Background
Different writers have different ways of presenting their artistic works. While some artists use a similar trend in the performance of their works, others employ distinct trends. For instance, musicians can adopt a similar style of producing their works through the lyrics, tone or message in their songs. This Literary analysis is structured to analyze how Maya Angelou’s Woman Work, Caged Bird, and Still I Rise and uses a similar theme in conveying their intended message. Like musicians, poets also develop certain styles while composing their poems in tone or message (Chandio et al.36-47). Maya Angelou is no exception to the above characteristics; in most of her works, the prolific writer has a similar theme in most of her poems.
Having experienced life under the Civil Rights Movement common in the US in the 1960s, Angelou experienced several incidents that shaped the theme of most of her poems. In her three poems subject to this analysis, Maya Angelou has employed a self-comforting tone to show how perseverance and confidence are key in surviving any environment (Chandio et al.36-47). The three poems have been used to signify the kind of hardship several people were going through in the United States during slavery. In the three poems, the author uses personification such as trees, birds, and dust to convey her message. For instance, in the Caged Bird, the author symbolically uses two birds to show how one Bird is oppressed while the other is free.
Caged Bird
Caged Bird was printed in Maya’s 1983 poems gathering Shaker, ‘Why Don’t You Sing?’ The sonnet describes the contrasting experiences among two animals: one fowl is clever to stay in the landscape as it gratifies, while a dissimilar caged bird agonizes in custody. Because of its reflective suffering, the detained Bird warbles to manage its situations and prompt its longing for liberty. Using the lengthy metaphor of the dual birds, Angelou tints a serious portrait of coercion. The author lights the honor and right of the unburdened and takes the concurrent experience of sorrow and emotional flexibility. In specific, the poem’s protracted image portrays the involvement of the African American municipal.
Analysis
Angelou’s selected three poems, Still, I Rise, Caged Bird, and Woman Work, have tried to pass a common message. Oppression, freedom, confidence, self-determination, and self-esteem have played an integral role in shaping the theme of these poems. In the Caged Bird, the author describes how a free bird enjoys flying without any difficulties. The author describes how a bird leaps on the wind’s back and floats down the stream until its end. The Bird then dips its wing in the bright sun rays as it tries to claim the sky. The first two stanzas, “A free bird leaps…” and “But a bird that stalks…” instill some sense of oppression in the reader’s mind. The two stanzas compare the two birds hence, making the poem show some sense of oppression and lack of freedom.
The essence of freedom is showcased in the poem’s last stanza, “…Sings of freedom“. The writer depicts how the Bird is singing a fearful trill and its melody on a far hill. She writes how the Bird sings some strange things in a fearful voice. However, the Bird’s voice is heard on a distant hill because it is singing freedom (Chandio et al.36-47). The second last stanza of the poem, “…But a bird that stalks…” depicts some sense of confidence and hope in the writer’s mind because she describes how the Bird is trying to despite the challenges it is undergoing, such as clipped wings and tied feet.
Still, I Rise
“Still I Rise” is principally about confidence and self-respect. Angelou discloses how she will overawe anything over her confidence. She demonstrates how nobody can get her down. Maya believes she will grow to any case, and nobody, not even the woman in question’s skin color, would bring her back. Though bondage had been eradicated, Angelou witnessed its impacts on humanity and the African American individuals. This elegy is Angelou’s statement that she would not permit the dreadfulness of civilization to control her accomplishment. Still, I Rise is not merely a declaration of Maya’s purpose to rise overhead culture but was correspondingly a song to readers to stay about the world they were sired in. Still, it is among the most extensively read poetries in America.
Analysis
In this poem, the right shots are straight in the reader’s mind. In the first stanza, the author says, “You may tread me…But still… I’ll rise“, clear evident how strong and confident she is about overcoming challenges. This stanza gives the reader an overview of the tribulations that have led her to write down these words. The author writes that even if she is brought down by twisted lies and any form of dirt, she will remain strong and rise like dust. She continues to console herself on how strong she will stand amidst a series of challenges underway. She is optimistically confident that she will conquer the tough moments and emerge successfully.
In the entire poem, self-confidence and hope are the key themes the writer is trying to convey. The theme of memories of oppression is also evident in the three last stanzas of the poem. The writer recalls black people’s past experiences, including being segregated and the hatred black people were being subjected to during slavery days (Mushonga 151). She, however, has hope that one day all these challenges will come to an end. She writes, “Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise, up from a past that’s rooted in pain, I rise, I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide…”The writer also depicts a theme of fear in her last stanza, “behind nights of terror and fear I rise.”
She writes how the nights are dangerously full of terror, but the terror activities miraculously elope during the daytime. The author says that she will rise despite the long nights of terror and fear. She remains optimistic that through the labor her grandfather put during slavery, she will emerge victoriously. The writer emphasizes the word “I rise,” implying how hopeful she is in conquering the challenge of freedom.
Woman Work
Maya Angelou, the American poet, wrote and published the poem “Woman Work” in her 1978 assortment, “And Still I Rise.” The reciter, oblique as a Black lady, explores the “toil” she has to make; everything from cooking, cleaning and considering children to selecting cotton and wounding sugar cane. While referring to local responsibilities and antiquity enslavement, the author suggests that Black females have long stood thanklessly projected to dedicate their spell and vigor to other people without captivating whatever for themselves. Eventually, the speaker finds a break and intellect of autonomy by enchanting the ordinary ecosphere’s attractiveness.
Analysis
The writer starts the first stanza by listing several chores she needs to accomplish, including buying foods, mending clothes, cooking, weeding the garden, and tending the baby. This stanza, “‘I’ve got the children…clothes to mend,” highlights to readers how this woman is busy, and despite the endless list of chores, she is optimistic that she will be a free woman one day (Isti’anah et al. 55). In the same stanza, the author lists all the chores she will achieve in a sad mood that brings out the image of how the woman is hardworking and responsible at the same time. The writer continues to depict the theme of self-confidence and optimism in the second stanza, “Shine on me…”.
Maya is symbolically the rain savior who will see her through the pain she is undergoing. She asks the sun to shine on her, and rain softly falls on her to cool her brows again. The writer has symbolically used the rain and the sun to mean the elements of redemption that the author is optimistic will redeem her from the shackles of pain. The writer continues to convey the theme of optimism in her subsequent stanzas.
For instance, in the third stanza,” Let me float…” she prays the wind that will relocate her from her current place to float across the sky and not relent until she rests. In this stanza, she continues to yearn for some rest by remembering the last time she rested and the last time her brow rested (Yustisiana 158-167). This stanza depicts how the woman confidently worked hard to get out of all these challenges she was going through.
Integration of the three poems
In these three poems, Maya Angelou has successfully conveyed her main agenda through a few stanzas, as evident in the three poems. She also shoots direct to the main point and speaks her mind boldly and precisely. For instance, in the Caged Bird poem, the writer compares the two birds. Through her appropriate choice of words, she grasps the reader’s attention by narrating how it is freely leaping compared to the caged Bird, hence creating a theme of suffering and oppression in the reader’s mind. Consequently, the poem Still I Rise takes the same pattern as the Caged Bird in that; the writer starts with consoling herself how one day she will conquer her problems.
Maya remains hopeful that she will still rise regardless of any challenge. The third poem, Woman Work, also takes the same pattern of conveying its intended message of telling it in the first stanza. In the first stanza,” I’ve got the…” the writer lists all the activities that the woman intends to accomplish. The stanza is comparatively longer than the other stanzas, certainly to give readers a picture of how this woman is occupied. Throughout the three poems, the writer has tried to show themes like self-esteem, optimism, freedom of the black women, and suffering of women.
Maya tries to showcase some sense of optimism in all three poems. For instance, in the poem Caged Bird, the writer tries to console herself that everything will be okay one day. In Woman Work and Still I Rise, the writer also tries to show some hope despite the several challenges. Generally, the three poems reflect the kind of problems African –Americans were going through in the slavery days in the US. In all three poems, the author’s optimism represents several African Americans’ hope during the era of slavery and other events in the US, such as the Civil War. The three poems suit the theme of depression and oppression because the author’s mood is sad, and the tone she uses in her work depicts the several issues she had gone through during the era of slavery.
Works Cited
Angelou, Maya. “Caged bird.” Shaker, why don’t you sing (1983). Web.
Chandio, Rashid, Shadab Fatima, and Saira Soomro. “The stylistics analysis of the poem “raqeebse, to the rival” by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.” International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Culture 5.6 (2019): 36-47. Web.
Isti’anah, Arina, Caecilia Riris Krismarini, and Elisabet Ayu Pramesthi Lebdo Putri. “Stylistic Analysis of Maya Angelou’s “Woman Work. ” ENGLISH FRANCA: Academic Journal of English Language and Education 4.1 (2020): 550. Web.
Mushonga, Dawnsha R., Shvilla Rasheem, and Darlene Anderson. “And Still I Rise: Resilience Factors Contributing to Posttraumatic Growth in African American Women.” Journal of Black Psychology 47.2-3 (2021): 151-176. Web.
Yustisiana, Rr Arielia. “Elements of Nature as the Object of Escapism in Maya Angelou’s “Woman Work.”. Journal of Language and Literature 18.2 (2018): 158-167. Web.