Maya Angelou: My Inspirational Poet
I chose Maya Angelou out of the top 20 because honestly I wanted to choose one of the top 3 to see what a good poet’s personality is like, how they enjoy writing poems and what they go through their lifetime. Another reason I chose her is because she is different from everyone and one obvious notice is that she’s African-American and she had one tragic hard childhood to handle.
Angelou’s Biography:
Maya Angelou was in St. Louis, Missouri, on April 4, 1928 and there she grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. She not only was a poet but also an author, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. Maya is truly one great multi-tasker. She is famous for her autobiographical books which some were nominated for the National Book Award.
Angelou’s Background:
When she was three years old, her parents divorced and she and her 4-year old brother, Bailey, were sent alone, by train, to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. There, she started being a good dancer after taking a variety of dance classes. At age 8 she confessed that her mom’s boyfriend had sexually abused her and then her uncles murdered the man. She got scared of this result and become mute because she originally stated before that “the power of [her] words led to someone’s death.” After years of struggles she begins speaking again at the age of 13. Afterwards, in 1940, she spent the summer with her father in Los Angeles and was attacked by her father’s girlfriend. This caused her to run away and live in a junkyard and there she lived with homeless children. She finally called her mother and was sent a bus ticket to come back to live with her mom. When she was 16 she got pregnant and had a son that later became a poet. To make money for the son she became a singer at a nightclub. After that in 1952 she married a Greek sailor named Angelos. She now is alive at the age of 78 and is one of the most recognizable woman in the world as she has been interviewed in recent years in Larry King Live and Oprah Show.
One of her poems:
Alone
by Maya Angelou
Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don’t believe I’m wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
There are some millionaires
With money they can’t use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They’ve got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Now if you listen closely
I’ll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
‘Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Analysis:
I enjoy her poem as it sent a great message out to the world which I think is stand out for yourself no matter what and even if you’re alone you’ll make it of what you want to be. This poem actually describes her life as she was alone with out a mom or dad for so long yet she is so well-known now after all she went through in her childhood. She included a lot of figurative language that made it more poetic despite that this poem was clear and easy to understand. Something I realized was that she repeated a lot of word at times.
A question I would ask Maya is that: Does she always describe herself in her poems as she did in this one with saying how she was with nobody and alone and yet made it at such a high level? Another question I would ask her is: How did she manage in such dramatic life time to be a poet, author, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist at the same time?
Maya Angelou used most of the figurative language I know of to write this poem. She used rhymes of a simple AB,AB pattern like when she said in the 3rd stanza with one of her end rimes was: “With money they can’t use” (and continued with) “Their children sing the blues” She also used personification when she said in the first stanza: “Where water is not thirsty” She wrote repetition too when she kept saying “alone” and “nobody” in her poem. Finally it also had similes when she said “There are some millionaires” (next line) “With money they can’t use” (next line) “Their wives run round like banshees” because here she was comparing wives of millionaires to banshees. And finally she used alliteration when she said “alone all alone.”
