Biography
Maya Angelou was an African American who was born as Marguerite Johnson on April 4th, 1928. She lived with her grandma, her cripples uncle and brother. Her grandma began a business of selling hot meals to workers and eventually built the Johnson Grocery store serving both whites and blacks. She was taught values and faith from a young age. She attended San Francisco’s Labor School on on a scholarship to study art and drama. However, she pulled out at the age of 14 to become San Francisco’s first African-American female cable car conductor. She had a child just after she left highschool and supported him by working as a waitress and cook. She then soon become a writer and poet. Maya Angelou face racism, single parenting, over-coming poverty, seeking higher education, creating wealth, living through and participating in the civil rights movement. Maya Angelou has written 36 books and has recieved many awards for her work. She died 28th May 2014 as a celebrated poet, memoirist, educator, dramatist, producer, actress, historian, filmmaker, and civil rights activist.
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Poem- Equality
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Analysis |
In the poem 'Equality' by Maya Angelo, the theme of equality and racism is conveyed through the use of metaphors and repetition. It is also conveyed through the rhyme scheme. Angelo uses the repeated metaphor that her voice and her passion are like a drum. When she write 'while my drums beat out the message' this a metaphor for here voice is sharing her thoughts, showing that she cannot be silenced. She refers to 'you' as the white authority and 'we' as the Black Americans. Maya Angelou claims that the whites have turned a blind eye and deaf ear to the issues of racism and is asking them to admit there is a problem. She writes 'Take the blinders from your vision, Take the padding from your ears, And confess you’ve heard me crying, And admit you’ve seen my tears.', this stanza is very powerful and uses words like 'blinders' and 'padding' as a metaphor for their ignorance to the issue. She is not suggesting that they need to change but is demanding them to change. Maya also repeats the line 'Equality, and i will be free' six times through out the poem. This emphasises that all she wants is to be free to be her own person and the only was that can happen is if everyone else accepts equality and treats other races equally. The rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD... also shows that there is a continuos pattern and that the poets mind will not change about this topic. Maya Angelo uses a variety of techniques to convey the theme of equality and racism.
ContextWhen looking at this poem it is important to know about the poets context in order to make sense of the poem. If you didn't know that Maya had experienced first hand racism or even just that she was an African American herself would have given a lot less meaning to the poem. She was also introduced to the idea of equality at a young age by her grandmother and this was very important in building her character to who she is today. In order to understand poetry, especially protest poetry, it is important to know about the authors background.
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