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ENGLISH LITERATURE ASSIGNMENT
ANALYSIS OF POEMS
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. She is an American author, poet and auto biographer. She has published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She has received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. An acclaimed American poet, Angelou has had a varied career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood's first female black director, but is most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She has also been an educator and is currently the Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
I shall discuss a few poems out of her collection of brilliant poems namely “ALONE”, “WHEN I THINK ABOUT MYSELF”, “FOR BAILEY” and “THE LIE”.
ALONE
The poet tells us about the condition of human being when one is alone through her eyes as she knows the pain of being alone. Where things are not supposed to be rather things are as they are. She tells us how important it is to have someone by your side whom you can have a relationship with, who can fill the empty gaps in your life as everyone needs love and care in their lives. There are people who are millionaires and have lots of money but they don’t know what to do with so much money because money can’t buy you happiness neither expensive doctors can give you happiness by treating you or giving you medicines. They long for someone special in their life with whom they could share a great bond and who can make them happy. There are going to be sad and difficult times. The present and future of human beings is in trouble, danger, and destruction. There is going to be a disaster. Human race is suffering which shows the unhappiness in their life as they long for someone in their life with whom they can share their pains, sufferings and worries.
Quotes from “AFRICA”:
“Thus she had lain
Sugarcane sweet
Deserts her hair
Golden her feet
Mountain her breasts
Two Niles her tears.
Thus she has lain
Black through the year.”
This quote says the story about a girl whose condition is bad as she says a lie about herself to keep herself happy that whatever she has is beautiful and perfect but the fact is that she is really sad deep down. She doesn’t tell it to anyone but she really needs someone know her pain and be with her as she is sick of pretending. She wants someone by her side to love her and protect her.
WHEN I THINK ABOUT MYSELF
In this poem the poet talks about the underprivileged people who suffer allot due oppression. She talks about how she sarcastically laughs at herself as she remembers her past and thinks of it as a joke. Her life is dull an exactly the opposite of what she wanted it to be. Then she laughter is painful as she is unhappy of what is happening in her life. The way she thinks about herself is what the whites think about them. Sixty years of her life she has spent working for the whites and the child who was younger to her calls her girl and she calls ma’am for the reason that is their servant. This shows how even kids did not give respect to the blacks as they were taught that blacks were inferior. she does want to submit herself but she continues to work with pride as even she is poor and it is her need. Her folks also accepted the views of whites about themselves. The stories that they tell seems like a lie. Blacks did all the work and the whites took away the profit of their hard work.
Quotes from STILL I RISE:
“You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
This quote says that you people may be strong and you can suppress me for now but there will be a time when I will stand for myself and will fight against all the injustice that has been done to me now.
“Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by soulful cries?”
This quote tells us about the question that the suppressed people are asking from the suppressors that what do they want them to do. They are asking that what were their wishes to see them broken or to be present for serving you all our lives but for what reason what have we done to you. We haven’t caused any harm to you then why are you causing us so much pain and why do you expect us to behave in a manner you ask us to behave.
FOR BAILEY
In this poem the poet talks about a brother and a sister who has such bond that they feel that they were connected much before they were born. This poem is being narrated by the sister. In the first paragraph she talks about their bond even before their birth that is at the time of primitive humans, monsters and witches. In the second stanza she talks about adulthood where after he leaves her, she is longing for love and care but nobody is ready to give her love in the way she wanted rather the other people looked at her with eyes full of lust but she needed someone to love her as a brother. In the third stanza she continues to talk about adulthood and how he becomes a drug addict and tries to die as he believes that death is followed by life. He took a wrong way to find a new life. In the fourth stanza she talks about their childhood where they used to go for a walk and tell their feelings to each other in whispers so that nobody else could hear it. There is where it signifies companionship, happiness, memories of their childhood, trust on each other and their bond. In the fifth stanza she talks about her brother being in rehab where he experiences pain and suffering and how she could feel the pain which her brother was experiencing. In the sixth stanza she talks about the happy memories that they have had together in their beautiful childhood. She highlights the beauty of their bond.
THE LIE
The poem talks about a lover is threatening his lady that he would leave her and she is terribly hurt and is angry and is trying to prevent him from going. She has so much to say that will stop him from going but she is not able to do so. She tries cause hurt and pain to him so that he doesn’t leave her alone. She has the immediate desire to hold him back. Then she speaks about a reaction that she kept back of the pain at hearing that the lover wants to leave. She even explains her feelings by telling us how tears are about to fall but she is trying stop them which is creating a pressure in her ducts and she is wanting to scream out loud but she can’t so she even feels that pressure in her throat. Then she finally expresses herself but in a different way which does not show her pain rather seemed uncanny and careless as well as casual as if it does not affect her at all but the purpose was to make him jealous and to make him suffer. The truth is that she is broken from inside and wants him back in her life at cost of making him feel jealous by telling him lies. She even say the words aloud so as to leave a impact on him and so that he doesn’t ignore her what she is trying to say. The sheer pain she feels when she experiences loss of love in her life is unbearable for her and she is trying to hold him back with as much efforts as she can. In the end she says that drop a message or telephone by which she somewhere in her hearts wants that even if he does not stay back his last message or call will be with her as a his last memory of either a voice note or a text.
Quote from AMERICA:
“The gold of her promise
Has never been mined”
The quote says that the things that belonged to her or everything that she owned wasn’t given to her.
“Her crops of abundance
The fruit and the grain
Have not fed the hungry
Nor eased that deep pain”
The quote says that she owned so many things but still it didn’t get used up in any way nor did it heel the her wounds and her pain for the love and lost.
ANALYSIS OF POEMS
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. She is an American author, poet and auto biographer. She has published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She has received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of seven autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. An acclaimed American poet, Angelou has had a varied career as a singer, dancer, actress, composer, and Hollywood's first female black director, but is most famous as a writer, editor, essayist, playwright, and poet. As a civil rights activist, Angelou worked for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. She has also been an educator and is currently the Reynolds professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University.
I shall discuss a few poems out of her collection of brilliant poems namely “ALONE”, “WHEN I THINK ABOUT MYSELF”, “FOR BAILEY” and “THE LIE”.
ALONE
The poet tells us about the condition of human being when one is alone through her eyes as she knows the pain of being alone. Where things are not supposed to be rather things are as they are. She tells us how important it is to have someone by your side whom you can have a relationship with, who can fill the empty gaps in your life as everyone needs love and care in their lives. There are people who are millionaires and have lots of money but they don’t know what to do with so much money because money can’t buy you happiness neither expensive doctors can give you happiness by treating you or giving you medicines. They long for someone special in their life with whom they could share a great bond and who can make them happy. There are going to be sad and difficult times. The present and future of human beings is in trouble, danger, and destruction. There is going to be a disaster. Human race is suffering which shows the unhappiness in their life as they long for someone in their life with whom they can share their pains, sufferings and worries.
Quotes from “AFRICA”:
“Thus she had lain
Sugarcane sweet
Deserts her hair
Golden her feet
Mountain her breasts
Two Niles her tears.
Thus she has lain
Black through the year.”
This quote says the story about a girl whose condition is bad as she says a lie about herself to keep herself happy that whatever she has is beautiful and perfect but the fact is that she is really sad deep down. She doesn’t tell it to anyone but she really needs someone know her pain and be with her as she is sick of pretending. She wants someone by her side to love her and protect her.
WHEN I THINK ABOUT MYSELF
In this poem the poet talks about the underprivileged people who suffer allot due oppression. She talks about how she sarcastically laughs at herself as she remembers her past and thinks of it as a joke. Her life is dull an exactly the opposite of what she wanted it to be. Then she laughter is painful as she is unhappy of what is happening in her life. The way she thinks about herself is what the whites think about them. Sixty years of her life she has spent working for the whites and the child who was younger to her calls her girl and she calls ma’am for the reason that is their servant. This shows how even kids did not give respect to the blacks as they were taught that blacks were inferior. she does want to submit herself but she continues to work with pride as even she is poor and it is her need. Her folks also accepted the views of whites about themselves. The stories that they tell seems like a lie. Blacks did all the work and the whites took away the profit of their hard work.
Quotes from STILL I RISE:
“You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
This quote says that you people may be strong and you can suppress me for now but there will be a time when I will stand for myself and will fight against all the injustice that has been done to me now.
“Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops,
Weakened by soulful cries?”
This quote tells us about the question that the suppressed people are asking from the suppressors that what do they want them to do. They are asking that what were their wishes to see them broken or to be present for serving you all our lives but for what reason what have we done to you. We haven’t caused any harm to you then why are you causing us so much pain and why do you expect us to behave in a manner you ask us to behave.
FOR BAILEY
In this poem the poet talks about a brother and a sister who has such bond that they feel that they were connected much before they were born. This poem is being narrated by the sister. In the first paragraph she talks about their bond even before their birth that is at the time of primitive humans, monsters and witches. In the second stanza she talks about adulthood where after he leaves her, she is longing for love and care but nobody is ready to give her love in the way she wanted rather the other people looked at her with eyes full of lust but she needed someone to love her as a brother. In the third stanza she continues to talk about adulthood and how he becomes a drug addict and tries to die as he believes that death is followed by life. He took a wrong way to find a new life. In the fourth stanza she talks about their childhood where they used to go for a walk and tell their feelings to each other in whispers so that nobody else could hear it. There is where it signifies companionship, happiness, memories of their childhood, trust on each other and their bond. In the fifth stanza she talks about her brother being in rehab where he experiences pain and suffering and how she could feel the pain which her brother was experiencing. In the sixth stanza she talks about the happy memories that they have had together in their beautiful childhood. She highlights the beauty of their bond.
THE LIE
The poem talks about a lover is threatening his lady that he would leave her and she is terribly hurt and is angry and is trying to prevent him from going. She has so much to say that will stop him from going but she is not able to do so. She tries cause hurt and pain to him so that he doesn’t leave her alone. She has the immediate desire to hold him back. Then she speaks about a reaction that she kept back of the pain at hearing that the lover wants to leave. She even explains her feelings by telling us how tears are about to fall but she is trying stop them which is creating a pressure in her ducts and she is wanting to scream out loud but she can’t so she even feels that pressure in her throat. Then she finally expresses herself but in a different way which does not show her pain rather seemed uncanny and careless as well as casual as if it does not affect her at all but the purpose was to make him jealous and to make him suffer. The truth is that she is broken from inside and wants him back in her life at cost of making him feel jealous by telling him lies. She even say the words aloud so as to leave a impact on him and so that he doesn’t ignore her what she is trying to say. The sheer pain she feels when she experiences loss of love in her life is unbearable for her and she is trying to hold him back with as much efforts as she can. In the end she says that drop a message or telephone by which she somewhere in her hearts wants that even if he does not stay back his last message or call will be with her as a his last memory of either a voice note or a text.
Quote from AMERICA:
“The gold of her promise
Has never been mined”
The quote says that the things that belonged to her or everything that she owned wasn’t given to her.
“Her crops of abundance
The fruit and the grain
Have not fed the hungry
Nor eased that deep pain”
The quote says that she owned so many things but still it didn’t get used up in any way nor did it heel the her wounds and her pain for the love and lost.