Maya Angelou was a renowned poet, author, and civil rights activist. She is generally recognized for her auto biography “I know why the caged bird sings” (1969, Angelou) and "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993, Angelou) which was recited at President Bill Clinton’s 1993 inauguration. While Maya Angelou was acknowledged as a prominent poet and activist, she was also an actress, screenwriter, and dancer. During her lifetime, she experienced discrimination, isolation, emotional, and physical abuse. By reading her biography (Caged Bird Legacy) and poems, I recognized she had difficulty with relationships with men and how to handle some horrendous events that occurred early in her life. Her poems "Men" and “Passing Time” speak volumes on her perspective …show more content…
She writes “One day they hold you in the Palms of their hands, gentle, as if you were the last raw egg in the world.”(Angelou) When Angelou says, “last raw egg in the world”, this is allowing the reader to see that this is a new experience for her. She is letting us know that she has not had a consensual sexual interaction before. Her gratification is quickly replaced with fear and regret, as she soon feels powerless in his arms. This interaction changes her perspective of men. However, I do not believe it was troubling relations. From reading the poem, I have confidence in by losing her virginity this event removed the wool from her eyes. She no longer sees men through her once innocence and enquiring …show more content…
She is careful not to indicate which role she is portraying. I can only make the assumption this poem refers to her marriage with cartoonist, Paul du Feu. The poem was released in her 1975 book “Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well.” Maya and Paul marriage was between 1973 and 1981. She also says “Your skin like dawn. Mine like musk”( Angelou). Readers have depicted that Angelou is describing the color of their skin tones which makes me believe she is speaking about Paul. Writer, Flora Richards-Gustafson writes, “Angelou compares her companion’s light skin to the dawn, she may refer to du Feu. Angelou refers to her own skin as musk, a traditionally dark-colored perfume with base notes of aromatic sweet spices and wood. The metaphors of dawn and musk hint at the underlying theme of racial differences and similarities” (Richards-Gustafson Demand Reader).Readers also seem to think she is speaking about divorce or perhaps a relationship in which two people are going in different directions. This is a very short poem but it’s very profound. My perception on the poem is that the two individuals are not going in different directions but painting from different ends of the canvas and will eventually meet in the middle. My hypothesis is
This poem is Maya Angelou speaking to the audience as she explains the problems she has overcome such as; racism, sexism, bullying and other problems in her life that she has managed to move on from.This poem is set in a first person narrative, Angelou explains to the audience about the good and bad times within her life, presented in a graceful way. By the poem being set in first person narrative, this allows the audience to connect to the poet on a deeper level because the tone of the poem is more intense throughout, making it more real for the audience. This genre of poetry is lyric poetry, relating to Angelou’s feelings and thoughts throughout the poem, addressing the audience directly.
Tony Marrero, a survivor of the Orland shooting in June of 2016. A guy who just wanted to have a nice time out with his boyfriend and friends at a club turned into one of the most terrifying nights ever. This survivor listened to one of Katy Perry song Rise from the day he was sent to the hospital till now to overcome this huge obstacle in life and reform a new life. Listening to this song has helped him move on and be such an inspiration to himself and many others that he does not know.
Maya Angelou is an author and poet who has risen to fame for her emotionally filled novels and her deep, heartfelt poetry. Her novels mainly focus on her life and humanity with special emphasis on her ideas of what it means to live. The way she utilizes many different styles to grab and keep readers’ attention through something as simple as an autobiography is astounding. This command of the English language and the grace with which she writes allows for a pleasant reading experience. Her style is especially prominent in "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings", where the early events of Angelou’s life are vividly described to the reader in the postmodern literary fashion.
“Champion of the World” Review “Champion of the World” by Maya Angelou is a true story of Joe Louis becoming champion of the world. Angelou describes how the fight took place through figurative language and strong, powerful words. Angelou switches from first person point of view to dialogue from the radio announcer and listeners to show the reader thoughts and feelings of people in the story. Maya Angelou captures the audience from the beginning of the story and makes them want to read until the end. One way the Angelou grabs the attention of the reader is by using figurative language.
Maya Angelou’s excerpt from her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” reveals the challenges facing a young black girl in the south. The prologue of the book tells of a young Angelou in church trying to recite a poem she has forgotten. She describes the dress her grandmother has made her and imagines a day where she wakes up out of her black nightmare. Angelou was raised in a time where segregation and racism were prevalent in society. She uses repetition, diction, and themes to explore the struggle of a black girl while growing up. Angelou produces a feeling of compassion and poignancy within the reader by revealing racial stereotypes, appearance-related insecurities, and negative connotations associated with being a black girl. By doing this she forces the
In her autobiography I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, Angelou encounters many struggles, whether it pertained to others or herself. Throughout her life, Angelou experiences conflicts relating to self love, her weaknesses, and gender roles. Despite these conflicts, numerous female characters influenced Angelou and shaped her into the woman she was. All of these tie in with the gender/feminist literary lense.
The early 1930’s a time where segregation was still an issue in the United States it was especially hard for a young African American girl who is trying to grow and become an independent woman. At this time, many young girls like Maya Angelou grew up wishing they were a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes. That was just the start of Angelou's problems though. In the autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou goes into great depth about her tragic childhood, from moving around to different houses, and running away and having a child at the age of 16. This shows how Maya overcame many struggles as a young girl.
...from loneliness more and more. She says, "Storm clouds are gathering / The wind is gonna blow / The race of man is suffering / And I cam hear the moan" (28-31). These four lines are Angelou's way of telling the reader that she sees more and more people suffering and it is affecting humans of all races. The reason Angelou included these different examples was to emphasize that loneliness is everywhere and can happen to anyone.
In her first autobiography, Maya Angelou tells about her childhood through her graduation through, “Graduation”, from “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” when she is about to graduate. She starts as an excited graduate because she was finally going to receive her diploma, a reward for all her academic accomplishments. On the day of her graduation finally comes, that happiness turns into doubt about her future as she believes that black people will be nothing more than potential athletes or servants to white people. It wasn’t until Henry Reed started to sing the Negro National Anthem that she felt on top of the world again. Throughout her graduation she felt excited to disappointed, until Henry Reed sang and made her feel better.
The book thus explores a lot of important issues, such as: sexuality and race relations, and shows us how society violated her as a young African American female. In I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou clearly expresses the physical pain of sexual assault, the mental anguish of not daring to tell, and her guilt and shame for having been raped. Her timidity and fear of telling magnify the brutality of the rape. For more than a year after the rape she lives in self-imposed silence, speaking only very rarely. This childhood rape reveals the pain that African American women suffered as victims not only of racism but also sexism.
Maya Angelou, a poet and award-winning author, is highly known for her symbolic and life-experienced stories. In her poem Men, she shows the theme of men domination over women, through her personal struggle. She makes her writing appealing and direct to the reader. With the use of various literary devices (similes, metaphor, imagery, and symbolism), sentence length, and present to past tense it helps the readers understand the overall theme in Men.
Maya Angelou is a well acclaimed poet, author, and civil rights activist. Though she passed away in 2014, her work continues to awe and inspire people worldwide. Angelou had written numerous poems, but in this analysis I will be focusing on “Caged Bird,” “Phenomenal Woman,” and finally “Touched by An Angel.” In these works we see her approach issues such as equality, racism, feminism, love and many more issues as well. Angelou is a very skilled poet; though some people find her work too straight forward and little more than common text broken into stanzas. Maya Angelou 's poems are easy to understand; and though I do enjoy her work, I find that how she structures her poems can be confusing
Majority of African American women get judged on the day to day basis. When scrolling through social media there will be large amounts of individuals who will bully or even belittle a colored female because of the natural kinks of her hair, her sense of fashion, the full shaped curves of her body, and the color of her skin . The poem “Still I Rise” by the well-known poet, Maya Angelou, specifically describes the reasons why she had so much confidence; even if she were to be judged by her appearances and mindset. This poem is about embracing females, but it mainly introduces similar life situations that many African American women have experienced. The symbols and point of view that Angelou specifically added in her poem made her readers realize that there are many meanings to this poem.
A “Caged Bird” is a beautifully written poem that uses figurative language to describe the struggles African Americans faced. This poem was written by Maya Angelou (1928-2014), an African American memoirist and poet, who is best known for her autobiographic novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She was a black female writer who revealed her survival of cultural diversity in her writings(DU). Angelou’s “Caged Bird” was a poem published in her first book “Shaker, Why Don’t You Sing?” This is a 6 stanza poem full of metaphors illustrating the differences between African American and Caucasians during the civil rights era. Angelou was almost magical with her use of figurative language in her poems. The figurative language
The tone can be confident, proud, complementary, cheerful and sassy. Confident because, in each stanza Maya states some type of criticism that has been said, then overpowers it using her voice to reveal what she thinks. She uses “I say” in every stanza is a cue that she is about to speak her mind. In stanza four she describes her confidence, saying “Now you understand just why my head 's not bowed. I don’t shout or jump about or have to talk real loud. When you see me passing, it ought to make you proud”. The message that she is trying to say is that when she is put down by others, she does not get down or have to attract attention, because of her confidence, she attracts attention when she walks by. Another example, proud because of the several times she uses phenomenal throughout the poem. When she explains why she is a phenomenal woman it sets the tone that she is proud of who he is. Complementary because if reading the poem aloud, it would sound like the reader is complimenting themselves. With Maya Angelou writing all the positive things of being a phenomenal woman, the readers are complimenting themselves of being phenomenal and should be proud of it. Although, the poem may come across as cheerful, when the reader deeply analyzes the poem a serious tone is displayed. Angelou wants the reader to actually feel what she is saying, not just read it as if it has no meaning. This poem shows her strength