This document provides an overview of Maya Angelou's life and work as a prominent poet. It lists some of her popular poems and notes that her writings often praised black beauty and portrayed the strength of women. The document also provides a brief history of racial barriers and divisions in America, mentioning how Angelou's poetry was influenced by her experience during the Civil Rights Movement. It seeks to justify the human spirit.

1. Maya Angelou
Her Life Experiences - Influencing and Inspiring
Her Work and Words
Toni
White
English
1102
Elizabeth
Owens

2. A Few Of Her Popular Poems
A Brave and Startling Truth
A Conceit
A Plagued Journey
Alone
Awaking in New York
California Prodigal
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
Insomniac
Men
Million Man March Poem
Momma Welfare Roll
On the Pulse of Morning
Passing Time

3. Summary
Angelou is a phenomenal woman and also a widely-read
poet. Throughout her writings and poetry the contents
have always been that of praising black beauty,
portraying the strength of women, and justifying the
human spirit. A sample of Angelou’s work Just Give
Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, which was
published in 1971, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in
1972. This volume or collection contained thirty-eight
poems, some of which were previously published in The
Poetry of Maya Angelou (1969). According to Carol
Neubauer in Southern Women Writers, "the first twenty
poems describe the whole gamut of love, from the first
moment of passionate discovery to the first suspicion of
painful loss."

4. Brief History
Throughout history, there have been barriers that existed between races.
There have been divisions and inequities between blacks and whites that
have existed since ancient times. It is a stigma regarding how heritage and
history has incurred blacks with slavery, and why so much discrimination
and racism still exist. Nevertheless, the Civil Rights Movement was a time
and era when the Blacks (Blacks now spelled with a capital B) were making
demands for the right to be treated equal and just and Maya’s poetry was
being questioned by her peers. In describing her work to George Plimpton,
Angelou has once said, "Once I got into it I realized I was following a
tradition established by Frederick Douglass—the slave narrative—speaking
in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always
saying I meaning 'we.' And what a responsibility. Trying to work with that
form, the autobiographical mode, to change it, to make it bigger, richer,
finer, and more inclusive in the twentieth century has been a great challenge
for me.”

5. The End
Works Cited
Angelou, Maya. “Graduation.” Cromley 29-39.
Contemporary Poets, seventh edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 2001
Cromley, Nancy R., et al, ed. Fields of Reading: Motives for Writing. New
York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.
Kotre, John. “How Memory Speaks.” Cromley 146-157.
Willet, Jincy. “Under the Bed.” Cromley 612-619
Smith, Sidonie Ann. "Maya Angelou 4 April 1928-. " Contemporary
Literary Criticism. Gale Research Company. Volume 12. 1980.
Southern Literary Journal, fall, 1998, Marion M. Tangum, "Hurston's and
Angelou's Visual Art: The Distancing Vision and the Beckoning Gaze," p.
80.