Homage to My Hips

In "Homage to My Hips" by Lucille Clifton, the speaker relishes in the positive aspects of her body, particularly her hips. The poem expresses the author's positive self-image in light of the acceptable size for the female figure, and her pride in being a curvaceous woman.

The speaker acknowledges that her hips are "big hips" (1), and gives description to their physical breadth and form. She does not deny that her hips "need space to / move" (lines 2-3) and describes a physical form of larger size because "[her] hips don,t fit into little / petty places" (lines 4-5). This projects the impression that she is not a small woman in stature by any means, and does not care to be. The "petty places" (5) are not only physical areas that the author may be to large to fit into, but social circles that hail the ideal body size for a woman as a size four. The speaker gives the idea that she simply does not have the patience to be bothered with small spaces or small-minded people. She embraces that she is a curvaceous woman, and is at ease and comfortable with her body parts.

The speaker places no bounds for her hips, as they "go where they want to go" (9) and "do what they want to do" (10), and lends mysticism to their nature. Her hips are "free" (6) and are not to be "enslaved" (8) or "held back" (7) by society's fixation on