Transcript 3.2 Written Texts What do you need to know?

3.2 Written Texts
What do you need to know?
African American Poetry:
Maya Angelou &
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Maya Angelou
Biography
Born April 4, 1928 in Saint Louis, Missouri, Maya Angelou's given name was Marguerite Johnson. In her
early twenties she was given the name Maya Angelou after her debut performance as a dancer at the Purple
Onion cabaret. The author's father, Bailey Johnson, was a naval dietician, and her mother was Vivian Johnson.
She has one sibling, a brother named Bailey after their father. When she was about three years old, their
parents divorced and the children were sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas.
Angelou claims that her grandmother, whom she called "momma, had a deep-brooding love that hung over
everything she touched." Growing up in Stamps, Angelou learned what it was like to be a black girl in a
world whose boundaries were set by whites. She learned what it meant to have to wear old hand me
downs from a white woman. And she also learned the humiliation of being refused treatment by a white dentist.
As a child she always dreamed of waking to find her "nappy black hair" metamorphosed to a long blond bob
because she felt life was better for a white girl than for a black girl. Despite the odds, her grandmother instilled
pride in Angelou with religion as an important element in their home.
After five years of being apart from their mother the children were sent back to Saint Louis to be with her. This
move eventually took a turn for the worst when Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. The
devastating act of violence committed against her caused her to become mute for nearly five years.
She was sent back to Stamps because no one could handle the grim state Angelou was in. With the constant help
of a woman named Mrs. Flowers, Angelou began to evolve into the young girl who had possessed the pride and
confidence she once had. Again in 1940, her brother and her were sent to San Francisco to live with their mother.
Life with her mother was constant disorder. Living with her mother soon became too much for her so she ran
away to be with her father and his girlfriend in their rundown trailer. Finding that life with him was no better, she
ended up living in a graveyard of wrecked cars that mainly housed homeless children. It took her a month to get
back home to her mother. Angelou's dysfunctional childhood spent moving back and forth between her
mother and grandmother caused her to struggle with maturity. She became determined to prove she was
a woman and began to rush toward maturity. Angelou soon found herself pregnant, and at the age of
sixteen she delivered her son, Guy.
Historical Context
Jim Crow laws
 in U.S. history, statutes enacted by Southern states and municipalities, beginning in
the 1880s, that legalized segregation between blacks and whites. The name is
believed to be derived from a character in a popular minstrel song. The Supreme
Court ruling in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate facilities for whites and blacks
were constitutional encouraged the passage of discriminatory laws that wiped out the
gains made by blacks during Reconstruction. Railways and streetcars, public waiting
rooms, restaurants, boardinghouses, theaters, and public parks were segregated;
separate schools, hospitals, and other public institutions, generally of inferior quality,
were designated for blacks. By World War I, even places of employment were
segregated, and it was not until after World War II that an assault on Jim Crow in the
South began to make headway. In 1950 the Supreme Court ruled that the Univ. of
Texas must admit a black, Herman Sweatt, to the law school, on the grounds that the
state did not provide equal education for him. This was followed (1954) by the
Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., declaring
separate facilities by race to be unconstitutional. Blacks in the South used legal suits,
mass sit-ins, and boycotts to hasten desegregation. A march on Washington by over
200,000 in 1963 dramatized the movement to end Jim Crow. Southern whites often
responded with violence, and federal troops were needed to preserve order and
protect blacks, notably at Little Rock, Ark. (1957), Oxford, Miss. (1962), and Selma,
Ala. (1965). The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair
Housing Act of 1968 finally ended the legal sanctions to Jim Crow.
Historical Context

1) Brown v Board of Education

2) Selma Voting Registration 1965

3) Student Sit-Ins and Freedom Rides

4) Birmingham Campaign

5) Death of MLK and Malcolm X
Phenomenal Woman
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies.
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them,
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes,
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing in my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them
They say they still can't see.
I say,
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.
Phenomenal Woman
Explication
 Published in And Still I Rise (1978)
 The poem is written in free verse
 There is no set rhyme scheme
Phenomenal Woman
Persona
 The persona in this poem is a strong,
confident woman. Lyman B. Hagen
states, "The woman described is easily
matched to the author herself. Angelou is
an imposing woman-- at least six feet
tall. She has a strong personality and a
compelling presence as defined in the
poem" (126).
Phenomenal Woman
Imagery
 Angelou uses imagery to give the reader a sense of what the
persona looks like. She states: "I'm not cute or built to suit a
fashion model's size." She then lists characteristics to help further
the reader's sense of the persona: "The curl of my lips. . . / It's in
the fire in my eyes. . . / The sun of my smile. . . / The need for my
care."
 In the second stanza Angelou uses a metaphor: "Then they swarm
around me, / A hive of honey bees." This refers to the men who
have surrounded her as she enters a room. When reading this I
think of Scarlett at the Twelve Oaks Barbecue in Gone With the
Wind.
 She uses such imagery so that the proud, confident persona can be
better understood.
Phenomenal Woman
Repetition
 Maya Angelou uses repetition in this poem to stress certain
phrases. An example of this is "I'm a woman / Phenomenally. /
Phenomenal woman, / That's me." Angelou also uses repetitiveness
in the structure of her poem. The persona says that pretty women
ask her what her secret is and she tells them by listing her
qualities. She walks into a room and gathers attention and tells the
reader why by listing her qualities. She says that men even wonder
why they are smitten by her and she tells them by listing her
qualities. In the final stanza she tells the reader that now they
should understand and be proud of her as well and again she lists
personal qualities.
 Her use of repetiton helps to give the poem a flow and make it
seem more familiar and lyrical.
Phenomenal Woman
Line Length
 The line length varies in the poem; as a
result some words have more
emphasis. Some examples are "I say,"
"Phenomenal woman," and "That's me."
 The emphasis on certain words helps
them to stand out to the reader.
Phenomenal Woman
Anaphora
 An anaphora is the "repetition of words or
phrases at the beginning of lines " (Canada
9/7/98).
 Angelou does this in several places in
Phenomenal Woman. An example is "The span
of my hips, / The stride of my step, / The curl of
my lips. . . / Phenomenally. / Phenomenal
woman,"
 I believe that she does this in order to create a
smooth flow in the work.
Phenomenal Woman
Musicality
 Maya Angelou's poem Phenomenal Woman is
very lyrical, as are many of her other
poems. This may have been influenced by her
career as a dancer and as a Broadway actress.
 Hagen states: "Most of her other poetry could
easily be set to music. It is purposely lyrical. It
is designed to elicit stirring emotional
responses. Much of it is meant to show fun with
the familiar" (122).
Carol E. Neubauer
One of the best poems in this collection is Phenomenal Woman,
which captures the essence of womanhood and at the same time
describes the many talents of the poet herself. As is characteristic of
Angelou's poetic style, the lines are terse and forcefully, albeit
irregularly, rhymed. The words themselves are short, often
monosyllabic, and collectively create an even, provocative rhythm
that resounds with underlying confidence. In four different stanzas,
a woman explains her special graces that make her stand out in a
crowd and attract the attention of both men and women, although
she is not, by her own admission, "cut or built to suit a fashion
model's size." One by one, she enumerates her gifts, from "the span
of my hips" to "the curl of my lips," from "the flash of my teeth" to
"the joy in my feet." Yet her attraction is not purely physical; men
seek her for her "inner mystery," "the grace of [her] style," and "the
need for [her] care." Together each alluring part adds up to a
phenomenal woman who need not "bow" her head but can walk tall
with a quiet pride that beckons those in her presence.
Still I Rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.
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.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.
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.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.
Still I Rise

Up to a point, "Still I Rise," Angelou's title poem,
reminds us of Brown's famous "Strong Men," and it is
the discovery of that point which helps us define
Angelou's particular presence and success in
contemporary letters and, if we may say so, in
publishing. The poetic and visual rhythms created by the
repetition of "Still I rise" and its variants clearly revoice
that of Brown's "strong men ... strong men gittin'
stronger." But the "I" of Angelou's refrain is obviously
female and, in this instance, a woman forthright about
the sexual nuances of personal and social struggle:
Sandra Cookson

"Still I Rise," a poem about the survival of black
women despite every kind of humiliation, deploys most
of these forces, as it celebrates black women while
simultaneously challenging the stereotypes to which
America has subjected them since the days of slavery.
"Does my sassiness upset you?" "Does my haughtiness
offend you?" "Does my sexiness upset you?" the poet
demands in an in-your-face tone through successive
stanzas, leading to the poem's inspirational conclusion.
The penultimate stanza is especially strong: "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."
Amber Stolz



‘Still I Rise’ begins with a mention of writing down history. There has been a movement to
analyze the text books presented to students to see if they hold the true history, or just one rose
colored version. It is interesting that ‘Still I Rise’ begins by making the reader immediately think
of the skewed versions of history they have been taught over the years. There is a sense of lies
and silent discrimination that surrounds the history of African Americans. She also mentions dust
in the first stanza. This goes along with the theme, bringing to mind many blacks who were
killed. However, she says that the dust will rise, indicating that although the history has been
difficult, the spirit will prevail.
The second, fourth, fifth, and seventh stanzas begin with different questions. This question is
spoken to those that are perceived as taking offense at the rise of her spirit. The tactic of asking
the questions pulls the reader into the poem. Instead of being able to skim over the content, the
reader is forced to examine his or her own beliefs. The first, third, and sixth stanzas, those that
do not question the reader, end with the phrase “I’ll rise.” The mixture of questions and assertion
that “I’ll rise” lets the reader know that the answers to the questions are mute. They are to be
filled in by the reader.
This poem has a consistent rhyming pattern until it reaches the last two stanzas. With these two
stanzas the format changes. Instead of talking to the reader, Angelou begins to assert the rising
the title speaks of. She makes reference to ‘roots’ and the slavery era. Instead of these
experiences being a weight around her neck, she draws on the strength of her ancestors to
increase her own. She says that she is able, in fact obliged, to persevere to fulfill the dreams of
her ancestors for the opportunity to be a success in a free world.
Equality
You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.
You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand?
We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
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.
Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb through my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.
Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Carol E. Neubauer
Perhaps the most powerful poem in this collection is
Caged Bird, which inevitably brings Angelou's audience
full circle with her best-known autobiography, I Know
Why the Caged Bird Sings. This poem tells the story
of a free bird and a caged bird. The free bird floats
leisurely on "trade winds soft through the sighing trees"
and even "dares to claim the sky." He feeds on "fat
worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn" and soars to
"name the sky his own." Unlike his unbound brother, the
caged bird leads a life of confinement that sorely inhibits
his need to fly and sing. Trapped by the unyielding bars
of his cage, the bird can only lift his voice in protest
against his imprisonment and the "grave of dreams" on
which he perches. Appearing both in the middle and end
of the poem, this stanza serves as a dual refrain:
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Paul Laurence Dunbar was the first AfricanAmerican poet to garner national critical acclaim.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1872, Dunbar penned a
large body of dialect poems, standard English
poems, essays, novels and short stories before
he died at the age of 33. His work often
addressed the difficulties encountered by
members of his race and the efforts of AfricanAmericans to achieve equality in America. He
was praised both by the prominent literary critics
of his time and his literary contemporaries.
Sympathy
I KNOW what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals-I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting-I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,-When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings-I know why the caged bird sings!
Sympathy
In “Sympathy”, Paul Laurence Dunbar relates the many problems in
his life to the problems of an entrapped bird. In the poem Dunbar
shows the bird in the cage while wonderful things happen all around
it. He illustrates how the sun is bright and the wind is whispering
softly, but the bird is unable to enjoy the beautiful weather due to
its cage. The difficulties he has encountered in life are shown in
these lines: “And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars/ And they
pulse again with a keener sting”. In this, the bird is not actually
symbolizing Paul Laurence Dunbar, for he continues to claim how he
can sympathize with the bird, yet it has his same problems,
Dunbar’s cage being the racism that he constantly faced during his
time period. In this point in his life, Dunbar was finding that it was
impossible to find any job that could be considered meaningful or of
importance, or any job that paid even averagely. He was an elevator
boy at this point, and his main way of venting his frustration against
a discriminatory world was through poetry. By using brilliant
imagery and stinging emotion, Dunbar shows us how racism is
imprisoning his soul.
Sympathy
Jean Wagner
 "Sympathy" is a heartfelt cry of a poet who finds
himself imprisoned amid traditions and
prejudices he feels powerless to destroy . . . .
Peter Revell
 A poem like "Sympathy"—with its repeated line,
"I know what the caged bird feels, alas!"—can
be read as a cry against slavery, but was
probably written out of the feeling that the
poet’s talent was imprisoned in the conventions
of his time and exigencies of the literary
marketplace.
We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
We Wear the Mask
Gossie H. Hudson
 The Poem "We Wear the Mask" may reveal
why he so often chose to write of the
black man as a happy-go-lucky creature of
the plantation:
 Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
Peter Revell

Almost without exception, Dunbar’s poems on black themes treat their subjects
objectively. The formal diction of many of them demands this. They are written from
within black experience but that experience is presented in such a way that the
reader, black or white, can draw inspiration or admonition from the subject matter.
The one outstanding exception to this generalization is "We Wear The Mask,"
arguably the finest poem Dunbar produced, a moving cry from the heart of suffering.
The poem anticipates, and presents in terms of passionate personal regret, the
psychological analysis of the fact of blackness in Frantz Fanon's Peau Noire, Masques
Blancs, with a penetrating insight into the reality of the black man's plight in America:
We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,-This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

The poem is also an apologia for all that his own and succeeding generations would
condemn in his work, for the grin of minstrelsy and the lie of the plantation tradition
that Dunbar felt himself bound to adopt as part of the "myriad subtleties" required to
find a voice and to be heard. The "subtleties" lead us to expect that honest feelings
and judgments, when they occur, will be obliquely presented and may be difficult to
apprehend, a point of view that many critics of Dunbar have not taken into account.
It should be noted that the poem itself is "masked," its link to the black race, though
obvious enough, not being openly stated. Yet in this one poem Dunbar left aside the
falsity of dialect and the didacticism of his serious poems on black subjects and spoke
from the heart.
Typical Questions
EITHER OPTION A:
'A good poem is not a simple verbal statement but a cunningly-fashioned work
of art which can be approached from many angles.' Discuss, with close
reference to ONE long poem (50 lines or more) or TWO shorter poems you
have studied.
OR OPTION B:
'A successful poem is a subtle combination of message, movement, sound and
sense.' Discuss, with close reference to ONE long poem (50 lines or more)
or TWO shorter poems you have studied.
OR OPTION C:
Compare and contrast ONE OR MORE poems by a poet you admire greatly with
ONE OR MORE poems by a poet for whom you have less regard, making
clear the reasons for your preference.
OR OPTION D:
'By giving up rhyme and regular metre, poets have shot themselves in the foot.
There is nothing in modern poetry to make it memorable.' Discuss, with
close reference to TWO OR MORE poems you have studied.
More Questions
EITHER OPTION A:

In what ways do you believe the language of poetry is ‘different’
from everyday language? Illustrate your answer with close
reference to TWO OR MORE poems you have studied.
OR OPTION B:

What distinctive qualities most impressed you in the work of a poet
you have studied this year? Discuss with close reference to TWO
OR MORE poems you have studied.
OR OPTION C:

'The best poetry often challenges us to look at a topic or issue in a
fresh, new way.' Discuss this statement with close reference to TWO
OR MORE poems You have studied.