Freedom Freedom is a word that can be defined in many ways to different minds, but in literary terms freedom means “the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved”. Two great poets by the name of Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes wrote two extraordinary poems called “I know why the caged bird sings” and “Democracy”. These two poems open your eye to the word freedom. I choose these two poems because, me personally being of Haitian decent I see how my people are treated and thought of. We think we leave Haiti to be free by coming to America but are we really free in America. I plan to further describe these to poems by analyzing what critics say about both the author and the poem and form my own opinion.
James …show more content…
Louis, Missouri. Maya had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their father's mother. She also suffered at the hands of a family associate around the age of 7: During a visit with her mother, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Then, as vengeance for the sexual assault, Angelou's uncles killed the boyfriend. So traumatized by the experience, Angelou stopped talking. She spent years as a virtual mute. In the mid-1950s, Angelou's career as a performer began to take off she landed 5 big time plays and shows, which were gaining her strong reviews. Angelou moved on to other pursuits, spending much of the 1960s abroad; she first lived in Egypt and then in Ghana, working as an editor and a freelance writer. Angelou was urged by friend and fellow writer James Baldwin to write about her life experiences. Her efforts resulted in the enormously successful 1969 memoir about her childhood and young adult years, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Since publishing Caged Bird, Angelou continued to break new ground—not just artistically, but educationally and socially.Angelou is considered one of the best African American poets ever, she won a lot of awards for her heartwarming poems but “Caged bird” is one of Angelou’s most famous …show more content…
Kelly “it is if Miss Angelou has a time machine, so unerringly does she record the private world of the young where sin original sin and embarrassment penultimate”. ( Harvard educational Review, 375) this poem is so special because she describes a time in her life that she kept repressed and tried to forget so vividly and clear.
Sidonie Ann Smith lavished more praise upon Angelou book and on the writer herself.
According to James Baldwin “I was so moved” (375) Baldwin helped Angelou when she was young forge her talent in to a career as a writer. Maya Angelou died May 28, 2014.
Democracy and Caged Bird have the same theme, but both poems are expressed two different ways. Langston Hughes Democracy is saying freedom will not come through fear and compromise you have to take freedom because the government won’t give it to us. Equality is absent and needs to come. In the poem democracy Langston Hughes says
“I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another
James …show more content…
Louis, Missouri. Maya had a difficult childhood. Her parents split up when she was very young, and she and her older brother, Bailey, were sent to live with their father's mother. She also suffered at the hands of a family associate around the age of 7: During a visit with her mother, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. Then, as vengeance for the sexual assault, Angelou's uncles killed the boyfriend. So traumatized by the experience, Angelou stopped talking. She spent years as a virtual mute. In the mid-1950s, Angelou's career as a performer began to take off she landed 5 big time plays and shows, which were gaining her strong reviews. Angelou moved on to other pursuits, spending much of the 1960s abroad; she first lived in Egypt and then in Ghana, working as an editor and a freelance writer. Angelou was urged by friend and fellow writer James Baldwin to write about her life experiences. Her efforts resulted in the enormously successful 1969 memoir about her childhood and young adult years, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, which made literary history as the first nonfiction best-seller by an African-American woman. Since publishing Caged Bird, Angelou continued to break new ground—not just artistically, but educationally and socially.Angelou is considered one of the best African American poets ever, she won a lot of awards for her heartwarming poems but “Caged bird” is one of Angelou’s most famous …show more content…
Kelly “it is if Miss Angelou has a time machine, so unerringly does she record the private world of the young where sin original sin and embarrassment penultimate”. ( Harvard educational Review, 375) this poem is so special because she describes a time in her life that she kept repressed and tried to forget so vividly and clear.
Sidonie Ann Smith lavished more praise upon Angelou book and on the writer herself.
According to James Baldwin “I was so moved” (375) Baldwin helped Angelou when she was young forge her talent in to a career as a writer. Maya Angelou died May 28, 2014.
Democracy and Caged Bird have the same theme, but both poems are expressed two different ways. Langston Hughes Democracy is saying freedom will not come through fear and compromise you have to take freedom because the government won’t give it to us. Equality is absent and needs to come. In the poem democracy Langston Hughes says
“I tire so of hearing people say,
Let things take their course.
Tomorrow is another