Just one person can have an evident effect, good or bad, on the lives of many people. One person who has influenced the lives of millions is Maya Angelou, a world-renown African-American author and poet. She has battled with struggles such as racism, sexism, and prejudice all of her life. Angelou quotes, “I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” With her courage and determination, Maya Angelou has influenced the evolution of modern poetry and has promoted justice for the African-American race. Through her variety of talents, Maya Angelou has greatly influenced America and taught her struggles of growing up as a young …show more content…
African-American woman. Angelou was born on April 4,1928, in St. Louis, Missouri, but was reared by her grandmother in Arkansas. At the age of eight, Angelou’s self-image was destroyed when she was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. Because she was devastated and thought his attack was her fault, Angelou did not speak to anyone but her brother for five years, hoping her silence would prevent her from hurting again. She chose to raise her illegitimate son Guy instead of attending college. Although she was a “nobody” in high school, she grew up to become the writer-producer for Twentieth-Century-Fox Television, a Broadway star, the writer of over fifteen award-winning plays, and the author of many autobiographies. Also, she lived in Egypt working as the administrator of The School for Music and Drama in Ghana. Other than her many writing and film awards, she was recognized as the first female streetcar conductor, named the Northern coordinator for Dr. Martin Luther King’s Southern Christian Fellowship, and hired as a professor at many universities (“Angelou”). She has been nominated for a Tony and an Emmy, has won a Grammy, and has had many national landmarks named after her (Angaza). While Angelou’s books have sold millions of copies, her poetry receives much less critical attention. Because of her many achievements, the uniqueness of her poetry has been and continues to be overlooked (Sylvester 23).
Maya Angelou writes her poetry with a Black style and mainly deals with the struggles of African Americans. Angelou is known to “write for the Black voice and any ear which can hear it” (Williams 32). She describes her job as merely listening to the blacks and speaking their words for them through writing (Williams). She chooses words, tempos, sounds, and rhythms that make her poetry sound almost like song or speech. Angelou knows how to connect to the feelings and needs of her race through the voice of her poetry (Sylvester 23). Having been a trained dancer, Angelou writes with the same “lilting cadence” and grace to make her lines dance before the readers’ eyes (Williams). The majority of her poetry addresses the social and political issues of African Americans. With this recurring theme and subject, Angelou challenges the legitimacy of American values and beliefs (“Angelou”). Angelou wants to relate to people of all ages, and much of her poetry is directed towards college students who admire her unique rhythms, rhymes, and content (Hagen 48). She uses litotes, or understatements, in her poetry to share her experiences with energy. Angelou’s poetry is rarely serious; she uses humor to cover up the bitterness and anger she feels inside (Sylvester 24). In her volume of poetry called And Still I Rise, her writing is not only comical but also “sassy” (23). If categorized, her poetry would fall under “light verse” because it mostly deals with her everyday Black experiences. Although Angelou does not write the most profound or intellectual poetry, she writes poetry that is meaningful to the African-American race and that presents racial themes and concerns. Her main reason for writing is to eliminate all false impressions about African Americans (Hagen). In Angelou’s third volume of poetry, And Still I Rise, the central poem “Still I Rise” presents her determination to “rise” above life’s discouraging defeats. She speaks proudly for her gender and her race in “Still I Rise,” her favorite poem. In this poem, Angelou shows that although racial issues and sexism are inevitable, one can overcome the hostility and adversity and will triumph and “Rise!” The lines of this poem remind the reader of the black spiritual “Rise and Shine,” along with other religious hymns. Angelou claims the title of the poem refers to “the indominable spirit of black people” (Hagen 54). She speaks for herself and for every woman while focusing on the central theme of one’s “self” (55). The assertive speaker, who is obviously a woman, talks straight forwardly in first person. In the first stanza of “Still I Rise,” she talks of her triumphing over peoples’ assumptions of her life and personality. The second stanza says that she will walk with pride and sass without hesitating. Just as the sun is sure to rise and shine each day, she has hope and certainty that she’ll rise and overcome her problems in the third stanza. In the fourth stanza, she claims she will not bow her head or humble herself to men. She laughs like she owns gold mines in the fifth stanza and will rise above the words that will “shoot,” “cut,” and “kill” her. Angelou refers to “ history’s shame” and the pain of the past in the sixth stanza. Angelou is not afraid to bring out “sexual nuances” of the narrator in the seventh stanza: Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? (25-28)
With the rhetorical questions, Angelou increases tension and adds sassiness. The eighth and ninth stanzas repeat the phrase “I rise” many times to emphasize her courage not only as a black but as a woman. The last stanza, the only one with a specific rhythm, presents dactylic meter in lines thrity-five, thirty-seven, and thirty-nine through forty (Stepto 53). The “I” is not an individual reference; Angelou uses “I” as a symbol for the ideas of all blacks (Bloom 50). Through “Still I Rise,” Angelou has instilled hope, bravery, and persistence in the lives of all blacks and all women. In the poem “Woman Work,” Angelou presents the daily struggles of being a woman, a slave to everyone but herself. This poem’s main theme is “self-identity” and uses much nature imagery and rhythm to show a normal workday of a slave. “Woman Work” explores one’s self verses the world, especially the relationship between women and the world. The poem, written during and influenced by the Feminist Movement in the 1970s, culturally focuses on the individualism of women. The first stanza, consisting of fourteen lines divided into seven forcefully rhymed couplets, is the most important because it is a category of the narrator’s daily tasks. This stanza infers the woman is a slave, either to a master or to her family, and describes her work day, which consists of taking care of others with no time for herself (“Woman Work”). The phrases in lines one through twelve produce a type of refrain called anaphora, which expresses the woman’s feeling of exhaustion and chaos during the day (Arp 192). In the first stanza, the narrator mutters her many chores to herself. She speaks to nature in the remaining four stanzas, working together as one unit (191). Nature and weather are personified in the next three stanzas, and the speaker claims that the sunshine, rain, storms, and snow are all she can call her own. The second and third stanzas, written in free verse, describe the speaker’s longing for rest, relaxation, and coolness (Neubauer 47). In the fourth stanza, which reverts to a rhyme scheme, the speaker asks for snow to release her from her work: Fall gently, snowflakes Cover me with white Cold icy kisses and Let me rest tonight. (23-26)
The final stanza acknowledges that the woman’s figurative ownership of nature’s elements is all she has left to look forward to at the end of her long and tiring day. The last line of “Woman Work” reinforces the idea that the woman speaking is a slave. Nature is her only source of comfort, and when she gazes upon it, she finds stolen moments of peace from the endless routine of her daily life (“Woman Work”). In “Harlem Hopscotch,” Maya Angelou shows determination to improve the conditions of the African-American race by comparing a child’s game of hopscotch to the game of life. This poem celebrates the strength necessary for survival with its lively and unconquerable beat. The trochaic meter provides a rhythm that echoes the movements of feet in a game of hopscotch. First, the feet hop, then are suspended in air, and finally land in the appropriate square (Neubauer 40). Angelou claims what she finds most interesting about her poem is how its rhythm matches the way black children play in Harlem. The children play differently in Harlem than the other children in America, and so Angelou brings out the different rhythms heard in the Harlem game of hopscotch. The poem’s complex rhythms remind Angelou of the African songs the children sing while playing (“Harlem Hopscotch”). The setting of “Harlem Hopscotch” is the violent and poverty-stricken neighborhood of New York, Harlem, which harbors many racial issues. All the stanzas have seven syllables in each line and consist of rhymed couplets. Angelou purposefully writes ungrammatically to imitate talk in Harlem and to present the “everyday” culture of the narrator (Arp 105). The first line of the first stanza provides sense imagery by exclaiming how hot it is outside. Angelou states in the last line of the first stanza, “Everybody for hisself.” This phrase shows the way of life for the African Americans living in Harlem; no body could be trusted, and the neighborhood had a “survival of the fittest” atmosphere. The second stanza deals with the suffering of the blacks, who had no money to pay for food or rent. The third stanza says that everyone is out of work. Angelou talks about blacks crossing boundaries and breaking rules by comparing them to crossing the line in hopscotch; in both situations, they are counted “out.” In the last stanza, the narrator states, “Both feet flat, the game is done. / They think I lost. I think I won” (13-14). The “they” in the last sentence refers to the world outside of Harlem while the “I” refers to all the blacks in Harlem. Life is symbolized as a brutal game of hopscotch in which one makes desperate yet hopeful leaps, lands, but does not pause long before he leaps back into uncertainty (Neubauer). The game also represents the odds in life, for one to find both love and identity (41). Maya Angelou, along with her poetry, has developed and matured greatly over the course of her career.
Angelou has lived the life of many different black women and in many different worlds throughout her lifetime. She has known poverty and richness, has been mute and speaking, has been a child rape victim and a teenage mother, has read in church and before head of state, and has worked as an actress and a poet (Angaza). Because Angelou has gone through and experienced so much in life, she can relate to any hardships America is facing at the time because she understands what it is like to be poor and to feel lost. Through her many autobiographies, she has faced her past and has regained confidence in herself. Angelou has developed from a young girl who was afraid to talk into a mighty woman who speaks seven languages and refuses to stop speaking through her speeches, interviews, plays, books, and poetry (Williams 44). Angelou’s silence in childhood was the training ground for the writer, speaker, and singer she would one day become. While she was not speaking, she was listening and reading which enchanted her with language that did not punish her but loved her back. The exquisite diction and cadence in her poetry has stemmed from her studying great literature. Angelou has become beautiful in word and in flesh by her powerful speeches and sensuous writing. Starting out as a mute girl who hated her appearance, Angelou has grown to become a majestic woman who strives for boldness rather than perfection
(Angaza). Maya Angelou has greatly influenced the world with her passion to encourage and inspire. Her voice, wisdom, hope, enthusiasm, and dignity have added up to the ingredients of her legacy (Angaza). As a child, she saw the torment her people endured because of the racial issues in America. This situation made her want to let the whites know of the misery they put on the blacks (“Angelou”). “Angelou is a precious national prism: a resilient and multi-faceted instrument through which we are privy to the awe of it all” (Angaza). She is the perfect example for young blacks because she is “exuberant” about her race and her skin color. She has worked with and befriended many famous and highly praised blacks. She has made poetry fun and easy to read with her short lyrics and jazzy rhythms. Crowds are enamored by Angelou’s powerful delivery and perfect timing while she makes public speeches. She encourages young people to express themselves openly and seeks to inspire them through her writing. Also, Angelou strives to show the beauty of liberation from injustice and prejudice (Hagen 48). Angelou considers courage to be the most important virtue because she believes that without it, no other virtues can be practiced consistently. During times of humiliation and despair, Angelou finds inner strength and succeeds in reaching out, touching others, and offering hope. Angelou has written books and plays, directed films, and conducted an orchestra, but most importantly, has influenced America’s view on African Americans and encouraged blacks to be strong and proud of their race (Angaza).