Literary Analysis Essay on Maya Angelou's Poems

Introduction

Maya Angelou is regarded is among the leading poets of all times. While most of her poems relatively have similar themes, their delivery is different. In her poetry, Angelou has employed various literary techniques including imagery and diverse rhythm that have enabled her to effectively convey her message to the readers. Most of Angelou's works focus on women empowerment especially their ability to overcome gender and racial discrimination, as well as, a societal measure of beauty. Her two poems including Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise to support these themes. Therefore, this paper offers a literary analysis of Phenomenal Woman and Still I Rise.

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Still, I Rise

Still, I Rise is one of the outstanding poems by Maya Angelou. Literally, it is a sarcastic response to individuals who discriminate women. Angelou states that the poem figuratively explains her strengths to overcome the battle against those who criticize her and her ancestors. However, in the global context, the poem conveys people's outstanding strengths and abilities to deal with discrimination and overcome hurt. Primarily, this poem describes Angelou's ability and strength to rise above race and gender discrimination and encourage people suffering from similar problems.

Angelou uses accusatory tone to attract readers' attention and enable them to understand that they significantly contribute to other people's oppression. Using the second person pronoun "you" makes the poem and allows the narrator to express her view and feelings on racial and gender discrimination. For instance, at times, Angelou's tone is humorous and playful, but extremely powerful and strong in other cases. This is particularly apparent when the narrator uses serious and severe tones to patronizingly and playful ones in different stanzas of the poem. For instance, in stanzas 2, 5, and 7 Angelou uses patronizing and humorous tone while in stanzas 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 9, she uses a prideful and more serious tone (Cheney-Rice, 2014).

To support tones in the poem, Angelou has used repetition of "I rise" in the entire poem to demonstrate that she has overcome and risen above racial discrimination. In the line, "you may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust ill rise", Angelou indicates to the readers that regardless of how unfairly others may treat her due to her skin color, she will not relent and that she will stand up again (Iqbal, & Parveen, 2018). She also uses repetition to express her determination to deal with obstacles that she faces in her life thus offering the poem a sense of strength.

In addition to repetition, Angelou uses metaphor to put her points across. For instance, she uses imagery, "I am Black Ocean" (33) to reinforce important messages of the poem (Cheney-Rice, 2014). First, given that black color is often used to indicate bad things such as fear or evil, a "black ocean" could imply an ocean full of cruelty and the manner in which things happen unpredictably. Comparatively, this may imply the personal life of the narrator characterized by stressful and surprising occurrences. Another implication of ocean would be power and massiveness in strong waves and obstinate tides. Intuitively, this can be linked to Angelou's tone and trait with which she guides the structure and flow of the poem. Finally, the "black ocean" also signify Angelou's race and this enables audience to appreciate the fact that racial discrimination is a major theme of the poem. Therefore, through metaphor, Angelou expresses the dominant theme of racial discrimination in the entire poem.

The phrase "trod" is diction that has an interesting connotation. As used in the poem, it seems to imply a kind of detachment in how white persons discriminate against their black counterparts. "Trod" is a common action of animals. Therefore, using it shows a high level of disrespect as it implies that white people view their black counterparts as less human and unfit to associate with. As a result, the whites crush and demean their black counterparts as they metaphorically steep on them.

Angelou also uses rhyme in her poem. In the entire poem, the narrator employs A-B-C-B rhyme pattern. For instance, "You may write me down in history, with your bitter twisted lies, you may tread me in the very dirt, but still, like dust, I'll rise" (Cheney-Rice, 2014). This rhyme stresses on the words "lies" and" rise", which are essential because even when white people express outright lies about black Americans and how they belonged to two different social classes, Angelou managed to overcome that and rose above the set standards to accept herself even when other race existed. Therefore, this rhyme motivates readers and enables them to understand that they can also overcome the challenges they face.

Using similes in the poem also enabled Angelou to successfully put across her message to the audience. For instance, "Just like moons and like suns....... Still, I'll rise", the narrator compares herself to the sun and the moon (Cheney-Rice, 2014). Intuitively, the popular phrase, "the sun will often rise tomorrow" openly relate to this simile since by comparing herself to the sun, the narrator connotes to the audience that she is optimistic and that she will rise again the same way the sun does regardless of what happens to her. Therefore, by depicting her resilient and determined attitude not to accept the demands of her oppressors, Angelou reinforces central message of the poem. Using similes also help disclose Angelou's powerful and bold attitude.

Phenomenal Woman

The phenomenal woman is another poem written by Maya Angelou that focuses on women empowerment. Angelou believes that a phenomenal woman is one who is not necessary but one whose beauty emanates by having a strong mindset and attitudes about her abilities (Madden, 2009). She hardly conforms to societal standards and norms but instead builds a character that is based on what she thinks is right. She depicts in the poem a character that rises above what society believes is physically beautiful and constructs a woman who has a strong personality and correct attitude in identifying her position and role in the society.

The poem Phenomenal Woman is written in free verse and irregular rhyme pattern. It also lacks clear rhythmic ebb and flows when read loudly. When paired with how lines appear in the poem, this rhythm suggests various body curves that female form thus allowing the structure of the poem to stress on themes of natural feminine and beauty.

Angelou employs repetition in the entire poem to stress her main point. For instance, she creates rhythm in lines 6-9 to describe her feminine qualities in a predictable way in the entire poem. More importantly, Angelou employs repetition on the last four lines of every stanza to reinforce her central message of the poem. That is, her beauty, power, and grace emanate from her intrinsic femininity and not physical quality granted by the society.

The use of symbolism helps the speaker to describe how females can become confident women. Angelou explains how she rose above everything although she clearly understood that she was imperfect. In the second line, she says," I'm not cute or built to suite a fashion model's size". This indicates that she is confident in herself although she is not tall, skinny or beautiful as other models but unique and beautiful in her own ways. The symbolism used in this poem are so remarkable that every woman can tend to believe that they are phenomenal as well. They also help women to depict their inner strengths by believing in themselves.

The tone used in this poem is profoundly written with passion, making it easy for readers to understand the poem. Nongkhlaw (2010) noted that pressure is often piled on women to become beautiful and that they usually do everything possible to look beautiful. Nonetheless, Angelou uses a compassionate tone to explain that every woman should be proud of how she looks and that she should be confident in herself too. For instance, at the end of each stanza, she says, "Phenomenally, Phenomenal women, that's me" (Paster, 2017). Intuitively, this statement describes her strong belief in herself and how she is proud of being a woman. The passionate and strong tone that Angelou uses in the entire poem assists readers to understand the pain that she feels and understand her strength and self-confidence in her beauty.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Angelou's Still I Rise and Phenomenal Woman are considered some of the outstanding poems because of their abilities to depict an empowered woman who can overcome racial and gender discrimination, as well as, what societal standards of measuring beauty. Therefore, by combining these features, these poems motivate many women and inform them of the need to have self-confidence and rise above societal norms, standards, and beliefs.

References

Cheney-Rice, Z. (2014). Maya Angelou's 'still I rise' holds a powerful lesson for today's America. Retrieved December 29, 2018, from https://mic.com/articles/90129/maya-angelou-s-still-i-rise-holds-a-powerful-lesson-for-today-s-america#.FUWkBNUbrIqbal, Z., & Parveen, S. (2018). The poetics of black feminist narrative. A literary analysis of Maya Angelou's poetry.

Madden, F. (2009). Exploring Literature: Writing and arguing about fiction, poetry, drama, and the essay. (4th Ed.). New York: Pearson Longman.

Nongkhlaw, P. K. (2010). The theme of the phenomenal woman in Maya Angelou's poetry (Doctoral dissertation).

Paster, J. (2017, March 3). "Phenomenal Woman" by Maya Angelou - Poetry And/As Translation. Retrieved December 29, 2018, from https://scholarblogs.emory.edu/complit203/2017/03/03/julia/