19 Varieties of Gazelle

The Gazelle

I decided to write an analysis of the poem 19 Varieties of Gazelle, by Naomi Shihab Nye. The interesting thing about it is, upon my initial reading of the poem I thought a gazelle was some type of bird. Then I Goggled images of gazelle, and to my amazement they favor deer’s. This bought together the whole poem for me. Deer’s have this peaceful grace to their existence (that they allow humans to see anyway). So I drew that as a commonality between gazelles and deer’s based upon Nye's description of them being elegant, graceful.

Nye uses the gazelle as her protagonist of this poem to elude peace, and she is contrasting their existence with the negativity in society. I feel that as the poem progresses the reader starts to question how can an animal so peaceful exist in a society where there we lack humility, there's a tenfold of violence, and no type of sanity.

She takes the reader on an adventure in the seeking of peace on a path on a small sandy island, asking the reader to let go of their adversaries and go.  That is evident is lines 22-26 where some island keeper is trying to convince her not to chase the gazelle, because they have gone too far. But that did not stop her from taking the journey.

In lines 27-30 she is taking the reader on the actual journey, she and this other person is hiking and come across the Tree of Life, which emphasizes the gazelle’s path of grace. But then she raises the point that society begets society, she photographs a sign that reads, “Keep to the Path.” Reading that line signifies that society is not peaceful because nobody ever decides to travel the road not taken, they just stick to the script; because they do not know any better.  

But as the poem is coming to an end she asks the reader rhetorical questions to bring focus back to the gazelle. In line 33-34, she asks, “Does a gazelle have a path? Is the whole air the path of the gazelle?” These lines serve as reinforcers for us to continue to question why we as human do not seek peace and we have an amenity that gazelles do not possess; a voice.

The poem was very powerful to me…