Abstract
This paper examines Maya Angelou’s first volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water ‘fore I Diiie (1971), as an exemplar of confessional poetry that serves a humanistic purpose. Angelou discloses herself in this volume of 38 poems, divided into two sections — Where Love Is a Scream of Anguish (20 poems) and Just Before the World Ends (18 poems) — expressing her pain for loss of love and dignity while calling for basic human rights, equality, and human value. The paper demonstrates how Angelou, as a Black American and civil rights activist, uses confessional poetry to explore themes of love, racism, and the struggle for freedom, ultimately establishing a symbiosis of love, peace and moral value that defies racial segregation, injustice and legislative suppression on basic human rights.
Keywords: Maya Angelou, confessional poetry, humanism, civil rights, racism, African American poetry
Confessional Poetry and Angelou
Confessional writing is traditionally understood as “a private, autobiographical, and largely uncrafted art form” (Sherwin 144), though it now trends to be realized as “inescapably encompassing art.” M.L. Rosenthal, in his review of Robert Lowell’s Life Studies, observed that “to build a great poem out of the predicament and horror of the lost self has been the recurrent effort of the most ambitious poetry of the last century” (113).
Love and Loss
Maya Angelou expresses her paining experience of loss and dissatisfaction in love. In “They Went Home,” she opens up with hatred for those men who are fond of extramarital affairs. Many of her poems like “Late October,” “When You Come to Me,” “In a Time,” and “A Zorrow Man” bring out Angelou’s hatred, pain and sorrow from love. In “No Loser, No Weeper,” she wants to tell very clearly to a woman to stay away from her “lover-boy.” Angelou’s poems are immediate and intimate, often conveying feelings of desperation, inevitable loss of love, impotence and despair.
The Civil Rights Movement
Angelou was a civil rights activist of the 1960s under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr. In “My Guilt,” she feels unfortunate because among all the heroes only she is alive to see the misery of the people. She often misses the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement, like Gabriel, Malcolm, Marcus, and Martin Luther King, Jr. In “To a Freedom Fighter,” Angelou appreciates the great spirit of the fighters who dedicated their lives for freedom.
Racism and Discrimination
In poems like “The Calling of Names,” “Harlem Hopscotch,” and “On Working White Liberals,” Angelou brings out the superior attitude of White folks to the Black ones. In “The Calling of Names,” she speaks of those who suffer only for their complexion. In “Harlem Hopscotch,” she throws light on the terrible condition of Black people of Harlem. In “On Working White Liberals,” she protests inequality and discrimination, wanting to make people realize “every man’s responsibility to man.”
Conclusion
In this volume of poetry, Angelou confesses her own tormented experiences in life. She explores Black history through autobiographical representation, earning the title “the black woman’s poet laureate.” Her poems are both social and confessional in nature, wherein Angelou uses laughter or ridicule instead of tears to cope with suffering. This volume replicates her indomitable spirit, reposing human value that strictly defies any racial segregation, injustice and legislative suppression on basic human rights.
Works Cited
- Angelou, Maya. The Complete Collected Poems. London: Virago, 2014.
- Goswami, Joy. Kobita Sangraha. Kolkata: Ananda, 2011.
- Kirsch, Adam. The Wounded Surgeon: Confession and Transformation in Six American Poets. New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005.
- McRae, John and Ronald Carter. The Routledge History of Literature in English. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.
- Rosenthal, M.L. “Poetry as Confession.” Rev. of Life Studies, by Robert Lowell. Our Life in Poetry: Selected Essays and Reviews. New York: Persea Books, 1991. 109-113.
- Sherwin, Miranda. “Confessional” Writing and the Twentieth-Century Literary Imagination. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.