Maya Angelou is an African American poet and novelist who was born in St. Louis, Missouri on April 4, 1928. She has received many awards, including nominations for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. Much of her work is autobiographical, such as her novel, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. This novel depicts the challenges which she faces during her childhood. She was raped by her mother's boyfriend at a young age, and she became mute for five years after her uncles murdered him. Common themes in Angelou's work include family, identity, and racism, often supporting the African American race and women.
Read this poem by Maya Angelou and identify the message that she is trying to depict. Find an example of how Angelou uses poetic devices in order to strengthen this message.
"Alone"
Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
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Everyone depends on something. Even if they are alone, it is impossible to be entirely independent. Angelou's poem "Alone" uses repetition to emphasis her point. "Nobody, but nobody can make it out here alone" (Lines 8-10). She repeats these lines at the ending of each stanza.
The poem is very lyrical. After each stanza there is a chorus, stressing the point that "Alone, all alone/Nobody, but nobody/Can make it out here alone" (Lines 11-13). The chorus further emphasizes the repetition in each of the stanzas. These repeated lines reflect Angelou's personal views on lonely feelings.
This poem seems to reflect Angelou's own personal life experiences. She wishes to find a place to go "where water is not thirsty and bread loaf is not stone" (Lines 4-5). She tunes readers into the fact that she is not living in the best conditions, nor is she in a higher class, because of her race and the discrimination she encounters. Angelou contrasts the life of the rich to her own in the second stanza. The upper class has "got expensive doctors to cure their hearts of stone" (Lines 18-19). The reference to "hearts of stone" may allude to the cruelness the upper class uses when relating with the lower classes.
The final stanza foreshadows the breakthrough that African Americans are going to achieve. "Storm clouds are gathering the wind is gonna blow" (Lines 28-29). The prediction Angelou makes about the end of black suffrage reflects her personal hopes that one day her race will not suffer as they do now.
This simple but touching poem has a strong effect on the reader. Throughout her poem, Angelou stresses the need to have close relationships in life. She constantly repeats her belief that "nobody/Can make it out here alone" (9-10), and she urges readers not to become like "the millionaires/With money they can't use" (14-15) and "wives...like banshees" (16). She has seen the consequences of making money instead of friends and trying to make it through life alone, and she tries to make these consequences clear to the reader.
To strengthen her message that no one can make it through life's hardships without someone to rely on, Angelou uses many poetic devices. Most obviously, she uses repetition at the end of every stanza. The haunting refrain of "nobody,/But nobody/Can make it out here alone" (8-10) reminds the reader that they are not alone in the world and that they shouldn't try to be. She also uses the simile of wives "like banshees" (16) and the metaphor of "hearts of stone" (19) to warn the reader of the consequences of caring more about money than people. Her use of these devices makes her message come through strongly and leaves the reader with a haunting warning.
Maya Angelou is communicatnig a very bleak yet universal message with this poem that the world essentially consumes all of humanity. Racism fuels this storm. While cacausian families "got expensive doctors/to cure their hearts of stone.", the black race watches like unmovable stones in a hurricane looking up to the calm eye of the storm, from which the torment of racial inequality start. She states that no african american can make it alone, but in unity perhaps they can get by. Even then she suggests that they will be outnumbered. BUt there is some hope in the last stanza that a change will come, that some part of humanity is waking up to the injustice. That alone suggests that this was probably published during the 1940s or 50s, when the civil rights movement was beginning to solidify.
Angelous uses simplistic diction throughtout the poem for two reasons, I believe. One of them is to give the poem universal appeal. Any literate person can read this and feel her words. The other reason is to compliment the attitude of the speak of the poem, or the poem's tone itself. Simplistic language is dismal. Words like "nobody" sound horrific when they are ocmplimented with biblical allusions.
The poem's use of apostrophe clamors for social change. Directly addressing us, the speaker credits its audience with allowing this horror to go on. Regardless of whethere of not we are in eye of the storm or one of the inhabitants suffering beneath it.
The theme of solitude is made prevalent in the poem with the use of repetition. She is basically saying that alone, one cannot make it through all the obstacles life presents when one is part of the lower to working class. The poem is mainly referring to the enslavement of African Americans during her time and how African Americans are remain living in poverty while the white man continues to rise to more power and money. By comparing the life of a typical enslaver's family to her longing of a place her soul can rest with plentiful nourishment, she further emphasizes her point and makes her easier to relate to and more human.
In her poem "Alone", Maya Angelou explores the assertion that no one can be successful if they do not ask for help. No matter how much money one has or how prominent they are, every one needs someone to depend on. Often times people try to handle situations on their own but ultimately they do not succeed. If people do not learn to ask for help and to lean on one another then the human race as we know it will deteriorate. Angelou utilizes extensive repetition throughout her poem. The purpose of such repetition is to impress upon the reader how passionately Angelou feels about people being there for each other. Each stanza is ends or is entirely composed of the same words. Another way that Angelou enhances her message is by writing in first person and addressing the reader directly by saying that she will "tell [us] what [she] know[s]...".
In Maya Angelou's poem "Alone", the idea of inevitable dependence is stressed through the use of repetition. At the end of every stanza, there is a verse which reads, "Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone". Through reiterating these words throughout the entire poem, Angelou is making extra sure that readers do not miss the message, which is that everyone needs something or someone in order to survive. In the poem, Angelou also stresses that that something or someone is different for every person, which touches a bit on racism, as this was a very predominant issue during the time in which the poem was composed. Through evaluating some of the different things that people depend on, Maya begins describing the things that "millionaires" turn to and ends with the suffering of the race of man. Through this progression, Maya is stressing that human beings are a whole and one race or ethnic group cannot make it without the others. Although there are several descriptions of what humans depend on, Maya makes sure to follow these descriptions with a reminder that not one of these things provide true satisfaction, hinting at the fact that only unity within the human race will provide this sense of fulfillment.
This poem flows like a song. There are rhythmic verses followed by the chorus,
"Alone, all alone/Nobody, but nobody /Can make it out here alone (11-13)"
The repetition of this phrase emphasizes Angelou's cry for company. People need others to rely on when they are hurt or struggling. There is nothing worse than being alone in a depressing situation.
Personification is also used in this poem. Angelou is looking "to find [her] soul a home" (3). She just wants to find a person that she can confide in and open her soul up to. Angelou feels alone and needs her soul to feel safe.
Angelou feels isolated due to her race as evident by the references made throughout the poem. She writes, "The race of man is suffering/And I can hear the moan" to depict this hardship with sound imagery (32). It is a very powerful phrase. One can envision the moaning echo of the many that were discriminated against. It takes a toll on someone both physically and mentally. Angelou certainly stresses the need to be strong and unified during times such as these.
Angelo's poem is purely about individuals being dependent on others. People have become increasingly materialistic over time, but Angelo knows that these things cannot take the place of what we really need: companionship.
By constantly repeating the words "nobody" and "alone," Angelo drives home the importance to fix this rapidly increasing problem. Also, she employs a number of piercing examples that reflect her own life. This increases the intensity of the poem, even if the reader is not knowledgeable in Angelo's history. Furthermore, the personification of water and the comparison of a loaf of bread to stone are literary devices that further enhance her meaning.
Angelo's poem, "Alone," is a very strikingly emotional poem. The reader's emotions are evoked by a number of excellently executed poetic devices that portray the theme of dependency on companionship versus a material object.
In her poem "Alone", Maya Angelou explores the idea that no person can be successful and receive help if they do not ask for help. It does not matter how much money one has or how high in society they are, every one needs someone to lean on. If people do not learn to ask for help and to lean on one another then the human race as we know it will deteriorate. Angelou utilizes extensive repetition throughout her poem with words such as "nobody" and "alone," to show the reader how passionately she feels about people being there for each other.
I can also notice that this poem seems to reflect experiences from Angelou's own personal life. She leads readers into knowing the fact that she is not living in the best conditions, due to her race, nor is she in a higher class. She seems to contrast the life of her own to the wealthy in the second stanza.
Maya Angelou is trying to convey the message that everyone must rely on the people in their life for support and happiness. No one can be truly successful if they have no one to depend on. Humanity is composed of several individuals that work together in order to achieve a greater happiness. In order to supass life's challenges, everyone must work together.
Angelou uses repetition throughout this poem to emphasize her message. She repeats "Alone, all alone Nobody, but nobody Can make it out here alone" three times. At the beginning, this phrase introduces the theme. It is reinforced in reader's minds when it is repeated again in the middle. And it sums up the point of the poem at the end and leaves the audience with a lasting empression.
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