She Had Some Horses
Joy Harjo
Background Info
• Joy Harjo was born in 1951 in Tulsa,
Oklahoma to Native American ancestry.
• Harjo’s Muskagee Creek heritage, feminist and
social concerns, and also her background has
influenced her to write poetry.
• Her first volume of poetry was published in
1975 as a nine-poem it was titled “The Last
Song”
Genre and Form
• Harjo’s poem “She Had Some Horses” was
published in 1983.
• This poem uses “horses” as a symbol of
herself who has struggled to reconcile
contradictory personal feelings and
experience achieving a sense of oneness.
The Language of Poem
2A.) The poem language contributes to its
meaning because when continues to say she
had horses and then described how they felt
and looked, it gave us a clearer vision of what
she was talking about. The way Harjo
described the horses let us know she was
referring to herself as a woman.
Poem Organization
2B.) The poem is organized by the pattern of
the words, the speaker kept repeating herself
to make sure you get what she is trying to say.
Although the message wasn’t exactly clear the
speaker did give a visual context to what she
was explaining.
Patterns and Rhythm
2C.) Patterns of rhyme contribute throughout
the whole poem. Throughout the entire poem
the speaker repeats “she had horses” which
keep the theme going reminding the reader
about the initial woman she was speaking
about.
Dramatic Context
3A.) The dramatic context of the poem changes
in each stanza but mostly it is that the speaker
searches for someone to save her from the
anger, fear, and oppression that entraps her.
Speaker’s Tone and Motivation
3B.) The speaker’s tone is dominant. Her
motivation was that as an oppressed minority
that has been victimized and nearly
destroyed. From this poem you can tell that
Harjo is concerned with personal, cultural, and
spiritual survival and her way of surviving is
through storytelling.
Theme
3C.) The theme of the poem is to give voiceless
women the opportunity to tell their story and
show her significance and worth. We knew
that this was the theme because of the myth
and symbols that the speaker uses.
Poem Summary
• Who is talking?
• To whom is the speaker
talking?
• What happens during the
poem?
• The speaker is possibly
the writer Joy Harjo.
• The speaker is talking to
everyone.
• During the poem the
speaker explains the
beauty of women. She
talks about how happy
women are and also how
sad and depressed they
can be. The speaker talks
about these events as if
she is a participant.
Initial Response
Our initial response was that we noticed the poem is
very powerful and by reading it we think that the
speaker was trying to send out a message to all
people that women should be acknowledged
because they do have a voice. We also noticed that
the speaker used horses to represent a woman
because it gives the message a more spiritual sense.
She is a Queen
She is a Queen
She’s a Queen who’s every thought is worshipped
She’s a Queen who’s smile shines like the sun
She’s a Queen who mother’s the world
She’s a Queen who’s blood is pure
She’s a Queen who is overpowered with beauty
She is Queen
She’s a Queen with the power to punish
She’s a Queen with the love to heal
She’s a Queen with feet to praise
She’s a Queen with hands to mold and nurture
She is a Queen
She’s a Queen overwhelmed with duty
She’s a Queen with misunderstood words who’s voice is truly unheard
She’s a Queen who’s past life speaks for itself
She’s a Queen who’s love grows comfortable in the curves of another’s arms
She is a Queen
The poem originally had a
hidden theme meaning
that the speaker didn’t
make the message
completely visible.
Improvement
Our new poem improves
the message of the
original poem because
we accentuated the
message so that the
reader may identify it
right away.
FIN