SOURCE: "Sonia Sanchez's Homegirls and Handgrenades: Recalling Toomer's Cane," in MELUS, Vol. 15, No. 1, Spring, 1988, pp. 73-82.

In the following essay, Saunders analyzes the techniques Sanchez employed in Homegirls and Handgrenades which are reminiscent of those Jean Toomer used in Cane.

It is appropriate when analyzing a work such as Homegirls and Handgrenades to wonder about what might have been the motivation for its subject matter and form. It might be declared by some that this is just another in a long line of Sonia Sanchez's books of poems. Her very first volume, Homecoming, was an impressive display of staggered-lined poems with word-splitting diagonals. We a BaddDDD People and It's a New Day contained even more of the same stylistic devices. Part of Sanchez's early effort was to experiment with words in verse to create a new perspective on how blacks should perceive themselves within the context of a...