"She Who Knows No Boundaries" - Blog 4

The poem “She Who Knows No Boundaries” by LaTiefa Alston explores emotional, spiritual and moral boundaries. The emotional boundaries being a conditional sense of her own self-worth. The spiritual boundaries are that she is in control of her own spiritual beliefs not her mothers and her boundary is that she will stand her ground and stand up for her beliefs which are different to her mothers. The moral boundary is treating others as the wants to be treated, not treat others as they treat her. In other words, she has gone far beyond her mother’s moral boundaries and treats all people in the best possible fashion with no conditions. The poem describes her public philosophy and where it originated from.

The persona has used a subjective/ personal tone to show her point of view. The tone used is strong and assertive.

I was born into a . . .
“Come correct or don’t come at all,"
“Accept nothing but the best,”
“If he can’t use your comb, don’t bring him home,”
Kind of family.

The persona uses half-completed sentences as the first line of each stanza as a way of drawing the reader towards the point she is making. Another technique incorporated into the first line of each stanza is the repetition of the I, where she affirms her individuality.

I was raised by a. . .
Strong, religious, educated,
“I marched on Washington and take nothing from no one”
Type of woman.

An empathic conclusion has been used to emphasise how she successfully dealt with the boundaries in her life.

A forthright, dedicated individual who knows NO BOUNDARIES!!!

By Tiffani.Mungoven