![]() However, unlike Dunbar’s poem, Caged Bird illustrates the differences between blacks and whites by also talking about a bird which is free and thus “dares to claim the sky”. This poem is inspired by the same poem, and like Sympathy, uses the imagery of a caged bird to dwell on the oppression faced by African Americans. Maya Angelou’s most famous work, her first autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, takes its name from a line in the poem Sympathy by African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. His wings are clipped and his feet are tied With themes of human rights, peace and social justice, A Brave and Startling Truth, was written for 50th anniversary of the United Nations in 1995 and read by Maya Angelou at the commemoration.Īnd the trade winds soft through the sighing treesĪnd the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawnīut a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams It is only then that we will be able to achieve our true potential and realize that true wonders of this world are actually we. However, she believes true achievement would be to give up hostilities and embrace peace. In this poem, Angelou talks about the history of the human race which has tried to make civilization great through accomplishments like building marvelous monuments and gathering knowledge. To lie in identical plots in foreign soil No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hateĪnd faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean It is possible and imperative that we learn Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns #5 A Brave and Startling Truth Published:Įxcerpt:- We, this people, on a small and lonely planet One of Angelou’s most famous poems, Alone stresses on the basic need of humans to have people around them and the dangers of the world moving away from valuing the importance of others in our lives. She then talks about the rich with “their hearts of stone” and about the difficult times which are approaching. In this poem, the narrator makes a discovery while lying late at night that no one “ can make it out here alone”. In the first stanza, Angelou compares Africa to a beautiful woman in the second she talks about the white invaders who “took her young daughters”, “sold her strong sons” and “bled her with guns” and in the last she ends with renewed hope as Africa is “rising” and “striding” again. In this poem, Angelou talks about the history of the continent of Africa with its resources plundered by European imperialists and its people taken as slaves. ![]() Touched by An Angel is one of Angelou’s most popular poems on the theme of love. Angelou uses words and phrases related to birth and children like “coiled in shells” and “weaned” to suggest that it is the touch of love which makes a person come of age and which helps her do away with “ancient histories of pain”, “chains of fear” and “shells of loneliness”. In this poem, the narrator tells us, in numerous ways, the importance in our lives of love, without which we are in “exiles from delight”. When I Think About Myself is perhaps the most famous poem from Angelou’s first poetry collection Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie, which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. The narrator has lived for more than sixty years in “these folks’ world” and now she chooses to laugh at her painful past, albeit the laughter chokes, aches and makes her cry. The central theme of the poem is self-pride that prevents one from losing one’s will in spite of experiences involving degradation. In this poem, Angelou presents the perspective of an aging maid to make a statement about blacks surviving in a world dominated by whites. The tales they tell, sound just like lying, In Woman Work, Angelou conveys masterfully a housewife’s want for rest from her tiring and mundane work, making it one of her most popular and relatable poems on women. The remaining paragraphs are more relaxed as the woman takes solace in nature and the poem ends with the woman expressing that elements of nature are “all that I can call my own”. In the first stanza, she lists, without complaining, the various household chores she has to complete in a single day. In this poem, the narrator is a stay-at-home mother who is engaged in a long day of tiring work.
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