Maya Angelou
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Maya Angelou, in her book Poems, presents a focused look at the experience of an African-American woman in the last half of the twentieth century. Her work is generally written from a gentle and accepting perspective with respect to the often harsh experience of blacks in America, rather than from an angry and revolutionary perspective. This is not to say that no poems express a bitterness at racism and its personal and social effects. Angelou is capable of such rage and expresses it in some poems, but in general her spiritual viewpoint leads her in most cases to try to find the best in the situation at hand. This general sweetness is the book's greatest weakness, but it is probably a weakness which Angelou can do nothing about, even if she wished to. One of the major reasons that Angelou has had the kind of acclaim from the sociopolitical establishment in the United States (including reading poetry at President Clinton's first inauguration) is precisely that she is so good-natured and warm-hearted in her poetry. She is a black writer whom white readers can accept, can feel comfortable with, can feel unthreatened by. For other readers who want to feel the unbridled emotion of a poet fearlessly expressing darker and more troubling responses to the injustices of the world, other black female poets, such as Wanda Coleman, must be sought. Angelou's work is far "softer" on racial issues than that of even Langston Hughes, another black poet, and she seems downright passi
. . .
ithout token" (38). Here are more self-conscious and reaching rhymes (e.g., "broken" and "token") which give rhythm to the work at the expense od emotional clout. That is, the rhyme is there but not the poetic punch expected in the final lines of a poem about such a tragic subject.
The poems from her second book are far more varied in both subject matter and structure than those in her first book. The poet is more emotional and less concerned with forcing rhymes for the sake of rhymes, but she continues to express anger and grief in the later context of a sad acceptance of the tragic situation of blacks in racist America. The quality of song is in the repetitive phrases of "Pickin Em Up And Layin Em Down" (54-55). In "Here's to Adhering," the poet has begun to taste success in the white world, but she longs for someone--a lover?--who she feels connected to but not in a way which satisfies her. She seems caught between two worlds, white and black, but truly satisfied with neither.
Other poems from this second book deal somewhat superficially and self-pityingly with aging ("On Reaching Forty"), unsatisfying human communication ("The Telephone"), loneliness and betrayal ("Greyday" and "Poor Girl"). The worst of these poe
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Life Blue, Accepting Angelou, Fighter Riot, Poor Girl, Sounds Pearls, Finally Recovery, Maya Angelou, President Clinton's, Here's Adhering, Mourning Grace, life blue, love sex, rhyme scheme, sad acceptance, angelou writes, earlier poems, green grass/ life, angelou poet, blue 209, grass/ life, life blue 209, book life, lying green grass/, book life blue, you/ lying green,
Approximate Word count = 2125
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Maya Angelou
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
