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Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Searching... Author: ANGELOU, MAYA Matches Found: 212 Angelou, Maya Poet's Biography 212 poems available by this author A PLAGUED JOURNEY Poem Text First Line: There is no warning rattle at the door Subject(s): Travel; Journeys; Trips ACCIDENT First Line: Tonight %when you spread your pallet Last Line: And the naked %black-white truth AFRICA Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: Thus she had lain Last Line: Although she has lain Subject(s): African Americans - History; Black Heritage AFRICA First Line: Thus she had lain Last Line: Although she had lain Subject(s): African Americans - History AFTER First Line: No sound falls Last Line: Of our absent selves AILEY, BALDWIN, FLOYD, KILLENS, AND MAYFIELD Poem Text First Line: When great trees fall Last Line: Better. For they existed Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks AILEY, BALDWIN, FLOYD, KILLENS, AND MAYFIELD First Line: When great trees fall Last Line: We can be. Be and be %better. For they existed Subject(s): African Americans AIN'T THAT BAD First Line: Dancin' the funky chicken Last Line: An' ain't we fine AIN'T THAT BAD? Poem Text First Line: Dancin' the funky chicken Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks ALONE Poem Text First Line: Lying, thinking Subject(s): Solitude ALONE First Line: Lying, thinking %last night Last Line: Can make it out here alone AMERICA First Line: The gold of her promise Last Line: Discover this country AMOEBAEAN FOR DADDY First Line: I was a pretty baby Last Line: Just to look at me ARRIVAL First Line: Angels gather. %the rush of mad air Last Line: You %beyond the door ARTFUL POSE First Line: Of falling leaves and melting Last Line: And hateful wrath %quickly AVEC MERCI, MOTHER First Line: From her perch of beauty Last Line: When he cries AWAKING IN NEW YORK Poem Text First Line: Curtains forcing their will Subject(s): New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple AWAKING IN NEW YORK First Line: Curtains forcing their will Last Line: Unasked and unheeded BLACK ODE First Line: Your beauty is a thunder Last Line: Oh, to lick your love like tears BORN THAT WAY Poem Text First Line: As far as possible, she strove Last Line: In the wallpaper Subject(s): Child Molesting; Child Abuse BORN THAT WAY First Line: As far as possible, she strove Last Line: Fingers counting the roses %in the wallpaper Subject(s): Child Molesting BRAVE AND STARTLING TRUTH Poem Text First Line: We, unaccustomed to courage Subject(s): United Nations BRIEF INNOCENCE First Line: Dawn offers %innocence to a half-mad city Last Line: Of childish pranks with %angels BUMP D'BUMP First Line: Play me a game like blind man's dance Last Line: Bump d'bump bump d'bump CAGED BIRD Poem Text First Line: A free bird leaps Last Line: Sings of freedom Subject(s): Birdcages; Freedom; Liberty CAGED BIRD First Line: A free bird leaps Last Line: For the caged bird %sings of freedom Subject(s): Birdcages; Freedom CALIFORNIA PRODIGAL Poem Text First Line: The eye follows, the land Subject(s): Nature CALIFORNIA PRODIGAL First Line: The eye follows, the land Last Line: Sunlight casts defiance %at their feet CALL LETTERS: MRS. V.B. First Line: Ships? %sure I'll sail them Last Line: I never learned to spell it. %not failure CALLING OF NAMES First Line: He went to being called a colored man Last Line: Nigguh, I ain't playin' this time CHANGES First Line: Fickle comfort steals away Last Line: Tomorrow it returns to me CHANGING First Line: It occurs to me now Last Line: But I never catch %you simply smiling, anymore CHICKEN-LICKEN First Line: She was afraid of men Last Line: Dead of acute peoplelessness CHILD DEAD IN OLD SEAS First Line: Father, %I wait for you in oceans Last Line: The rippled %surface of our %grave COLERIDGE JACKSON Poem Text First Line: Coleridge jackson had nothing to fear Last Line: Away, lurking at something else Subject(s): Racism; African Americans; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry COLERIDGE JACKSON First Line: Coleridge jackson had nothing to fear Last Line: Away, lurking at something else Subject(s): Racism COME, AND BE MY BABY First Line: The highway is full of big cars Last Line: Come. And be my baby COMMUNICATION 1 First Line: She wished of him a lover's kiss and Last Line: He said he loved another COMMUNICATION II First Line: The student %the dust of ancient pages Last Line: Of all her %dry dreams CONCEIT First Line: Give me your hand Last Line: Give me your hand CONTEMPORARY ANNOUNCEMENT First Line: Ring the big bells Last Line: And rent day's here again COUNTRY LOVER First Line: Funky blues %keen toed shoes Last Line: Red soda water %and anybody's daughter COUPLE First Line: Discard the fear and what Last Line: Exiled from this earth DETACHED First Line: We die, %welcoming bluebeards to our darkening closets Last Line: Love is eternal ELEGY First Line: I lie down in my grave Last Line: And watch my children %grow EQUALITY Poem Text First Line: You declare you see me dimly Last Line: Equality, and I will be free Subject(s): Racial Equality EQUALITY First Line: You declare you see me dimly Last Line: Equality, and I will be free Subject(s): Racial Equality FACES First Line: Faces and more remember Last Line: A poet screams christ waits at the subway! %but who sees FAMILY AFFAIRS First Line: You let down, from arched Last Line: Beach in africa FIGHTIN' WAS NATURAL Last Line: Livin' was hell FOR US, WHO DARE NOT DARE First Line: Be me a pharaoh Last Line: Know me %africa FORGIVE First Line: Take me, virginia Last Line: As rolled eyes, sad as summer %parasols in a hurricane GAMUT First Line: Soft you day, be velvet soft Last Line: My true love is leaving GEORGIA SONG First Line: We swallow the odors of southern cities Last Line: Of southern peace GLORY FALLS First Line: Glory falls around us Last Line: We grow GOOD WOMAN FEELING BAD First Line: The blues may be the life you've led Last Line: Some blues I've had GREYDAY First Line: The day hangs heavy Last Line: My lonely heart %when we're apart HARLEM HOPSCOTCH First Line: One foot down, then hop! It's hot Last Line: They think I lost. I think I won HEALTH-FOOD DINER First Line: No sprouted wheat and soya shoots Last Line: For smoking carnivores HERE'S TO ADHERING First Line: I went to a party Last Line: For %me %once HOW CAN I LIE TO YOU First Line: Now thread my voice Last Line: Of sad and wise %decisions HUMAN FAMILY Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: I note the obvious differences Last Line: Than we are unalike Subject(s): Brotherhood HUMAN FAMILY First Line: I note the obvious differences Last Line: We are more alike, my friends, %than we are unalike Subject(s): Brotherhood I ALMOST REMEMBER First Line: I almost remember %smiling some Last Line: I seem to remember %smiling IMPECCABLE CONCEPTION First Line: I met a lady poet Last Line: And write about romance IN A TIME First Line: In a time of secret wooing Last Line: Then pain stalks in to plunder IN ALL WAYS A WOMAN Poem Text First Line: In my young years I took pride in the fact that luck was called a lady Subject(s): Women IN MY MISSOURI Last Line: For you man %the man IN RETROSPECT First Line: Last year changed its seasons Last Line: Alone. I remember now INAUGURAL POEM: ON THE PULSE OF MORNING Poem Text Recitation by Author First Line: A rock, a river, a tree Last Line: "with hope -- Subject(s): Inaugural Poem INAUGURAL POEM: ON THE PULSE OF MORNING First Line: A rock, a river, a tree Last Line: And say simply %very simply %with hope %good morning Subject(s): Inaugural Poem INSIGNIFICANT First Line: A series of small, on %their own insignificant Last Line: Small insignificancies INSOMNIAC Poem Text First Line: There are some nights when Subject(s): Insomnia; Sleeplessness INSOMNIAC First Line: There are some nights when Last Line: And much more painful IS LOVE First Line: Midwives and winding sheets Last Line: Is it love? JOHN J. First Line: His soul curdled Last Line: Everybody in the %pool %(she didn't want him) JUNKIE MONKEY REEL First Line: Shoulders sag, %the pull of weighted needling Last Line: How long will %this monkey dance JUST FOR A TIME First Line: Oh how you used to walk Last Line: Just for a time JUST LIKE JOB First Line: My lord, my lord Last Line: I'm stepping out on your word KIN Poem Text Subject(s): African Americans; Ancestors & Ancestry; Negroes; American Blacks; Heritage; Heredity KIN First Line: We were entwined in red rings Last Line: An arkansas twilight KIND OF LOVE, SOME SAY First Line: Is it true the ribs can tell Last Line: Unequalled on the rack KNOWN TO EVE AND ME First Line: His tan and golden self Last Line: The slithering sound of my own skin %moving in the dark LADY LUNCHEON CLUB First Line: Her counsel was accepted: the times are grave Last Line: Speaker must be brief) LAST DECISION First Line: The print is too small, distressing me Last Line: Today I'll give up living LATE OCTOBER First Line: Carefully %the leaves of autumn Last Line: In order simply %to begin %again LESSON First Line: I keep on dying again Last Line: Because I love to live LET'S MAJESTE First Line: I sit a throne upon the times Last Line: Only just a prince LETTER TO AN ASPIRING JUNKIE First Line: Let me hip you to the streets Last Line: That's the streets, man %nothing happening LIE First Line: Today, you threaten to leave me Last Line: Do drop a line or telephone LIFE DOESN'T FRIGHTEN ME Poem Text First Line: Shadows on the wall Subject(s): Life LITTLE GIRL SPEAKINGS First Line: Ain't nobody better'n my daddy Last Line: No lady cookinger than my mommy LONDON First Line: If I remember correctly, %london is a very queer place Last Line: Mighty queer Subject(s): London LORD, IN MY HEART First Line: Holy haloes %ring me round Last Line: If I'm struck then %I'll strike back LOSS OF LOVE First Line: The loss of love and youth Last Line: The truly young to own %the stage? LOVE LETTER First Line: Listening winds %overhear my privacies Last Line: Oh, but then I had power. %power MAN BIGOT Poem Text First Line: The man who is a bigot Last Line: You simply smiling anymore Subject(s): Racism; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry MAN BIGOT First Line: The man who is a bigot Last Line: Who really is ms. Begot Subject(s): Racism MANY AND MORE First Line: There are many and more Last Line: And that one is my love MARTIAL CHOREOGRAPH First Line: Hello young sailor Last Line: Like the arms of dancers %and dying swans ME AND MY WORK First Line: I got a piece of a job on the waterfront Last Line: That's someone else's word for caring MEMORY First Line: Cotton rows crisscross the world Last Line: And all my days are dying Subject(s): Farm Life MEN First Line: When I was young, I used to Last Line: Stand and watch %maybe MILLION MAN MARCH POEM Poem Text First Line: The night has been long Subject(s): Million Man March (washington, Dc, 1995) MISS SCARLET, MR. RHETT AND OTHER LATTER-DAY SAINTS First Line: Novitiates sing ave Last Line: Blessed rhett, the martyr MOMMA WELFARE ROLL First Line: Her arms semaphore fat triangles Last Line: They don't give me welfare %I take it MOTHERING BLACKNESS First Line: She came home running Last Line: She came home blameless MOURNING GRACE First Line: If today, I follow death Last Line: Grace %to mourn for %me MY ARKANSAS First Line: There is deep brooding Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Arkansas MY GUILT First Line: My guilt is 'slavery's chains,' too long Last Line: My sin lies in not screaming loud MY LIFE HAS TURNED TO BLUE First Line: Our summer's gone Last Line: My life has turned to blue NEW HOUSE First Line: What words %have smashed against Last Line: Left of me NO LOSER, NO WEEPER First Line: I hate to lose something' Last Line: And I mean I really hate to lose something' NO NO NO NO First Line: No %the two legg'd beasts Last Line: And I have no pity NOTHING MUCH First Line: But of course you were Last Line: My life, so I say %nothing much NOW LONG AGO First Line: One innocent spring Last Line: And comes to sleep upon your %pillow NOW SHEBA SINGS THE SING Subject(s): Alphabet Verse OLD FOLKS LAUGH Poem Text First Line: They have spent their Last Line: Forgive life for happening / to them Subject(s): Old Age OLD FOLKS LAUGH First Line: They have spent their Last Line: Forgive life for happening %to them Subject(s): Old Age ON A BRIGHT DAY, NEXT WEEK Last Line: Falling from the sky ON AGING Poem Text First Line: When you see me sitting quietly Subject(s): Aging; Labor & Laborers; Women; Work; Workers ON AGING First Line: When you see me sitting quietly Last Line: A lot less lungs and much less wind. %but ain't I lucky I can still breathe in Subject(s): Aging; Labor And Laborers; Women ON DIVERSE DEVIATIONS Poem Text First Line: When love is a shimmering curtain Last Line: And no curtain drapes the door Subject(s): African Americans - Women ON DIVERSE DEVIATIONS First Line: When love is a shimmering curtain Last Line: Where love is the scream of anquish %and no curtain drapes the door Subject(s): African Americans - Women ON REACHING FORTY First Line: Other acquainted years Last Line: To die at %thirty-nine ON WORKING WHITE LIBERALS First Line: I don't ask the foreign legion Last Line: When I see a white man load a black man's gun ONE MORE ROUND First Line: There ain't no pay beneath the sun Last Line: And let's heave it down OUR GRANDMOTHERS Poem Text First Line: She lay, skin down in the moist dirt Subject(s): African Americans; Grandparents; Grandparents; Negroes; American Blacks; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers OUR GRANDMOTHERS Poem Text First Line: She lay, skin down on the moist dirt Subject(s): Grandparents; Grandmothers; Grandfathers; Great Grandfathers; Great Grandmothers OUR GRANDMOTHERS First Line: She lay, skin down on the moist dirt Last Line: Lay aside your fears that I will be undone, %for I shall not be moved Subject(s): Grandparents PASSING TIME First Line: Your skin like dawn Last Line: The other, the end of a %sure beginning PHENOMENAL WOMAN Poem Text First Line: Pretty women wonder where my secret lies Last Line: That's me. Subject(s): Women PICKIN EM UP AND LAYIN EM DOWN First Line: There's a long-legged girl Last Line: Gettin to the next town %baby PLAGUED JOURNEY First Line: There is no warning rattle at the door Last Line: Greedy arms POOR GIRL First Line: You've got another love Last Line: Poor girl %just like me PREACHER, DON'T SEND ME Poem Text PREACHER, DON'T SEND ME Last Line: Promise me that %or nothing at all PRELUDE TO A PARTING First Line: Beside you, prone Last Line: A fleeing love %to stay PRESCIENCE First Line: Had I known that the heart Last Line: Wanted more and cared less PRISONER Poem Text First Line: Even sunlight dares PRISONER First Line: Even sunlight dares Last Line: Then rails to run PUSHER First Line: He bad %o he bad Last Line: Yet gives no sweet %release RECOVERY Poem Text First Line: A last love Subject(s): Love RECOVERY First Line: A last love, %proper in conclusion Last Line: And speeding toward the light REFUSAL First Line: Beloved %in what other lives or lands Last Line: I will not deign to die REMEMBERING Poem Text First Line: Soft grey ghosts crawl up my sleeve Last Line: And they lay my soul in strips Subject(s): Memory; Travel; Journeys; Trips REMEMBERING First Line: Soft grey ghosts crawl up my sleeve Last Line: And they lay my soul in strips Subject(s): Memory; Travel REMEMBRANCE First Line: Your hands easy %weight, teasing the bees Last Line: Then, can I greedily consume %your presence REQUEST First Line: If this country is a bastard Last Line: Time of its life REVERSES First Line: How often must we Last Line: In our past RIOT: 60'S First Line: Our %your friend charlie pawnshop Last Line: Shoot him while he run SAVIOR First Line: Petulant priests, greedy Last Line: Although we have lost %your name SENSES OF INSECURITY First Line: I couldn't tell fact from fiction Last Line: And found my senses lost SEPIA FASHION SHOW Poem Text Recitation First Line: Their hair, pomaded, faces jaded Last Line: You got at miss ann's scrubbing Subject(s): African Americans – Women; Beauty SEPIA FASHION SHOW First Line: Their hair, pomaded, faces jaded Last Line: I'd remind them please, look at those knees %you got a miss ann's scrubbing Subject(s): African Americans - Women SEVEN WOMEN'S BLESSED ASSURANCE First Line: One thing about me Last Line: To rest sometime SHAKER, WHY DON'T YOU SING? First Line: Evicted from sleep's mute palace Last Line: Shaker, why don't you sing SINGER WILL NOT SING First Line: A benison given. Unused Last Line: To this place SLAVE COFFLE First Line: Just beyond my reaching Last Line: That my life was gone SOME GRASS ALONG A DITCH BANK First Line: I don't know what happens to grass Last Line: But then growing still again Subject(s): Farm Life SON TO MOTHER Poem Text First Line: I start no Last Line: "before I annihilate Subject(s): African Americans; Negroes; American Blacks SON TO MOTHER First Line: I start no Last Line: Before I annihilate %their ignorance? Subject(s): African Americans SONG FOR THE OLD ONES Poem Text First Line: My fathers sit on benches Last Line: They kept my race alive Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers SONG FOR THE OLD ONES First Line: My fathers sit on benches Last Line: They kept my race alive Subject(s): Labor And Laborers SOUNDS LIKE PEARLS First Line: Sounds %like pearls Last Line: With blushings %disappear SOUTHEAST ARKANASIA Poem Text First Line: After eli whitney's gin brought to generations Last Line: And the absence of despair / over yonder? Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Work; Workers SOUTHEAST ARKANASIA First Line: After eli whitney's gin brought to generations Last Line: And the absence of despair %over yonder Subject(s): Labor And Laborers STARVATION First Line: Hurray! Hurry! %come through the keyhole Last Line: And laughs at each eviction notice. %come STILL I RISE Poem Text First Line: You may write me down in history / with your bitter, twisted lies Last Line: I rise. Subject(s): African Americans - Women TAKE TIME OUT First Line: When you see them Last Line: Take time out TEARS First Line: Tears %the crystal rags Last Line: Blue farewell %of a dying dream TELEPHONE First Line: It comes in black Last Line: Ring. Damn you TELEVISED Poem Text First Line: Televised news turns Last Line: And one more morning? Subject(s): Blacks; Children; Hunger; Childhood TELEVISED First Line: Televised news turns Last Line: Them peas and lamb chops %and one more morning? Subject(s): Blacks; Children; Hunger THANK YOU, LORD First Line: I see you %brown-skinned Last Line: I want to thank you THE BLACK FAMILY PLEDGE Poem Text First Line: Because we have forgotten our ancestors Subject(s): African Americans; Ancestors & Ancestry; Negroes; American Blacks; Heritage; Heredity THE MEMORY Poem Text First Line: Cotton rows crisscross the world Subject(s): Farm Life; Agriculture; Farmers THE MOTHERING BLACKNESS Poem Text First Line: She came home running Subject(s): Homecoming THE TRAVELLER Poem Text First Line: Byways and bygone Subject(s): Solitude THESE YET TO BE UNITED STATES Poem Text First Line: Tremors of your network Last Line: Which fill your children's throats Subject(s): United States; America THESE YET TO BE UNITED STATES First Line: Tremors of your network Last Line: And cannot hear the curses %which fill your children's throats Subject(s): United States THEY ASK WHY First Line: A certain person wondered why Last Line: You don't even have to talk THEY WENT HOME Poem Text First Line: They went home and told their wives Subject(s): Unfaithfulness; Women; Infidelity; Adultery; Inconstancy THEY WENT HOME First Line: They went home and told their wives Last Line: They'd spend one night, or two or three %but Subject(s): Unfaithfulness; Women THIRTEENS (BLACK) First Line: Your momma took to shouting Last Line: The thirteens. Right on THIRTEENS (WHITE) First Line: Your momma kissed the chauffeur Last Line: The thirteens. Right on THIS WINTER DAY First Line: The kitchen is its readiness Last Line: My window and the soup THROUGH THE INNER CITY TO THE SUBURBS First Line: Secured by sooted windows Last Line: And grinning. Still %grinning TIMES-SQUARE-SHOESHINE-COMPOSITION First Line: I'm the best that ever done it Last Line: (pow pow) TO A FREEDOM FIGHTER First Line: You drink a bitter draught Last Line: I hear it in your breath TO A HUSBAND Poem Text First Line: Your voice at times a fist Last Line: I sit at home and see it all / through you Subject(s): Africa; African Americans; Love - Marital; Negroes; American Blacks; Wedded Love; Marriage - Love TO A HUSBAND First Line: Your voice at times a fist Last Line: I sit home and see it all %through you Subject(s): Africa; African Americans; Love - Marital TO A MAN First Line: My man is %black golden amber Last Line: New. Now new. %still itself. %still TO A SUITOR First Line: If you are black and for me Last Line: A crescent moon, naturally TO BEAT THE CHILD WAS BAD ENOUGH First Line: A young body, light Last Line: A young body floats %silently TRAVELER First Line: Byways and bygone Last Line: My long nights, lone UNMEASURED TEMPO First Line: The sun rises at midday Last Line: But too late WE SAW BEYOND OUR SEEMING Last Line: Dry tablets without token WEEKEND GLORY First Line: Some dichty folks %don't know the facts Last Line: On a saturday night WHEN I THINK ABOUT MYSELF Last Line: When I think about my folks WHEN YOU COME TO ME First Line: When you come to me, unbidden Last Line: Trunks of secret words %I cry WHERE WE BELONG, A DUET First Line: In every town and village Last Line: Now I'm where I belong WHY ARE THEY HAPPY PEOPLE? Poem Text First Line: Skin back your teeth, damn you Last Line: With your kin Subject(s): African Americans; Happiness; Negroes; American Blacks WHY ARE THEY HAPPY PEOPLE? First Line: Skin back your teeth, damn you Last Line: With your kin Subject(s): African Americans WILLIE First Line: Willie was a man without fame Last Line: When the chidren sing %I am the rhyme WOMAN ME Poem Text First Line: Your smile, delicate / rumor of peace Subject(s): African Americans - Women WOMAN ME First Line: Your smile, delicate %rumor of peace Last Line: A stomp of feet, a bevy of swift hands Subject(s): African Americans - Women WOMAN WORK Poem Text First Line: I've got the children to tend Subject(s): Labor & Laborers; Women; Work; Workers WOMAN WORK First Line: I've got the children to tend Last Line: You're all that I can call my own Subject(s): Labor And Laborers; Women WONDER First Line: A day %drunk with the nectar of Last Line: Long years hence WORKER'S SONG First Line: Big ships shudder Last Line: Whoppa %whoppa ZORRO MAN First Line: Here %in the wombed room Last Line: And trembling for me |
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