Maya Angelou Mothering Blackness Essay

Maya Angelou’s poem, the Mothering Blackness, tells the reader a story about a girl and her relationship with her mother. Within the poem, there are three stages of progression, where each stanza embodies one of them. In the first stanza first the girl returning is home. The second is the way she acts when she returns. Finally the last stanza is about the situation she returns to. Each stanza has the same structure of line indents and word phrasing. Repetition adds an emphasis on the situation description of the poem. As for the situation, it helps to provide a setting for the concept of blackness. For example, blackness is personified as the girl’s mother but the idea also attempts to tackle the complex idea of how blackness is viewed, in not only the narrator’s life but society as well. This paper

Many black artist, like Maya Angelou use their craft to help create a positive concept of the black experience. This became popular during the Civil Rights movement. This is clearly seen later in the poem when she writes “tall as was Sheba’s daughter” to describe the blackness (Angelou, 13). The word tall transmits the idea of standing tall or standing with pride. This is not only a confident stance visually, but the phrase exudes confidence. Another word that conveys confidence, specifically for the black community, is Sheba. This word references the Queen of Sheba, a powerful Ethiopian queen, who interacted with King Solomon in the Bible (Sauter). This word is an icon used by many black writers to denote a sense of royalty and pride in the black community. Sheba is connected to the sense of pride in the black heritage. Which is one of the main ideas black writers use to inspire the black population. This inspiration is meant to overcome the negative association of blackness within the society. For the reader specifically these words is meant to evoke a new view on how one should consider