These poems written by Maya Angelou both portray love in a very different way. The detrimental effects of love are shown in ‘A Kind of Love, Some Say’ and the empowering effects of love are shown in ‘Where We Belong, A Duet’. ‘A Kind of Love, Some Say’ shows that Love and relationships is what causes the struggle for identity as in the other poem being in love and in a relationship allows the persona to find their true identity.
The poem ‘A kind of love some say’ is one of Maya's more emotional poems. The reader gets the feeling that the poet is discussing the pain that comes from an abusive relationship, both physically and mentally. She compares the differences between both physical and mental anguish, giving the impression that emotional pain can last a lot longer than the visible pain that comes from physical confrontation. ‘A kind of love some say’ uses poetic techniques to emphasise the extent of the violence inflicted on the women. The short sentences that Maya Angelou uses in the first stanza create the sense of a fast impact, showing us the harsh portrayal of domestic abuse. By using quick and abrupt sounds ‘Bones’, ‘sudden shock’ and ‘bruise’ aggression is shown through her writing making it seem as if the abuse is happening as you read the poem. This suggests to us that when we open ourselves up to love we open ourselves up to hurt.
The portrayal of love is shown very differently in ‘Where we belong, A duet’. Through Maya Angelou’s description she creates images of loneliness and distraction. This is very different to ‘A kind of love some say’ when it presents a fine line between love and hate, ‘Hate often is confused’.
In ‘Where we belong, A duet’ the quotation ‘brightening my days with the light in your eye...
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...t on that special day. Here the persona contradicts herself by saying she falls in love forever however this is followed by only twice a year. Here we see that maybe this lifestyle of falling in and out of love is normal for her. Maybe this is because she is scared to enter a real relationship because of hurt, pain or abuse which is shown and experienced in ‘A kind of love, some say’. This also shows us that when we open ourselves up to love we open ourselves up to hurt and pain.
Both of these poems both portray love in a very different way. ‘A kind of love, some say’ is an emotional poem, which explores the theme that emotional pain lasts a lot longer than the visible pain that comes from physical confrontation. Whereas ‘Where we belong, A duet’ shows the empowering effects relationships can have on people and this helps them to finding there true identity.
While Anna Williams views escaping the confines of marriage as a desirable thing, Charlotte Lennox’s greatest lament, as expressed by her poem “A Song,” is merely to have the freedom to love who she pleases. Although Charlotte Lennox has a more romantic view of men and love than Anna Williams, neither woman denies the need for companionship. Charlotte Lennox’s opinion towards love is expressed clearly in her piece “A Song.” The poem’s female speaker is experiencing unrequited love.
The Sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Love is Not All” demonstrates an unpleasant feeling about the knowledge of love with the impression to consider love as an unimportant element that is not worth dying for; the poem is a personal message addressing the intensity, importance, and transitory nature of love. The poet’s impression reflects her general point of view about love as portrayed in the title “Love is Not All.” However, the unfolding part of the poem reveals the sarcastic truth that love is important. The depiction of imagery in this poem insinuates a moaning and nagging experience; the negative and painful experience that people suffer because of an unimportant element that cannot supply the basic necessity of life: “Pinned down by pain and moaning for release / Or nagged by want past resolution’s power” (10-11).
Love is the intense feeling of deep affection. For example, feeling a deep attraction to someone. Love doesn’t judge, nor life. Love is patient, kind, and understanding. Love never fails, it always triumph over anything. When you love someone, you fall in love with all of them. You can’t just love the caring and gentle side of them but you have to love the hard edges too, and grumpy moods. You have to love the storm, as well as the sunshine. Love is not always going to be easy but you have to fight if it’s really what you want. And sadly in some cases one person’s love is not enough, and everything just comes tumbling down. Not everyone is going to get their happily ever after. In Silvina Ocampo’s “The House Made of Sugar”, she writes about
Love and affection is an indispensable part of human life. In different culture love may appear differently. In the poem “My god my lotus” lovers responded to each other differently than in the poem “Fishhawk”. Likewise, the presentation of female sexuality, gender disparity and presentation of love were shown inversely in these two poems. Some may argue that love in the past was not as same as love in present. However, we can still find some lovers who are staying with their partners just to maintain the relationship. We may also find some lovers having relationship only because of self-interest. However, a love relationship should always be out of self-interest and must be based on mutual interest. A love usually obtains its perfectness when it develops from both partners equally and with same affection.
The Lais of Marie de France is a compilation of short stories that delineate situations where love is just. Love is presented as a complex emotion and is portrayed as positive, while at other times, it is portrayed as negative. The author varies on whether or not love is favorable as is expressed by the outcomes of the characters in the story, such as lovers dying or being banished from the city. To demonstrate, the author weaves stories that exhibit binaries of love. Two distinct types of love are described: selfish and selfless. Love is selfish when a person leaves their current partner for another due to covetous reasons. Contrarily, selfless love occurs when a lover leaves to be in a superior relationship. The stark contrast between the types of love can be analyzed to derive a universal truth about love.
In the perspective as an African American woman, Maya Angelou speaks of the issue of sexism in her poem. In this quote, “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies…”, Angelou sheds light on the problems women faced during her time. Many had to also face the discrimination from men as men control them and put words in women’s mouths. This indicates the doubled amount of burden that African American women had to go through and it was important for Maya Angelou to speak of this issue through literature and give a voice to women who were struggling with the same conflicting situations. In contrast, Hughes’s, “I, Too,” poem states the African American inequality more generally than Angelou’s
Love plays an important role in most physical and emotional relationships. Love is a word that can prove difficult to define or even compare to other emotions. This is due to the diversity of meaning and the complexity of the emotion itself. Everyone has been in love at least once before and has gotten a taste of all the good and bad things that come with it. Christina Rossetti’s “Song” presents some of the good parts of love while Philip Larkin’s “Talking in Bed” shows us some of the bad parts of love. Larkin’s poem presents a failing relationship where communication has failed between a couple and things are getting more and more difficult. Rossetti’s poem presents a wholly different view on love; it is told from the viewpoint of someone talking to his or her lover about what said lover should do after the speaker dies. The love between them seems better, more powerful and good. The two poems also present wholly different attitudes towards “The End,” whether that is the end of life or the end of the relationship. Larkin presents the end as something dark and sad, difficult to cope with. Rossetti, on the other hand, talks about the end as just another beginning, a chance to start over in a new world. Finally, the two poems represent remembrance in different ways. Larkin’s presents memory as something extremely important while Rossetti implies that it does not matter whether we remember or not.
While reading “Maya Angelou, The Gift “by Victoria Horsford it’s breath taking seeing how Maya Angelou treats her society, her community, her culture. Mayas a woman who wants to show people a different view on life. Seeing her or better said reading about how she donated about 70% of her personal and professional letters, drafts of poems, and her novels to Harlem based Schomburg Center at NY public library. It is said that her work will be alongside other great people like Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Dr. Ralph Bunche, and Lorraine Hansberry. Maya even had somewhat of a small speech but it was more of spoken word/blank verse terrain. Maya also ended up singing When it looked like the sun wasn’t going to shine anymore, God gave man the rainbow, the sign of hope. Maya continued to talk about how she felt about being in a library, As soon as I am around books, I am okay. No bad can happen to you in the library. You can’t be raped nor mugged in the library.
This passage marks the first of several types of love, and gives us an intuitive
Maya Angelou’s poem is structured in a quatrain format. The first few paragraphs are set out in such a way that it explains to us why she is rising; the poem compromises of a stanza of four lines, each of the same length.
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.
"Maya Angelou." Poets.org - Poetry, Poems, Bios & More. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2014.
The Symposium, The Aeneid, and Confessions help demonstrate how the nature of love can be found in several places, whether it is in the mind, the body or the soul. These texts also provide with eye-opening views of love as they adjust our understanding of what love really is. By giving us reformed spectrum of love, one is able to engage in introspective thinking and determine if the things we love are truly worthy of our sentiment.
Throughout all works of literature, the daily events affecting the lives of the authors can be found in many different pieces of their work. Although it may not be a direct relation to what these authors experience, they often relate the themselves to their narrators through many different literary devices. However, these processes really stand out through the works of Maya Angelou. Through the use of metaphors and similes, Angelou relates her writings back to the harsh conditions of the socially unjustified period of the 1930’s onward; explaining the restraints placed upon both herself and her race by those who considered themselves to be her superiors.
She uses vivid words so that the reader can capture the image of what she says and picture her story as they read along. Back then, it was all about about being the the “fashion model” size but Angelou knew that every girl was made differently and should not have any shame in that. When she says, “It’s in the reach of my arms, the span of my hips,