach Mai, Lai Bach, loving vietnam zimbabwe, example figurative language,
Approximate Word count = 1320
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)