Sing Sing prison

“Beautiful in the mind, Like a word we are waiting to hear”. Adrienne Rich was an amazing poet, her two poems I chose, “A Ball is for Throwing” and “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers” not only captured my attention but required genuine thought while discussing them. In both of her works, Rich uses her work to show the importance of seizing the meaningful moments in your life. Both works have metaphors helping the reader understand what she truly means. In “A Ball is for Throwing” Rich uses the ball to…

winning, female, African-American writers? Maya Angelou astounded everyone with her amazing poems and stories. Without any writing experience, whatsoever, she became one of the best-known authors of her time. Her first story, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, a story about her struggles through childhood was a best seller. Despite a tough childhood, Maya Angelou persevered, and became one of the most inspiring and influential writers of her time, receiving many awards…

the use of irony, authors Maya Angelou and Alfred Uhry show us that real freedom is a state of mind which can only be obtained when one allows it for himself. There is no coincidence that it is the caged bird who sings, and not the free bird. In the poem “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou, the speaker goes back and forth between stanzas comparing the realities of a free bird to that of a caged bird. Seeing the bird who nonchalantly “dips his wings... in the orange sun rays,” in…

woman, that’s Mrs. Angelou, her achievements vary from her literary skills/awards, her commitment to making this world a better place and her bravery to speak out to be heard (Maya Angelou). She was best known for her book “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller of an African-American woman, according to biography.com! She may not have the superhuman abilities, but she had the strength to keep moving forward regardless of her…

Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 as Marguerite Annie Johnson in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the second child of Bailey Johnson and Vivian Baxter. At the age of three her parents marriage ended and she and her older brother Bailey ( who was 5 at the time ) was sent to live with their father’s mother, Annie Henderson in Stamps,Arkansas. Angelou’s grandmother Annie was the child of freed slaves and also became the leader of the black community in Stamps. She was the owner of the only…

Jamal Eric Watson the author of the article The Caged Bird Flys was published in Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Volume 31, Issue 10 on June 19th 2014. Watson is a respected writer and lecturer. He is a senior staff writer for Diverse Issues in Higher Education. It is one of the country’s leading periodicals whose focal point is minorities and various related issues. Some of his writings has been seen in an array of publications such as The Baltimore Sun, The New York Sun, USA Today, The…

Marguerite Annie Johnson, better known as Maya Angelou, carried many talents, but was best known for her prize winning work as writer. In her lifetime Angelou held numerous jobs to include cook, teacher, singer, dancer, and actress to name a few. Her many jobs and role as a mother made Angelou the “Phenomenal woman, /That’s me” (1. 12-13). Being eager to learn allowed her to pursue her education, shape her career choices and motivated her to write. Although Maya Angelou faced many difficult…

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the autobiography of Maya Angelou, is filled with many experiences that shape and mold Maya Angelou into the literary powerhouse known today. The fact that Maya Angelou fearlessly wrote an autobiography she shows the audience that she has confidence in herself and that she likes to defeat social norms because autobiographies are known for being dreadfully boring. The autobiography also includes large uses of humor and the examples of human influences, for the…

Introduction We all have a journey in life: every man and woman. For, women, in particular, the journey is a bit different; Maya Angelou’s journey is a part of the reason she wrote and became the woman she was. Men, Still I Rise, and Phenomenal Woman particularly focus on the phases that women have gone and go through in life. Maya Angelou Background Information Maya Angelou was born April 4, 1928, in St. Louis Missouri. In 1936, after being molested by her mother’s boyfriend, Maya Angelou…

Maya Angelou was a well known poet and civil rights activist. In her poem, “Still I Rise” the speaker describes being sassy, and what it’s like to be beaten down but get back up. They talk about being confident to whatever it is that’s bring the speaker down. The speaker taunts the pain. In “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou uses the poetic device of simile to let the readers know that when life knocks you down, you have to get back up. In the poem, Maya Angelou uses the poetic device of simile in…