Maya Angelou
an incredible poet and women
By Zachery Comiskey
Content Context/Feminist Movement – Page 3 Biography of Maya Angelou - Page 4-5
Poem - “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou - Page 6 Analysis of “Phenomenal Woman” - Page 7-8 Poem – “Men” by Maya Angelou – Page 9
Analysis of “Men” – Page 10-11 “The Lioness” by Zachery Comiskey – Page 12 “The Lioness” rational - Page 13
Bibliography - Page 14 2
Context—Feminist Movement In the 1960’s, the life of American women was limited in almost every aspect of their life, from their workplace to family. Women were expected to follow a single pre-determined path; to get marry young, begin a family soon afterwards, and then devote the remainder of her life to family and housekeeping. The average female wasn’t really to expect much out of life. She is someone's keeper either her husband's or her children's or both in most cases. Wives were burdened with the full load of childcare and housekeeping. They were actually legally subject to their husbands through the "head and master laws," they consumed no legal right to any of their husbands' property or wages, and women themselves weren’t allowed to obtain a job either. Apart from small right to "proper support" such as adequate living standards, the men of the house had full control over their wives’ allowance. And women often had to option to leave a marriage if they were being mistreated which was often the case during this time period. Since if the marriage was to deteriorated it was very difficult to get a divorce, as the "nofault" divorce was not an selection, forcing women to prove wrongdoing on the part of their husbands in order to get divorced which was extremely difficult at the time since men were extremely powerful and also ruled the courts at this time in history. Maya Angelou greatly influenced the feminist protest through the use of her extremely powerful poetry and autobiographies. Which were often extremely telling and revealing of many traumatic life experiences which shaped her beliefs and attitude to the extremely sexist and racist world around her. She overcame many disturbing events in her life and decided to make a change in this world to fix the injustice which sexism placed upon her society. She spoke out to improve the lives of many women of her time and every women to come after her.
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Biography Maya Angelou is an incredibly successful woman. She has written several poems and books which have added to her list of achievements. If one was able to talk to her today, you would think she had lead a rather normal and happy life. Her life was blissful towards the end, but it wasn't always perfect. Maya Angelou's traumatic life experiences inspired her to write confronting and extremely influential autobiographical works of poetry. Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis. She came from a broken home, her parents divorcing when she was only four years old. Angelou was raised in segregated and racist rural Arkansas in southern America also known as Stamps by her grandmother Annie Henderson. In Stamps Angelou learned what it was like to be a black girl in a world whose boundaries were set by whites. But she also learnt that blacks would not only endure, but prevail. Her grandmother taught her a lot about practicality, common sense and the ability to control one’s own destiny that comes from constant hard work and courage, what “Momma” (her grandmother) called “grace under pressure”. Four years later her dad came to her home in Arkansas and took them back to their mum. Not long after returning to her mother at the age of eight, Maya was sexually abused and raped by her mum’s boyfriend, called freeman. She confided in her brother, telling him about the brutal assault, who then revealed the incident to the rest of the family. Freeman was prosecuted and found guilty yet was only jailed for a single day. Not long after his release, he was found murdered, most likely by Maya’s uncles. This event lead Maya to become mute for nearly five years, believing, as she stated in her acclaimed autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, "I thought, my voice killed him; I killed that man, because I told his name. And then I thought I would never speak again, because my voice would kill anyone ..." During this time Maya developed her outstanding memory, her strong love for literature and books and her ability to observe and listen to the world around her. Maya felt that through poetry and writing she was able to express her voice and views much more powerfully than through word. At such a young age Maya had to deal with many issues such as her rape and her identity as a black person. At one point in her life she even worked as a prostitute and madam. Her poetry draws heavily on her personal history but employs the points of various personae. Maya draws on these traumatic life experiences when questioning and challenging the problems in society such as racism, treatment of women and sexism.
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Biography After marring Tosh Angelou in 1951 she pursued a career in dance, music and acting. In which she was extremely success, she released an album called Miss Calypso and toured Europe with a production of the opera Porgy and Bess. She study the art of African dance, opera singing and acting, later in life she was in many movies, theatre productions and even and acclaimed ten part TV series. She decided to pause her entertainment career after getting divorced from Tosh Angelou and pursued into areas of writing as well as civil and human rights. She joined societies such as the Harlem Writers Guild which developed her as a writer but most importantly changed her way of thinking, she stop just excepting how the world around her had so much hatred and evil towards black people and was still heavily racist. She wanted to speak up, to make a difference and bring about equality for all. In 1960, after meeting civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and hearing him speak, she was extremely influenced/touched and with the help of Killens she organized The Cabaret for Freedom to benefit the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and she was named SCLC's Northern Coordinator. A year later she met South Africa freedom fighter Vusumzi Make, her and her son moved to Cairo to live with Make although they never got officially married. She took up a role as a journalist and editor for the newspaper company “The Arab Observer”. Only a year later her and Make broke up and she decided to move to Accra, Ghana it was here that she became good friends with Malcolm X during his visit in the early 1960s. Angelou later returned to the U.S. in 1965 to help him build a new civil rights organization, the Organization of Afro-American Unity; he was assassinated shortly afterward. This absolutely devastated her since she had a strong bond with the very influential Malcolm X. Through this time she spent with him she developed a strong view on civil rights, she learnt how to influence and persuade people as well as learning first-hand how to make a change for the better in the world. Maya Angelou tended to right a free verse open form of poetry, meaning it doesn’t use any meter patterns, rhythm or a musical pattern. It focuses on a strong sense of rhythm with a story telling feel. She doesn’t use many literary devices apart from imagery which she tends to use a lot. She uses very basic language not focusing so much on the technicality of poetry writing but more on telling a story and teaching a lesson. Maya Angelou lived and extremely full and busy life with more career paths, events and achievements than I could possibly list but it is these couple main events in her life that that influenced her views, perspectives and views on life especially to do with equality, ethics, sexism, racism and civil rights.
“You will face many defeats in your life but never let yourself be defeated” - Maya Angelou 5
“Phenomenal Women� Pretty women wonder where my I'm a woman
It ought to make you proud.
secret lies.
Phenomenally.
I say,
I'm not cute or built to suit a
Phenomenal woman,
It's in the click of my heels,
fashion model's size
That's me.
The bend of my hair,
But when I start to tell them,
the palm of my hand,
They think I'm telling lies.
Men themselves have wondered The need of my care,
I say,
What they see in me.
'Cause I'm a woman
It's in the reach of my arms
They try so much
Phenomenally.
The span of my hips,
But they can't touch
The stride of my step,
My inner mystery.
Phenomenal woman, That's me.
The curl of my lips.
When I try to show them
I'm a woman
They say they still can't see.
Phenomenally.
I say,
Phenomenal woman,
It's in the arch of my back,
That's me.
The sun of my smile, The ride of my breasts,
I walk into a room
The grace of my style.
Just as cool as you please,
I'm a woman
And to a man, The fellows stand or
Phenomenally.
Fall down on their knees.
Phenomenal woman,
Then they swarm around me,
That's me.
A hive of honey bees. I say,
Now you understand
It's the fire in my eyes,
Just why my head's not bowed.
And the flash of my teeth,
I don't shout or jump about
The swing in my waist,
Or have to talk real loud.
And the joy in my feet.
When you see me passing
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Poetry Analysis “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou rejoices femininity and highlights the qualities necessary for a woman to become ‘phenomenal.’ She believes that it is not the outer beauty of a person but the inner one which makes each woman phenomenal. She critiques the biased societal expression that expects women to starve themselves in order to be considered pretty or in fact phenomenal. The poem covers the themes of self-confidence, personality and defining yourself which are topics which are rarely explored and are often disregarded. The poem is organized into four stanzas and the number of lines in each stanza varies from one another. The poem is written in free verse which allows the Maya Angelou to compose long and short sentences without any disruption. The language used by Maya Angelou is very articulate and colloquial in nature. The language so used highlights the distinct qualities of a ‘phenomenal woman.’ Although the language used is basic but it has fluent and energetic phrases to signify the inner strength of a woman which makes her ‘phenomenal.’ The tone of the poem is that of an extremely confident and strong woman who isn’t bothered by what others think of her. She finds joy in her own womanhood. And there are many examples of this throughout the poem in the first three stanzas she focuses on how others describe her and what her reaction to this point of view is. Maya Angelou portrays her strong feelings and themes through the use of carefully picked language techniques such as imagery, alliteration, refrain, personification, metaphors, irony and others… The main poetic device that is used in the poem is imagery. From lines 7-9 Maya expresses imagery by saying "The span of my hips, the stride of my step and the curl of my lips." This kind of imagery is visual because Angelou is trying to make the reader visualize a woman; a woman that is full of pride in who she is and displaying how she can hold her head up high. The second example of imagery from lines 39-42 where she says "It's in the arch of back, the sun of my smile, the ride of my breasts and the grace of my style." This sort of imagery is also visual because Maya Angelou is trying to make the reader again visualizes a woman with confidence and a sense that nothing can stop. The third and last example of imagery is from lines 54-55 where she says "It's in the click of my heels and the bend of my hair." This means that she's full of confidence from her head to toes.
“I’ve learnt that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel”- Maya Angelou 7
Poetry Analysis The second most important device used is repetition since Maya repeats the phrase “I’m a woman, Phenomenally, Phenomenal woman, that’s Me.” multiple times throughout the poem. By using this repetition Maya emphasizes to the reader the importance of her thinking that she is a phenomenal woman. Also, with her use of repetition it helps the poem flow easily and makes it more lyrical. Maya also uses metaphors throughout her poem, for example in lines 19-22 she says “Then they swarm around me, a hive of honey bees.” She means that where she walks men always follow her to see how unique she is. The metaphor flows well with the rest of the poem and shows what others think and how they act around her. Lastly she uses the poetic device alliteration through her use of the words starting with ‘F’ in the second stanza links them all together. The whole purpose is to show how fellows react to her: ‘fall’, ‘fire’, and ‘flash’. This ‘f’ echoes the ‘f’ sound written as ‘ph’ in ‘phenomenal’. I believe that her poem illustrates the love a woman has for herself even though she isn’t considered beautiful. The language and tone indicate that the speaker was abused which is then evident once you do some research into her life. Her pride has risen from the torture and neglect she experienced. Instead of being ashamed and blaming herself, she has gained hope. Through this poem she has expressed her believes on the topic of feminism which have been forged by her traumatic life experiences. I strongly again with this poem that still to this day even with feminism existing and being accepted for many years there is still a large amount of pressure placed upon women to be fit, always like beautiful, to be well dressed, where makeup and to appear sexy and hot. A lot of men still seem to overlook the inner beauty of women, there attributes, believes, morals, kindness and personality and tend to focus too deeply on the appearance of their “beloved” wife or girlfriend. The current society still has a long way to come with the pressure put on women to look “sexy”.
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“Men” When I was young, I used to
That runs down their legs. Staining their shoes.
Watch behind the curtains
When the earth rights itself again,
As men walked up and down the street. Wino men, old men.
And taste tries to return to the tongue,
Young men sharp as mustard.
Your body has slammed shut. Forever.
See them. Men are always
No keys exist.
Going somewhere. They knew I was there. Fifteen
Then the window draws full upon
Years old and starving for them.
Your mind. There, just beyond
Under my window, they would pauses,
The sway of curtains, men walk.
Their shoulders high like the
Knowing something.
Breasts of a young girl,
Going someplace.
Jacket tails slapping over
But this time, I will simply
Those behinds,
Stand and watch.
Men. Maybe. One day they hold you in the Palms of their hands, gentle, as if you Were the last raw egg in the world. Then They tighten up. Just a little. The First squeeze is nice. A quick hug. Soft into your defenselessness. A little More. The hurt begins. Wrench out a Smile that slides around the fear. When the Air disappears, Your mind pops, exploding fiercely, briefly, Like the head of a kitchen match. Shattered. It is your juice
“History, despite it’s wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need to be lived again” - Maya Angelou 9
Poetry Analysis “Men” by Maya Angelou focuses on a young woman coming of age and having her first sexual experience. It outlines the lessons she learnt from her experience as well as highlighting some problems which are evident within the society and time period in which she lived. Maya Angelou is protesting about the treatment/ vulnerability of women, rape and the role of women in society. The poem is slit into three stanza’s of free verse open form poetry which is typical of Maya Angelou, meaning it doesn’t use any meter patterns, rhythm or a musical pattern. It focuses on a strong sense of rhythm with a story telling feel. She doesn’t use many literary devices apart from imagery which she tends to use a lot. She has used very basic language not focusing so much on the technicality of poetry writing but more on telling a story and teaching a lesson. The first seven lines of the poem introduce the character, the setting and establish that she is watching men with a strong sense of pride and purpose walk by all day from behind curtains. The fact that she is watching these men from behind curtains indicates that she was confined to a house. This is a setting in which she would most probably spend the larger part of her life, either caring for relatives, looking after the house or raising a family. It was until the late 20th century that women got to enjoy the same freedom and choice as men were granted in society. Maya positioning her character behind curtains highlights the unfair treatment of women in society during the time period. The curtains also have a deep symbolic meaning they represent virginity like the unbroken maidenhead and the bridal veil. The character hiding behind the safety of her curtains represents how she is still filled with dreams and fantasies, innocence and still unaware of the disturbing truth about many of the men walking outside her window. Maya Angelou also uses quiet a lot of similes in this first stanza for example “like the breasts of young girls” and “Young men sharp as mustard”. This term sharp as mustard helps express the keen sense of pride and style which the men seem to have as they pass her window. This can be alluded to the fact that during the time period men had the leadership role in the house with the task of earning the income while women were very undermined and left to just raise the kids, having no since of pride or control very unlike the men of the house. 10
Poetry Analysis In the second stanza she begins off by stating that men initially treat you as if you were “the last raw egg in the world”, which is a great example of a simile. But soon enough, they become rougher she explains “The first squeeze is nice. A quick hug. / Soft into your defencelessness” The term defencelessness shows that the girl is innocent, unsuspecting and over powered. And the term squeeze is symbolic of a man’s casual cruelty or his possessiveness since during this time period men still thought they were superior. She explains through the lines “Wrench out a / Smile that slides around the fear. When the/Air disappears,” how she learnt a felt as if she should dissemble and hide her fear. This is extremely telling of how scared women were of men during the time period; if a women was to step out of line they would be abused, assaulted and disrespected even further. Through this protest Maya Angelou was trying improve this situation for women and help secure rights for women. The final eight lines of the stanza are filled with metaphor, relating the girl’s traumatic loss of virginity and innocence. Maya Angelou uses very graphical imagery and metaphors to communicate this message to her readers for example the lines “Your mind pops, exploding fiercely, briefly, / like the head of a kitchen match. Shattered. / It is your juice / that runs down their legs. Staining their shoes.” After this experience the girl will never be the same; Maya Angelou focuses on the changes on the girl’s body and how she “has slammed shut. Forever.” Her heavy use of each full stop in her punctuation helps to deepen this harsh ending. Maya Angelou uses the very smart technique of using the repetition of the men outside the window at the beginning and the end of the poem. Which in both cases they are going places and at the end she understands they know something. The only transformation is now she has learnt something about the men.
I really enjoyed this poem because it reminded me of myself and my family. The line "Fifteen years old and starving for them" really connects with me because I am also fifteen and I remember a few years ago my Dad telling me how he saw the way I was starting to look at girls, but he trusted me to do the right thing. I like the way how unlike many other poets she focuses more on telling a story and in most cases such as this a very personal and true story instead of some poem overly filled with poetic devices and fancy language. Maya’s poetry connects more with the reader which really helps to communicate the themes/topics which she is trying to protest about and I believe she has done this very well in this poem.
“I believe the most important single thing , beyond discipline and creativity , is daring to dare”- Maya Angelou 11
The Lioness When I was young I had no father
In their false sense of superiority.
To live a life without a dad is to
When will this injustice stop?
Be a heart half filled With the leader far away
It’s hard to know that I only had half a life
I am left with our cubs who will only discover half the map
And my children are doomed the same fate.
To the journey of life.
Not ever finding the other half of the map
They try to endure like I once did
Even though it’s in plain sight.
Life without half a guide, generation after generation
To have it close and yet so far leaves a life so incomplete.
When will this injustice end?
When will this injustice stop?
We can see the lion on the edge of the prides land. Lying on his omnipotent rock surrounded by the tall grasses of the savannah With the wind blowing through his mane of pride. It does not pass his mind at all To provide or raise his cubs, for that is my job. He doesn’t burden himself with the task of hunting for the pride Or providing for the cubs. Yet receives authority and control. When will this injustice stop?
From the rising to the setting of the golden orb I feed, care and protect my cubs. Each day goes by without my other half To share in the labour of the daily struggles. It’s tough to have all the responsibility and stress on your shoulder While you watch your life partner lounge around
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Rationale Maya Angelou tended to right a free verse open form of poetry, meaning it doesn’t use any meter patterns, rhythm or a musical pattern. It focuses on a strong sense of rhythm with a story telling feel. She doesn’t use many literary devices apart from imagery which she tends to use a lot. She uses very basic language not focusing so much on the technicality of poetry writing but more on telling a story and teaching a lesson. She is also very open, honest and she shows her emotions. I imitated her style of writing through constructing an open free verse poem, which used rather basic language but incorporated and told a story; almost like a narrative. This construction of a narrative/story like poem was probably the most important and vital part in writing a poem in the style of Maya Angelou. Maya Angelou was well known for her use of imagery within most of her poems, I tried to incorporate quiet a few examples of imagery such as “With the wind blowing through his mane of pride.” into my poem. I tried to imitate her use of repetition of a powerful phrase at the end of each stanza which was very prominent and effective within her poem “Phenomenal Woman”. I chose to write my poem about the feminist protest which really took off during the 1960’s, it was based on getting equal rights for both men and women. I believe this is still a very pressing issue within our society today evolving things to do with the pressure of society, sex stereo types, traditional roles of the different sexes and the topic of divorce especially rights for men within this area. My poem is written in the point of view of a lioness because I was trying to use an analogy of an animal for my poem which Maya Angelou did in her poem “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” which was based around the point of view of a trapped bird. I believe I did this rather successfully and it gave a fresh perceptive of the feminist protest. In my poem I was protesting about the role of women and men within out society, and how still in many countries around the world women are often left alone to raise and provide for their children. I also focus on how not only does it effect the woman but also the children who are left without a farther figure often resulting in a cycle of this issue; generation after generation. Since the children never have a farther figure themselves and are often lead astray. I believe I managed to create a poem in a similar style to Maya Angelou’s poetry style incorporating her poetic form, structure and many of her poetic and literary devices.
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Bibliography
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