An Analysis Of Maya Angelou's Poetry

Maya Angelou is such an inspiration. Her career encompassed a multitude of titles from author, playwright, and poet to stage and screen performer, director, and human rights activist. Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Arts in 2000 and the Lincoln Medal in 2008. She has received three Grammy Awards and some 50 honorary degrees. In 1993, she read her poem On the Pulse of the Morning at President Bill Clinton’s inauguration, at his request. Although she did all of these amazing things one of the things she is best known for is being a phenomenal poet. Her poetry includes themes of african american oppression, feminism, and human rights which makes them inspiring to read.
Born Marguerite Annie Johnson, Angelou had a difficult childhood.
She vigorously believed in equality and social justice. In her poetry she calls repeatedly on the human race to spare itself from suffering. Asked in 1983 what she hoped to achieve as a writer, Maya Angelou answered, “to remind us that we are more alike especially since I’ve grown up in racial turbulence and unfairness.” Two 1990’s poems reflect the difference of her declaration: “Human Family” celebrates family likeness, and “Son to Mother” denounces wrongs inflicted by various branches of the human family. Angelou in her poetry dissects and resurrects humankind: She condemns its shamefulness and rejoices in its possibilities and its
Her poems are considered by some critics to be thin in substance, lacking in poetic invention, and lackluster in language. Others, however, argue that the poems belong to a neglected oral tradition, incorporate elements of African-American slave songs and work songs, and must be seen as lyrics which require performance to reveal their depth and riches. As critic Lyman B. Hagen has observed, “Angelou may rank as a poet of moderate ability, but her poetry is praised for its honesty and for a moving sense of