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Maya Angelou
March 6th, 2007 by annnee
Maya Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928 and grew up in Arkansas. She is known for being a poet, author, songwriter, playwright, historian, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, singer, performer, and civil rights protestor. Although she was known for doing many things, she is best known for her autobiographical books. Some of her books were nominated for the National Book Award. She also wrote and published many volumes of poetry and apparently, some of her poetry volume was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
In 1959, Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference because it was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s request. From 1961 to 1962, she became the associate editor of The Arab Observer in Egypt which was the only news weekly written in English in the Middle East at the time. From 1964 to 1966, she spent some of her time in Africa and was the feature editor of the African Review in Ghana.
After some time in foreign lands, she returned to the U.S. in 1974. Gerald Ford picked her to be at the Bicentennial Commission (a celebration of a government agency) and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission (celebration) for International Woman of the Year. In 1981, she accepted a job as a Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. In 1993, President Bill Clinton requested Maya Angelou to write a poem for him at his inauguration. She did what he had requested and wrote a poem called “On The Pulse of the Morning”.
Maya Angelou is the first African-American woman director to be in Hollywood. She has written, produced, directed, and acted in numerous plays, movies, and television. In 1971, she wrote the original screenplay/script and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia. In addition, she wrote several documentaries, and a few of them won prizes. She was also nominated twice for the Tony award for her wonderful acting in her Broadway debut in 1973 and her play in 1977. She is now 79 years old (as of 2007) and living a peaceful life.
Alone
Written 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.
Discussion
I like this poem because it tells us about reality and how these words are true. I can see the message and it is powerful. Indeed millionaires can have loads of money but they don’t know how to use it wisely. I liked how she used some alliteration in this poem. I especially like the lines, “Where water is not thirsty” and “And bread loaf is not stone”. What I didn’t like though is that she used a lot of repeats and it’s a tad bit short. A few questions about this is that why did she choose to write about reality? Why couldn’t she have made this longer? Why did she assume millionaires have stone hearts? Overall, this poem is good.
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