The Gamut," from the 1971 book, to "My Life Has Turned to Blue," from the 1982 work. "The Gamut" uses the rhyme scheme abcb in each of three stanzas, while "My Life Has Turned to Blue" uses the scheme abbbcb ababab abcbaba (209), reflecting Angelou's wide range of rhyme scheme choices. Angelou writes in free verse as well, as in "Elegy" (107-108). In the longish "No No No No," Angelou shows her tendency to use rhymes loosely and irregularly, seemingly where such rhyme comes naturally to her poet's ear, as in "whore" and "shore" (40).
In "The Gamut," Angelou writes gently and sadly of lost love, concluding "Quiet my heart, be deathly quiet,/ My true love is leaving" (5). In the final poem in the book, "My Life Has Turned to Blue," she writes of a similar loss and reveals once again her quiet and sad acceptance of such loss: "But until I see you,/ lying in green grass,/ my life has turned to blue" (209).
The first poem in the book is a general indictment of the men who have used her for what she could give sexually and otherwise, and who have always returned "home" to "their wives" (4). Most of the early poems reflect such an attitude, with men as her poetic focus, especially in the context of unsatisfied or unrequited love. The rhyme schemes in these earlier poems are simple and sing-song, as in "On Diverse Deviations" (abcbbdeddfgfhg), with off-rhymes used twice but so loosely that the reader cannot be certain if they are intended ("dance" and "silence," and "moles" and "feel") (20). In "Mourning Grace," her rhymes include "wastes," "waste," "race," "haste," and "grace," along with "deadlong" and "headlong" (21). In such cases, the reader has the feeling that the poet is not intensely concerned with
...