Phenomenal Women

Phenomenal Women

The Poem I have chosen is Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou. I chose this poem because it not only emphasizes the pressures society places on women but how one may overcome them. The poem helps recognize that one does not need only the stereotypical beauty that society portrays in order to feel confident. The begging of the poem begins almost in a reverse fashion, with a pretty women asking a potentially "normal" women where her secret to happiness lies.

The poet uses the rhyme and meter in order to create a sense of pattern that we become accustomed to throughout the poem. This is important because when she changes the rhythm in the lines " I say" they further stand out. This enables the importance her these two words carry and how they will further impact the rest of the poem. For example, after the poet writes" But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies" She follows it with " I say" in order to emphasise the following lines"It's in the reach of my arms,The span of my hips,The stride of my step." This is significant because it's at this point that the poet starts to emphasise how she feels confident despite her difference from societies eyes. The poet also does this with the word " Phenomenally". She does this in order to show that even though she does not conform to society, it may seem phenomenal to other's that these mean little to her and she believes she is great without them.
This is evident when following her putting "Phenomenally" she writes "Phenomenal woman,
That's me"

In the first line of the poem, the poet writes "Pretty women wonder where my secret lies" in order to foreshadow the rest of the poem. She uses alliteration in order to draw attention to the main idea of the poem. This helps emphasize essentially that although the "pretty women" has everything that should make her happy in the eyes of society, she seeks the aid of the average "happy" women. The three "w's" following each other help not only the rhythm but really help the first line stand out.

She also uses word's such as "shout" or "jump" in order to create drama in how she act's. However she does this by stating that she does not doing anything exceptional in order to gain attention."I don't shout or jump about,Or have to talk real loud." Instead of using the terms in order to draw attention to herself as the character of the poem, she is stating that the character doesn't require to these things in order to gain attention.

The Theme of the Poem is the pressure placed from society on not only Women but everyone that in order to be happy they must be pretty, skinny, fit, ect. In this poem however the poet portrays that although one may be pretty that does not necessarily make them happy, and that she is happier being her, without trying to alter her personality or physically appearance in order to conform to societies views in order for her to be happy. She is happier than the girl who has these aspects.

Maya uses the reference to men swarming around her as if they were honey bee's to emphasize how desirable she is."Then they swarm around me,A hive of honey bees."She uses this to symbolise that she is the "queen bee" and all the men are trying to get to her, because she is the most desired women around.

She also tries to first paint a picture of how a "beautiful women would be made up", giving us an image we can relate to. However she does this by emphasizing that she is not these things. "
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size."

I believe that all that the author does in this poem is really productive in emphasising her points and the message she wishes to portray. She is effective in using literary devices in order to make the poem truly significant.
The link to the poem is below:
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/maya_angelou/poems/492