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Maya Angelou is well known today for her poetry. She is a very inspirational woman that poems speak to many young women still today. Maya Angelou is one of those people that everyone loves and not many could ever have anything negative to say. She went through hard times as a child that later made her a better poet.

Maya Angelou was born as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. After her parents’ divorce, Maya Angelou and her brother were sent to live with their grandmother, in Stamps, a poor section of Arkansas (Handford). Her grandmother was very religious; she made sure they went to church. According to Salem Press, Angelou loved her close relationship with her brother Bailey, who gave her the name “Maya.” At a young age Angelou was a victim of violence. Angelou was raped by a friend of her mother during one of her visits in St. Louis. Later after her mother’s brothers found out about the rape, they killed the man(Poets.org). Angelou felt that she had caused the man’s death by telling her mother what happened, so she refused to speak for five years about her rape. With the encouragement from a well-educated black woman from Stamps, Mrs. Flowers, she regained her voice. With the help of Mrs. Flowers Angelou began to read the works of, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare and also Paul Laurence Dunbar.

According to Holland, Maya Angelou graduated at the top of her eighth grade class in Stamps. Her and her brother then continued their education in California. At the age of sixteen she brought her son Guy Johnson into the world. She had to then work a number of jobs like a waitress, cook, and nightclub singer to provide for her son. In her early career, she appeared in plays and musicals around the world as a singer and actres...

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...and confident. She uses specific details without fear when describing herself and talks about herself in a nice way. Maya starts off explaining how she is not the cutest or best built woman, but she shifts to explaining the good things about herself, which shows shift. The title hasn't really changed meaning much. It is about a phenomenal woman, but it also describes what a phenomenal woman is. It's significant because it sets the poem off on the right start. Most importantly the theme is not how a woman looks or what she does that makes her phenomenal, but how she carries herself and her inner mystery.

Maya Angelou is not only a poet but an inspiration to many. Her poetry has touched so many, and will forever be admired. She has overcome so much which has made her a very wise individual. Her poem Phenomenal Women just explains perfectly they type of person she is.