Phenomenal Woman free essay sample

Phenomenal Woman is one of the most quoted poems in literary history. This poem was written in 1978 by Maya Angelou to tell a story of how as woman, through our many obstacles, we still were phenomenal. Angelou is a poet, historian, songwriter, playwright, dancer, stage and screen producer, director, performer, singer, and civil rights activist. She was born Marguerite Johnson, April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri. She grew up in St. Louis and Stamps, Arkansas. Maya Angelou’s life wasn’t always silver and gold. Maya Angelou’s parents divorced when she was a young child and her and her older brother were sent to live in Arkansas with their grandmother. At the age of seven, during a visit to her mother’s, Angelou was raped by her mother’s boyfriend. She only told her brother that this accord and days later, her mother’s boyfriend was killed by her uncles for his act on her. We will write a custom essay sample on Phenomenal Woman or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She thought that her words had killed him and she stopped speaking. She went on not speaking for five years and when she finally spoke, her and her brother moved back with their mom now in San Francisco. Maya earned a scholarship to the Labor School to dance and act. At the age of 16, she became pregnant and dropped out of school to work and raise her son. Angelou begin her career in a different way than most poets. She began as a dancer, then a Calypso singer and later moved to Harlem to join the Harlem Freedom Writers. In 1959, at the request of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , Maya Angelou became the northern coordinator for the Southern Christian leadership Conference. From 1961 to 962 she was associate editor of The Arab Observer in Cairo, Egypt; and from 1964 to 1966 she was feature editor of the African Review in Accra, Ghana. She returned to the U.S. in 1974 and was appointed by Gerald Ford to Bicentennial Commission and later by Jimmy Carter to the Commission for International Woman of the Year. At the urging of her friend, writer James Baldwin, she began writing about her life experiences. The result of her efforts became the 1970 best-selling memoir about her childhood and young adult years entitled I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This me moir made Angelou an international literary star. The first woman director in Hollywood, Angelou has written, produced, directed, and starred in productions for stage, film, and television. In 1971, she wrote the original screenplay and musical score for the film Georgia, Georgia, and was both author and executive producer of a five-part television miniseries â€Å"Three Way Choice†. She has also written and produced several prize-winning documentaries, including, â€Å"Afro-Americans in the Arts†, a PBS special for which she received the Golden Eagle Award. In 1978, Maya Angelou wrote Phenomenal Woman. This poem was inspired by all the trials and tribulations Angelou faced in her youth. Her poem illustrates the love a woman has for herself even though she isn’t considered beautiful. She used this publication to empower not only herself, but all women in the world that have faced obstacles or just didn’t know where they would turn to next. This poem spoke about woman in an inner sense than on what’s seen by the eye. True enough, the first thing you see when you see a woman or anyone else is their physical aspects. In this poem, Angelou wanted to focus mostly on all the wonderful things a woman can offer skin deep. Maya Angelou writes about experiences she has faced. She points out that she isn’t the most beautiful woman in the world, but she has so much more to offer than just beauty. The poem uses a repetitive pattern in each stanza. Angelou starts the stanza with a description of someone’s reaction to the woman as they notice her. The reactions are all categorized by wonderment. They question why she is so happy and what others see in her. The stanzas continue by developing the persona. The persona is described as a vivacious woman. Kelly Cecil describes Angelou’s purpose for her descriptions by stating: â€Å"She uses imagery so that the proud, confident persona can be better understood†.