Maya Angelou, an African-American writer who is best known for her seven autobiographies, was also a prolific and successful poet. She has been called "the black woman's poet laureate", and her poems have been called the anthems of African Americans. Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, and used poetry and other great literature to cope with trauma, as she described in her first and most well-known autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. She became a poet after a series of occupations as a young adult, including as a cast member of a European tour of Porgy and Bess, and a performer of calypso music in nightclubs in the 1950s. Many of the songs she wrote during that period later found their way to her later poetry collections. She eventually gave up performing for a writing career.
Despite considering herself a poet and playwright, she wrote Caged Bird in 1969, which brought her international recognition and acclaim. Many of her readers consider her a poet first and an autobiographer second, but she is better known for her prose works. She has published several volumes of poetry, and has experienced similar success as a poet. Early in her writing career, she began alternating a volume of poetry with an autobiography. In 1993, she recited one of her best-known poems, "On the Pulse of Morning", at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. Angelou explores many of the same themes throughout all her writings, in both her autobiographies and poetry. These themes include love, painful loss, music, discrimination and racism, and struggle. Her poetry cannot easily be placed in categories of themes or techniques. It has been compared with music and musical forms, especially the blues, and like the blues singer, Angelou uses laughter or ridicule instead of tears to cope with minor irritations, sadness, and great suffering. Many of her poems are about love, relationships, or overcoming hardships. The metaphors in her poetry serve as "coding", or litotes, for meanings understood by other Blacks, but her themes and topics apply universally to all races. Angelou uses everyday language, the Black vernacular, Black music and forms, and rhetorical techniques such as shocking language, the occasional use of profanity, and traditionally unacceptable subjects. As she does throughout her autobiographies, Angelou speaks not only for herself, but for her entire gender and race. Her poems continue the themes of mild protest and survival also found in her autobiographies, and inject hope through humor. Tied with Angelou's theme of racism is her treatment of the struggle and hardships experienced by her race.
Many critics consider Angelou's autobiographies more important than her poetry. Although her books have been best-sellers, her poetry has been studied less. Angelou's lack of critical acclaim has been attributed to her popular success and to critics' preferences for poetry as a written form rather than a spoken, performed one.
Background Maya Angelou studied and began writing poetry at a young age, having "fallen in love with poetry in Stamps, Arkansas",Gillespie et al, p. 101 where she grew up and the setting of her first autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). At the age of eight, she was raped, as recounted in Caged Bird. She dealt with her trauma by memorizing and reciting great works of literature, including poetry, which helped bring her out of her self-imposed muteness.Angelou, Maya (1969). I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Random House, p. 98. According to scholar Yasmin Y. DeGout, literature also affects Angelou's sensibilities as the poet and writer she becomes, especially the "liberating discourse that would evolve in her own poetic canon".DeGout, p. 122
As a young adult, Angelou, who preferred to be called Maya because her brother had called her that when she was a child, had a series of jobs and occupations, achieving modest success as a singer, dancer, and performer. She was a cast member of a European tour of Porgy and Bess in 1954 and 1955 and was a cabaret singer in nightclubs in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas throughout the 1950s. While performing at the Purple Onion in San Francisco, due to the strong suggestion of her managers and supporters, she changed her name from Rita Johnson to Maya Angelou, a "distinctive name" that set her apart and captured the feel of her calypso dance performances.Gillespie et al, p. 41 In 1957, Angelou recorded her first album, Miss Calypso, which captured her focus on calypso music, popular at the time, and her years as a nightclub performer.Miller, John M. "Calypso Heat Wave". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved 23 August 2018 As she described in her fourth autobiography, The Heart of a Woman (1981), Angelou eventually gave up performing for a writing career, although music remained an important aspect of her poetry. In the late 1980s, she returned to music. In 1988, she co-wrote a song with Roberta Flack, "And So It Goes", which appeared on Flack's album Oasis. Angelou collaborated with R&B artists Ashford & Simpson on seven of the eleven tracks of their 1996 album Been Found. The album was responsible for three of Angelou's only Billboard chart appearances. In 2007, she and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis wrote "Music, Deep Rivers in My Soul", which traces the history of African-American music. Angelou was also a fan of country music, and had written several songs.
Angelou recorded two albums of poetry and songs written during her time as a night club performer; the first in 1957 for Liberty Records and the second, "The Poetry of Maya Angelou", for GWP Records the year before the publication of Caged Bird. They were later incorporated into her volumes of poetry.Gillespie et al, p. 103 Despite considering herself a playwright and poet when her editor Robert Loomis challenged her to write Caged Bird—which brought her international recognition and acclaim—she has been best known for her seven autobiographies.Walker, Pierre A. (October 1995). "Racial Protest, Identity, Words, and Form in Maya Angelou's 'I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings'". College Literature 22 (3): 91.Smith, Dinitia (23 January 2007). "A Career in Letters, 50 Years and Counting". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 December 2013Lupton, p. 17 Through the writing of her autobiography, Angelou became one of the first African American women who was able to publicly discuss her personal life and was recognized and highly respected as a spokesperson for blacks and women.Als, Hilton (5 August 2002. "Songbird: Maya Angelou takes another look at herself". The New Yorker. Retrieved 22 December 2013"Maya Angelou". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 22 December 2013 It made her "without a doubt, ... America's most visible black woman autobiographer",Long, p. 85 and "a major autobiographical voice of the time".
Beginning with Caged Bird, Angelou used the same "writing ritual"Lupton, p. 15 for many years. She woke early in the morning and checked into a hotel room, where the staff was instructed to remove any pictures from the walls. She wrote on legal pads while lying on the bed, with only a bottle of sherry, a deck of cards to play solitaire, Roget's Thesaurus, and the Bible, and left by the early afternoon. She averaged ten to twelve pages of written material a day, which she edited down to three or four pages in the evening. She composed all her works this way, both prose and poetry.Sarler, Carol (1989). "A Day in the Life of Maya Angelou". In Conversations with Maya Angelou, Jeffrey M. Elliot, ed. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press, p. 216.
Poetry
Angelou has been a prolific poet, and has published several volumes of poetry, many of which have been best-sellers.Sylvester, William (1985). "Maya Angelou". In Contemporary Poets, James Vinson and D. L. Kirkpatrick, eds. Chicago: St. James Press, pp. 19–20. She has experienced similar success as a poet as she did as an autobiographer. She began, early in her writing career, of alternating the publication of an autobiography and a volume of poetry.Hagen, p. 118 Her first volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, published in 1971 shortly after Caged Bird, became a best-seller and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Many of the poems in Diiie were songs that Angelou had previously performed and recorded. In 1994, her publisher, Random House, placed this volume and her following four volumes of poetry in The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou.Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975), And Still I Rise (1978), Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983), and I Shall Not Be Moved (1990). Random House has also published several more volumes of Angelou's poetry, as well as stand-alone publications of single poems.
Angelou recited her most famous poem, "On the Pulse of Morning", at President Bill Clinton's inauguration in 1993. In 1995, she delivered what Richard Long called her "second 'public' poem",Long, p. 84 entitled "A Brave and Startling Truth", which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the United Nations. Also in 1995, she was chosen to recite one of her poems at the Million Man March.Lupton, p. 18 Angelou was the first African-American woman and living poet selected by Sterling Publishing, who placed 25 of her poems in a volume of their Poetry for Young People series in 2004."Maya Angelou Still Rises", CBS News. 11 February 2009. Retrieved 23 December 2013 In 2009, Angelou wrote "We Had Him", a poem about Michael Jackson, which was read by Queen Latifah at his funeral.Harris, Dana (7 July 2009) "Michael Jackson's mega-farewell". Variety. Retrieved 23 December 2013 She wrote "His Day is Done", a poem honoring Nelson Mandela after his death in 2013. The poem was released in book form, along with a video of Angelou reciting it, by the U.S. State Department.Eby, Margaret (12 December 2013). "Maya Angelou pens poem for Nelson Mandela: 'His Day is Done'", New York Daily News. Retrieved 11 February 2014
Collections
Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie (1971). New York: Random House. Oh Pray My Wings Are Gonna Fit Me Well (1975). New York: Random House. And Still I Rise (1978). New York: Random House. Shaker, Why Don't You Sing? (1983). New York: Random House. Poems (1986). New York: Random House. Now Sheba Sings the Song (1987). New York: Plume Books. I Shall Not Be Moved (1990). New York: Bantam Books. The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou (1994). New York: Random House. Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women (1995). New York: Random House. Poetry for Young People (2007). Berkshire, U.K.: Sterling Books. Maya Angelou: The Complete Poetry (2015). New York: Random House.
Single publications "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993). New York: Random House. "A Brave and Startling Truth" (1995). New York: Random House. "From a Black Woman to a Black Man" (1995). "Amazing Peace" (2005). New York: Random House. "Mother: A Cradle to Hold Me" (2006). New York: Random House. "Celebrations, Rituals of Peace and Prayer" (2006). New York: Random House. "We Had Him" (2009). "His Day is Done" (2013)
Themes
General themes Angelou explores many of the same themes throughout all her writings, in both her autobiographies and poetry. These themes include love, painful loss, music, discrimination and racism, and struggle.Neubauer, p. 10Hagen, p. 124 According to DeGout, Angelou's poetry cannot easily be placed in categories of themes or techniques.