Maya Angelou

1
Poetry
Maya Angelou
Emily Ehrlich, Lauren Sharp, and Ryan Parker
2
About Her Life

• Born in St. Louis, Missouri
• She was the daughter of Bailey and Vivian
• Her parents were divorced in 1952
• Went through many jobs
• Read On the Pulse of Morning at Bill Clintons
  presidential inauguration.

April 4, 1928 - ?
3
Influences

• Was raped by her mothers boyfriend (8)
• Grew up in a predominantly white society
• Had many odd jobs
• Divorced her first husband
• She had a illegitimate son named Clyde (16)
• She lived in numerous exotic places

4
Themes

• Black Rights ex Harlem Hopscotch
• People are all Equal ex Human Family
• Love ex A Kind of Love Some Say
• Loneliness ex Greyday
• Problems of Mankind ex Human Family

5
Criticism
Positive
Negative

• Gather Together in My Name is a little shorter
  and thinner than its predecessor telling of an
  episodic, searching and wandering period in Maya
  Angelous life, it lacks the density of childhood
• Personal experience has not been examined, it
  has been turned into a sort of propaganda.
• Hers is not a major poetical voice she seldom
  dazzles-or tries to- and at times her addiction
  to rhyme betrays her to banality.

• Inspiring and Wonderful
• Lovely and Touching
• The Imagery is tangible, the emotion is strong
  and proud
• Her metaphors are strong and right her similes
  less often so.
• Maya Angelou writes like a song, and like the
  truth.
• Angelou accomplishes the rare feat of laying her
  own life open to a readers scrutiny without the
  reflex-covering gesture of melodrama or shame.
  And as she reveals herself, so does she reveal
  the black community, with a quiet pride, a
  painful candor, and a clean anger.

6
We Agree

• writes about things she believes in
• desire to always rhyme takes away originality
• emotion is strong and full of pride

7
We Disagree

• Doesnt write like a song, not exactly about
  truth
• Does go into detail about personal
  life/experience
• Doesnt have quiet pride about black community

8
Commonalities
Repetition
Rhyme

• Rhyme
• Rhythm
• Repetition
• Imagery

Imagery
Rhythm
9
Quotes

• As far as I knew white women were never lonely,
  except in books. White men adored them, Black men
  desired them and Black women worked for them.
• History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be
  unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be
  lived again.
• I believe we are still so innocent. The species
  are still so innocent that a person who is apt to
  be murdered believes that the murderer, just
  before he puts the final wrench on his throat,
  will have enough compassion to give him one sweet
  cup of water.
• Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past,
  threatens the future and renders the present
  inaccessible.
• The fact that the adult American Negro female
  emerges a formidable character is often met with
  amazement, distaste, and even belligerence. It is
  seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the
  struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect
  if not enthusiastic acceptance.

10
List of Works Cited
"Maya Angelou."Contemporary Literary Criticism.
12 edition. 1980."Maya Angelou."Contemporary
Literary Criticism. 35 edition. 1985."Maya
Angelou." African American Literature Book Club.
2007. 18 Apr 2007lt http//aalbc.com/authors/maya.
htmgt"Maya Angelou." Maya Angelou. 2002. 17 Apr
2007lthttp//www.mayaangelou.com/gt.Angelou,
Maya. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York,
NY Bantam Books, 1970.Maya Angelou. 1999.
Circle Association. 17 Apr 2007lthttp//www.math.b
uffalo.edu/sww/angelou/poems-ma.htmlgt.Angelou,
Maya. I Shall Not Be Moved Poems. New York, NY
Random House, 1997."Portrait." Steve Dunwell
Photographer. 19 Apr 2007ltwww.backbaypress.com/po
rtrait-01.htmlgt."Maya Angelou." Time. 18 Apr
2007ltwww.cs.cmu.edu/.../2005_11_01_archive.htmlgt.
"Maya Angelou." Architects of Peace. 2007. The
Jesuit university in Silicon Valley The Markkula
Center for Applied Ethics. 20 Apr
2007ltwww.scu.edu/.../Angelou/homepage.htmlgt.