Maya Angelou Obstacles

The life experiences of the late Maya Angelou —author, poet, actress, singer, dancer, playwright, director, producer — became the key element of her most prominent work, a lyrical poet telling the stories of what it means to be an African American; having a wide range, multi-series autobiographies that lays the foundation of her identity as a American black woman. The acclaimed Maya Angelou’s legacy not only impacted American culture that will resonate with people through history, but create insight to a whole new world.

For instance, the lack of freedom and treatment endured by African Americans could have influenced the form and content Angelou chooses. In the first stanza the poem reads: You may write me down in history/ With your bitter, twisted lies/ You may trod me in the very dirt/ But still, like dust, I 'll rise (Angelou 1-4). Angelou is saying that no matter what people said or how they treated her in the past, she will rise above it. This can link to the unfair treatment of African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement or possibly even ancestors who may have experienced slavery. Angelou’s change in form relates to the powerful meaning of the content, which is no matter what happens or what is thrown at Maya Angelou she will always rise.

Maya Angelou, an extremely successful author taught about in almost every high school in America, did not always have a sweet life. At the age of eight, Angelou was raped by Freeman, her mother’s boyfriend at the time (“Maya Angelou Is Born” ). This event had a major effect on Angelou’s life as she recalled, “I had a voice, but I refused to use it” (Angelou) to express her devastation after the rape. It wasn’t until five years after Angelou got raped that she spoke again. When Angelou built up the courage to speak again, she told several of her uncles who eventually beat Angelou’s rapist to death (“Maya Angelou Is Born”). Despite struggling with the tragic event of being raped, Maya Angelou was a successful author, poet, and civil rights activist.

“We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.”. Once said Maya Angelou, a poet, author, screenwriter, actress and and a civil rights activist who wrote poems intelligently and always with a gaping reason deeply within them, which made them rather fascinating. As we look back on Maya Angelou’s life, she had an incredible journey, fighting discriminations and harsh circumstances during her youth, she is truly an astonishing person who is worth of to be spoken as an important poet in history and one of the greatest in the poetic world.

Rumi described poetry as being dangerous, “especially beautiful poetry, because it gives the illusion of having had the experience without actually going through it.” I for one can certainly grasp this concept. Poetry I enjoy tends to be about a different world than mine. However, if I close my eyes I can see the story unfolding before me. Perhaps the characteristic most fundamental to the meaning of poetry is its unwillingness to be defined, labelled, or nailed down. This is what makes Maya Angelou’s poetry so effective. Her work challenged the status quo and improved the human condition of all people. She fought for equality and for humanity. In her body of work, we see the plights and triumphs of marginalized people. Angelou, like many other poets, used words to tell her story of struggle, and allowed the readers to experience her people’s pain. Alright, I’ll stop teasing you now. Let’s take a look at our first of Angelou’s masterpieces – “Equality”.

Angelou is stating that no one can take on all of the world’s weight without the help of others. Shmoop.com says: “When we get right down to it, this poem centers itself on an emotional landscape: the homelessness of the human soul. The roving, searching heart has no home- which is perhaps why we move from setting to setting in this poem as well (Shmoop Editorial Team).” There are a few possible themes to this poem, shmoop.com has four: isolation, suffering, spirituality, and society/class. The main theme of the poem, however, is needing someone to rely on when you can’t handle things on your own, as in lines twelve and thirteen, “Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone.”

A powerful woman once said “ 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” This powerful woman was a civil rights activist, writer and poet, Maya Angelou. Angelou grew up in 1928, in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, a segment of time where African American culture blossomed and the punished souls of the African Americans were expressed through literature and song. As an African American woman, Angelou experienced first hand racial prejudices and discrimination. Angelou had a rough childhood, with her parents splitting up, and being raped by her mother’s boyfriend at a young age, which made her mute for several years. She faced extreme hardship, racial intolerance and hurt, as at the

In the first, third, and sixth stanzas Dr. Angelou compared her kind of risings with that of dust, air, and the tides. Meaning that the upward movement, which reflects back to something I read in an article about Dr. Angelou where it was, stated that if women stands up for themselves, they shall be able to bring about social upheaval, and thereby effect a positive change in the economic and political situation of black women in the American society of their times. Which all related back to her dealing with being raped as a child while also dealing with racial discrimination. The poet stated (9) “Just like the moons and like suns,” using a simile she compared the rising of the moon every night and the rising of the sun every morning to how although she was treated as if she was worthless she still will

While Maya Angelou’s poetry is the product of many influences, a major theme is the misfortune she has undergone throughout her life, but especially as a child. In the poem “Harlem Hopscotch” Angelou construes the discrimination she faced at a young age “In the air, now both feet down. / Since

Angelou opens the poem with a bird gracefully flying free. Then the poem deals with a bird that is in a cage, a bird that can barely see through the bars of the cage and has their wings clipped and feet tied. Next the bird begins to sing with a “fearful trill/ of things unknown” (16-17), this caged bird is scared and wants the same thing many people want; freedom. Angelou uses only thirty-eight lines to address the reader of some of the biggest issues in American; racism and segregation. The “free bird” that is flying free may represent whites or anyone with freedom.

A poem can capture the mind, soul, and the bare heart, but, how can one’s interpretation of a poem alter the true value of the poem itself? The answer to this question may vary, depending on one’s interpretation. Then again, that response can be used to answer every question this world holds. Dr. Maya Angelou is one of the most renowned and influential voices of our time. Hailed as a global renaissance woman, Dr. Angelou is a celebrated poet, memoirist, novelist, educator, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist. As a strong African-American woman, she has experienced the brutality of racial discrimination, yet also absorbed the unshakable faith and values of traditional African-American family, community, and

Maya Angelou's poetry challenges how media influences the perception of black women. She debunks the assumption that black women should behave and look a certain way in order to be treated with humanity. The issues of the expectations of black women in society, Maya Angelou’s, Poems, channels the expression of the free spirit of African-American women within societal influences, conveyed through metaphor, repetition, and imagery, revealing black empowerment. Angelou uses metaphor to describe her inner-strength to survive the battles against criticism. Angelou compares men to “a hive of honey bees [that] swarm around [her]” (Angelou 122).

Just this poem sends a powerful message saying that women have power. This is inspiration to the women fighting for equal rights and in everyday life. Maya Angelou’s fight for Women’s Rights is strengthened by experiencing sexual assault. After being raped she would not speak this meaningful because many who experience sexual assault as silenced by their own fear, fear of nothing being done, and fear that it was their fault. Her autobiographies inspire many because they talk about her rape and then later being a single mother at just sixteen.

In this poem Maya Angelou express how she was being raped by her mother’s boyfriend. She states the pressure and how she felt all through it and how it affected her.

She appeals to figurative language throughout her poem by showing that she and many other black individuals aren’t ready to give up. Repetition is one of the ways the author approaches her message throughout the poem efficiently with the use of “I rise.” The poet constantly uses this line to represent her confidence and faith despite of all the hardships that she and other people have faced throughout their lives. The rhyme scheme of the passage is mainly ‘ABCB’, but starting in the 8th stanza, the rhyme scheme switches to ‘ABABCC.’ She uses comparison with using devices such as simile and metaphor. One quote is “You may trod me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I’ll rise” (3-4). This means that the author will rise from the dirtiness from the people that will talk down about her. The Another example is “just like moons and like suns, with the certainty of tides, just like hopes springing high, still I rise” (9-12). Angelou compares herself to the moons and suns because she will rise no matter what happens just like the sun and moon every day. Lastly, in line 15, she narrates, “shoulders falling down like teardrops, weakened by the soulful cries?” (15-16). These lines compare one’s shoulders to teardrops because shoulders drop when one loses confidence and one’s teardrops fall because of one being upset or being hurt. These