The beloved Maya Angelou, born April 4th, 1928, was truly an amazing woman. All through her life, she shared love, hope, and inspiration throughout her poems, and creative writings. Even after her death at the age of 86 on May 28th, 2001, her life hasn’t gone unnoticed. She was known to have been a poet, novelist, essayist, teacher, producer, dramatist, historian, filmmaker, activist, and actress. She found her love in the performing arts as a teen. She then applied and was eligible for a scholarship to go to San Francisco's Labor School, where she studied performing arts and dance. However, at the age of 14, she dropped out and became the first female African American Cable Car Director. She first started writing when encouraged by one of her friends Dr. James Baldwin. This was when she wrote her almost-instant award-winning poem, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Throughout her life, she wrote over 30 bestsellers. This included the three styles: verse, nonfiction, and fiction. She wrote many poems, children's books, and award-winning biographies. Some of these include:
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings: 1969
Gathered Together In My Name: 1974
Singin’ and Swingin’ And Gettin’ Merry Like Christmas: 1976
All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes: 1986
A Song Flung Up To Heaven: 2002
Therefore, just because she ended up dropping out of school, her talents still were never forgotten. Her career life can be a beacon of hope to even the most underprivileged and uneducated people today.
Maya Angelou was an Afro-American writer. She believed in racial justice, and according to the article, Maya Angelou’s Writing Style: General Characteristics of Maya Angelou’s Style “Her stories are welcoming for readers as she is inviting them to share her secrets with them.” She also used persuasive and strong similes and metaphors. An example would be the poem, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” She relates to herself as a caged bird. Themes in her writing include painful loss, love, music, racism, struggle, and discrimination. “Angelou’s poetry is mainly about relationships, love, and overcoming hardships. The metaphors she used in her poetry function as litotes or “coding.” These metaphors would only be understood by black people. However, her themes and subject matter are applied universally.” She also helped influence many other African Contemporary artists. However, these mostly included women such as Paule Marshall and Gwendolyn Brooks. Throughout her autobiographies, poems, and quotes, she was known to inject hope into black people through humor. This rings true in one of her famous quotes: "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.”
Maya Angelou's creative works mostly impacted the people who suffered through racial injustice and opened the eyes of others, showing another world to people that they have never experienced. In the article, Maya Angelou’s cultural impact is not forgotten, they say. “Women sympathized and empathized with Angelou's hardscrabble life. Born poor and black, she was a childhood victim of rape, shamed into silence. She was a young single mother who had to work at strip clubs for a living. She took all of that and turned it into I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, one of the most widely read memoirs of the past few decades.” Associated Press
In the poem, Still, I Rise, written by Maya Angelou in 1978, she writes an impressive amount of metaphors. An example of this would be:
“Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
’Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.”
All throughout this poem, you can get a sense of racial injustice stirring up, and the people who are affected by it. Throughout 1929, this generation was called the Silent Generation. They were most affected by Maya Angelou, as well as Martin Luther King. Jr, who she worked alongside until he was assassinated in 1968. “Although slavery had been long abolished, Angelou saw its effects on society and the African American people. This poem is her declaration that she, for one, would not allow the hatefulness of society to determine her own success.” (Analysis-Of-Still-I-Rise-By-Maya-Angelou)
owlcation.com. Some of the themes in the poem Still I Rise (1978) would affect Generation Silent, and even some today as Racial Injustice seems to be picking back up are:
Politics
History
Trade
Oppression
Societal Issues
Individual Rights
Slavery
Peaceful Protest
Angelou can be mostly understood as a Feminist poet more than anything else. Throughout her poems, there are themes that give you this sense. An example is shown in the poem, Still, I Rise (1978) “In which she writes against oppression, and celebrates the spirit of resilience within women.” This was said by Gradesaver.com. They then go on and say as another example in the poem, Phenomenal Women (1995), “Maya Angelou celebrates self-definition and womanhood, talking about her femininity with pride.” In life works of being an Afro-American Poet, dramatist, novelist, teacher, and even critic, she made use of her poetry, by letting it speak to the heart of her readers and sharing her own thoughts on racial secularism and injustice of the American society. It was said by a writer of the International Journal of Innovation, Creativity, and Change, that “She blended the female voice in her poems to discuss several issues such as: to tell her own life to both black and white women in America, and to give a description of the unfair treatment of women that herself experienced.” Many African Americans back then, and still experience these injustices. Other African-American female writers back then who wrote along with Maya Angelou were:
Mary Oliver. (1935–2019) ...
Audre Lorde. (1934–1992) ...
Rupi Kaur. (1992– ) ...
Edna St. Vincent Millay. ...
Marge Piercy. (1936– ) ...
Adrienne Rich. (1929–2012) ...
Rita Dove. (1952– )
We know that the life of Maya Angelou wasn’t easy. She dealt with many traumas throughout her life, but the way she rose through it all, has been severely impactful in the lives of her fans, and just random strangers. She had a bold heart that spoke to weaker individuals, and her writing gave hope and life to her readers, Just about anyone can find something inspiring about Maya Angelou, you just have to know where to look. Her life story is a good example of not giving up, and that you can change the world change the world around you no matter your age, race, or religion with your creative works.
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Sources:
Maya Angelou’s Writing Style and Short Biography | LitPriest. (n.d.). Lit Priest. https://litpriest.com/authors/maya-angelou/
(2022). Study.com.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/maya-angelou-styles-of-writing-poetry.html?wvideo=fdy8a53di0
Spacey, A. (2016, October 30). Analysis of Poem “Still I Rise” by Maya Angelou. Owlcation; Owlcation. https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-Of-Still-I-Rise-By-Maya-Angelou
Maya Angelou’s cultural impact not forgotten. (2014, May 29). The National. https://www.thenationalnews.com/lifestyle/maya-angelous-cultural-impact-not-forgotten-1.241798
GradeSaver. (n.d.). Maya Angelou: Poems Essay Questions | GradeSaver. Www.gradesaver.com. Retrieved March 1, 2022, from https://www.gradesaver.com/maya-angelou-poems/study-guide/essay-questions
Sameer, A., & Hadi Ali, H. (n.d.). The Voice of African-American Women: Feminist Voice in Maya Angelou’s Selected Poems. https://www.ijicc.net/images/Vol11Iss
9 Female Poets That Inspired Us This Year. (n.d.). The Good Trade. https://www.thegoodtrade.com/features/inspiring-female-poets