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Maya Angelou: Poems
byMaya Angelou
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Maya Angelou was a famous writer and civil rights activist; as such, her works are driven and passionate, written for a specific purpose. Her poems are often overlooked in favor of her more popular works such as her autobiographies and essays. Despite this lack of attention, Angelou's poems have important messages to convey, and they do so with striking force and clarity.
Angelou was most famously an activist for the rights of those suffering oppression, which she herself did in many forms during her lifetime, being an African-American woman who had been routinely sexually abused. Accordingly, many of her poems speak up for these oppressed people groups, and many do so with great clarity and vigor. Poems such as "On the Pulse of Morning" alert people to the oppression happening in the world, calling them to stop it: "You, created only a little lower than / The angels, have crouched too long in / The bruising darkness / Have lain too long / Facedown in ignorance, / Your mouths spilling words / Armed for slaughter."
Some, like "Harlem Hopscotch" and "Awaking in New York," give a brutally honest picture of the quality of life for African-American people living in the lower-end residences in the city. Others, such as "Phenomenal Woman," celebrate the power of womanhood in the face of gender discrimination. "Caged Bird" is a stunning description of a life lived under oppressive constraints, and "Still I Rise" is a powerful declaration of strength and perseverance, a call for those who are oppressed to rise up and a proclamation of the inevitability of a brighter tomorrow.
Angelou's poems may be under-appreciated, but they are certainly not without their merits, and they can be powerful tools for change in a world of injustice.
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Maya Angelou: Poems Questions and Answers
The Question and Answer section for Maya Angelou: Poems is a greatresource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss thenovel.
'Still I Rise' by Maya?
Personification: You have the ability to shoot at me with your words, which are like bullets.
Maya Angelou's use of imagery in Still I Rise.
In "Still I Rise," Angelou uses the imagery of dust to symbolize the nature of her resistant spirit. When dust is pounded or struck with any force, instead of falling downward, it flies up again (due to the displacement of air caused by the wake...
Compare the importance of literature in "Graduation" and in Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" (p.22). What does the poetry mean to Angelou here, and what does it mean to Anzaldua's?
Compare the importance of literature in "Graduation" and in Gloria Anzaldua's "How to Tame a Wild Tongue" (p.22). What does the poetry mean to Angelou here, and what does it mean to Anzaldua's?
Study Guide for Maya Angelou: Poems
Maya Angelou: Poems study guide contains a biography of Maya Angelou, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis of select poems.
- About Maya Angelou: Poems
- Poem Text
- Maya Angelou: Poems Summary
- Character List
- Glossary
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Essays for Maya Angelou: Poems
Maya Angelou: Poems essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of select poems by Maya Angelou.
- A Feminist study of Maya Angelou's poem, "Men"
- Maya Angelou and the Poetry of Uplift in "Still I Rise"
- Action and Identity: A Critical Analysis of "Woman Work" by Maya Angelou
- The Struggle for Self: Oppression's Effect on Identity
- The Portrayal of Gender Power Disparity in American Society in “Men” and “A Kind of Love, Some Say”
View our essays for Maya Angelou: Poems…
Wikipedia Entries for Maya Angelou: Poems
- Introduction
- Early life
- Career
- Personal life
- Death
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