The poem is written in a musical style, using perfect rhymes and internal rhymes to make each line flow into the next. It also discusses an easy-to-understand series of emotions and states of being that should be highly relatable to many readers.
When reading this poem, consider the way that one’s desires change as one ages. When you’re young, you take life less seriously, but when you get older, your desire for continuity and dependability is far more prevalent.
Explore Where We Belong, A Duet
- 1 Summary
- 2 Structure and Form
- 3 Literary Devices
- 4 Detailed Analysis
Summary
‘Where We Belong, A Duet’ by Maya Angelou is a simple poem that explores the never-ending search for connection.
In the first lines, the poet’s speaker describes how she looked high and low for someone who truly cared. She spent much of her early life enjoying the brevity of romantic relationships until she started searching for more meaning. She was alone, with this process repeating over and over again until she met the person she was with now. This person brought her happiness and strength in a way she’d never experienced before.
The Poem Analysis Take
Expert Insights by Emma Baldwin
This poem demonstrates a few key features of Angelou’s poetry. It demonstrates her interest in portraying strong women who are confident and believe in themselves while at the same time it discusses the importance of being accepted and loved for who you are.
Structure and Form
‘Where We Belong, A Duet’ by Maya Angelou is a four-stanza poem that does not follow a specific rhyme scheme. This means that the lines end with different words, like “village,” “square,” and “places” in the first stanza. But, at the same time, it also doesn’t mean that the poem is without rhyme. There are perfect rhymes scattered throughout this poem, like “places” and “faces” in stanza one and “square” and “care” in stanza one.
Literary Devices
In this poem, the poet uses the following literary devices:
- Anaphora: This is seen when the poet repeats the same word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “In” starts the first three lines of the first stanza.
- Enjambment: This is seen when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines one and two of stanza two.
- Internal rhyme: This is a type of rhyme that’s seen when the poet places perfect rhymes inside lines of verse. For example, “wined” and “dined” in stanza three.
Detailed Analysis
Stanza One
In every town and village,
In every city square,
In crowded places
I searched the faces
Hoping to find
Someone to care.
In the first lines of this poem, the speaker begins by describing where and why she searches. She searches for “Someone to care” everywhere she goes, she says. This includes the towns, villages, and every city square. This stanza is filled with perfect rhymes, giving it a very musical feeling. The repetition of the word “In” adds to this.
Readers can easily feel the speaker’s determination and near-desperation to find exactly what she’s looking for. There is also a sadness in these lines as it’s something as simple as “care” that she’s looking for.
Stanza Two
I read mysterious meanings
(…)
Playing romantic games.
In the next stanza, which is several lines longer than the first, the speaker describes how she searches for “Someone to care” while also reading “mysterious meanings” into the stars and finds reasons to go to co*cktail bars, schoolrooms, and poolrooms, searching for her meaning.
She’d spend time with strangers, she adds, suggesting she had sexual encounters with men she didn’t know and enjoyed playing these “romantic games.” It was “quick and breezy.” There is a lack of care in these lines that are juxtaposed with the speaker’s desire for meaning and “care” in the first stanza. This continues into the third stanza as she discusses falling in love.
Stanza Three
I wined and dined a thousand exotic Joans and Janes
(…)
I don’t tremble in your arms.
In the third stanza, the poet’s speaker describes more about her life and how she moved from place to place and from person to person, looking for meaning. She met various people (indicated by the reference to “Joans and Janes” and fell in love forever, twice every year or so. This Clever phrase alludes to the intensity and brevity of emotions at this time.
The many people she met and loved “let” her “go” for a few different reasons, including her being too “sentimental and much too gentle.” She never found the person who stuck in her life as she wanted them to. That changes, though, the poet indicates, in the fourth and final stanza.
Stanza Four
Then you rose into my life
(…)
Now I’m where I belong.
In the last stanza, which is five lines long, the poet describes someone coming into her speaker’s life like a “promised sunrise.” This is a simple and beautiful simile that is easy for readers to interpret. The “sun,” or this new person the speaker loves, is there now, brightening her days with the light “in your eyes.” This person’s presence, she adds, has even added to her overall strength. SHe’s “where” she belongs now, and there is nothing she would change.
When the poem ends, readers learn that this person has given the speaker love, happiness, a sense of belonging, and a newfound strength that she didn’t have before.
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