Refusal

In what other lives or lands
Have I know your lips
Your hands.
Your laughter brave
Irreverent.
Those sweet excesses that
I do adore.
What surety is there
That we will meet again,
On other worlds some
Future time undated.
I defy my body's haste.
Without the promise
Of one more sweet encounter
I will not deign to die.
- Maya Angelou
   My reaction to this poem was I thought it was kind of sad because it is about someone who has lost lover and this person is saying how she loved these features about her lover. She also was how she refuses to believe
that she won't see her lover again and she doesn't mind dying because she knows she will be reunited withhim.The poetic device used here is imagery because she does describe the things that she loved about her lover and she talks about some of the traits that she loved about him This poem is also a free verse poem which means that there is no rhyme scheme. The theme of this is to hold on to your loved ones who have passed on and hold on to your memories of them because you will be reunited with them again.