This research provides an analytical and contextual reading of a selection of poems by the American poets: Joy Harjo and Natasha Trethewey. It discusses native American perspective and its sense of aspiration and rebirth as shown in their poetry. The selected poems in this paper aim at expanding the understanding of cultural, economic and historical political dimension for both Harjo and Trethewey, through analyzing symbols in their poems. Both Harjo and Trethewey are engaged in Native American history which is traumatic in nature. Their work focuses on the inner lives of African Americans as well as other people of colour and their various gendered or racial experiences with the Americans.
It is through poetry and poetic language that Harjo and Trethewey forge a connection to the past invested in highlighting the emotional truths of some of their familial and cultural forbears. They also draw attention to the inner lives of Native people who have inherited traumatic legacies. Joy Harjo as an enrolled member of the Muskogee/ Creek nation and Natasha Trethewey, as an African American Southerner , both emphasized personal experiences of exile within the United States. Actually their nature and personal historical background and contemporary existence make them poets of empire and exile