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.

Woman Work

I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.

Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.

Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
'Til I can rest again.

Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.

Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own. 

Maya Angelou

Woman Work” is a very domestic poem depicting the typical routine life of a woman who performs her daily chores effectively and then yearns for a fantastic break a midst the elements of nature to give her strength and comfort.

As a housewife, she has to perform many chores. She has to tend her children, mend their clothes, mop the floor and do some shopping for their meals. Then she has to fry chicken, dry the baby, feed her animals, weed off her garden, press the shirts, dress her tots, cut the canes and clean up her whole house to make it beautiful and appealing.

This is the drudgery of her routine, which makes her life so monotonous and prosaic; but the woman in the poem is an idealist and wants to go in the lap of nature to give her relief and comfort. She calls forth the sun, the moon, the mountains, cold ice, and the curving sky to take her away into the space so that she can fly there, forget her neck-breaking routine, and feel the freshness of natural elements to stimulate her body and soul to once again perform the next day’s chores.

Touched by an Angel

We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.

Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.

We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.

Maya Angelou 

Touched by an Angel is about love. Although the overall theme of the poem is about love, each stanza has its own meaning. The first stanza is about how people are before love comes into their life. Maya Angelou characterizes people as being alone, and scared until love comes and liberates us from these traits. The second stanza describes what all comes with love when it comes into our lives. There are ups and downs with love, through all these things we have a choice to be bold and make our fears to love go away. In the last stanza the author explains what love does to us, how love changes us, and what love does for us. Love in this stanza is depicted as something that replenishes us. In general, in the poem, we are not fully happy in our lives until we've found love.
In the poem Touched by an Angel, there are not a lot of poetic devices used. There is some alliteration in the poem. The alliteration appears in the first and second stanza (“love leaves“, “high holy“, “love’s light”). There’s no specific rhyme scheme but there is some rhyming in the poem.

A Conceit

Give me your hand

Make room for me
to lead and follow
you
beyond this rage of poetry.

Let others have
the privacy of
touching words
and love of loss
of love.

For me
Give me your hand. 

Maya Angelou 

The poem a conceit by Maya Angelou It seems to me that the poem is a plea for real love rather than words or even poems about it - for instance, "touching words" is contrasted with "give me your hand" - real physical contact. You probably know, but a conceit in this sense is a witty or fanciful idea. That could apply to the idea of writing a poem that asks to get away from poetry into reality. I think the central idea is that real, physical human contact is more important, more precious than words and ideas. There is a kind of joke or paradox here one meaning of the word "conceit" is a kind of quirky or fanciful idea because of course this celebration of "real" life and love is expressed through the distant form of a poem! So the idea is both very simple and complicated.

Fly, envious Time, till thou run out thy race,
Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours,
Whose speed is but the heavy plummet's pace;
And glut thyself with what thy womb devours,
Which is no more than what is false and vain,
And merely mortal dross;
So little is our loss,
So little is thy gain.
For when as each thing bad thou hast intombed,
And last of all thy greedy self consumed,
Then long Eternity shall greet our bliss
With an individual kiss,
And Joy shall overtake us as a flood;
When every thing that is sincerely good
And perfectly divine,
With truth, and peace, and love, shall ever shine
About the supreme throne
Of Him, t' whose happy-making sight alone
When once our heav'nly-guided soul shall climb,
Then, all this earthly grossness quit,
Attired with stars, we shall for ever sit,
Triumphing over Death, and Chance, and thee, O Time. 

John Milton

        On Time,” by the English poet John Milton 1608-1674, deals with one of the most common themes in all of medieval or Renaissance literature: the theme of mutability, or the idea that life on earth is full of constant and mainly negative change. The inevitable passage of time was a particularly painful example of such change, especially since it ultimately involved physical deterioration and then, eventually, physical death. Milton’s poem is a response to such gradual but certain decay. Like many other writers of his era an era dominated by Christian thinking, Milton emphasized that humans can escape the ravages of time by attaining an eternal life in heaven that is full of joy.Line 1 begins with the vigorous verb “Fly” that is, “flee”, which immediately asserts the speaker’s vigor and self-confidence. Rather than being intimidated by time, he attacks and mocks it. Time is “envious,” a word which in Milton’s era mainly meant being hateful, malignant, and/or spiteful. But perhaps it also here suggests that Time, which is limited and bound to end, envies human beings, who are capable of existing eternally. In any case, by personifying time as “Time,” Milton makes it almost seem a living thing an assertion which already implies a bit of irony since he soon suggests that Time will die. Time, in this poem, seems not merely an abstract philosophical concept; it is a malevolent, active being whom one must resist and defeat. The speaker, however, immediately implies that he feels no fear of Time; from the very first line, he suggests that Time is fated to suffer death.Line 2 shows Milton’s talent for using sound effects. In this case, the effects involve not only  alliteration (repetition of similar consonant sounds) but also assonance (repetition of similar vowel sounds), as in the repetition here of “l’s” and short “e’s”: “Call on the lazy leaden-stepping hours.” Having already mentioned the word “race” in line 1 (a word implying speed), the speaker now implies (through the use of the particular adjectives here) that Time moves very slowly. It is as if the speaker feels contempt for the “lazy leaden-stepping hours,” as if he is almost eager for Time to run its race as quickly as possible.

commentary of "still i rise" by maya angelou

in this poem there are so many literay devices used by maya. Just like moons and like suns – simile Comparing how she continuously raises herself up emotionally to stay strong just, like how the moon and sun raises everyday no matter what happens.  I’ll rise; I rise – repetition By repeating these words it makes the words that much more powerful and makes it stand out and also emphasizes Angelou’s message, which is to stay strong and to never allow anything or anyone stop you from fighting and living strong. Does my sassiness upset you? ; Do you want to see me broken? ; Does my haughtiness offend you? ; Does my sexiness offend you? By questioning the readers (“you”), it catches the reader’s attention and is affective because it makes readers realize how many people have made the person (“I”) feel and how many people may be feeling, it makes readers read the poem and take it to a more personal level. oil wells; gold mines; diamonds – metaphor These are often known to be expensive and valuable, and Angelou is relating these to the value of herself. She is worth just as much as everyone else and therefore she should receive just as much respect and love like others. Shoulders falling down like teardrops – simile Comparing how a person’s shoulders drop as they lose confidence in them self and when feeling down, similar to how tears drop done one’s face when upset or hurt. At the meeting of my thighs expressing her sexuality of being a woman I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide the color black is usually used to create a sense of fear and evil. A “black ocean” seems to describe an ocean that is full of cruelty and how things occur unexpectedly. This may be referring to how her own life is, full of horrific and unexpected events. The “black ocean” may also be describing her own race which allows readers to understand that the poem is about racism. Still I Rise has a positive and strong tone throughout the entire poem. The words Angelou used also make it seem as though the character in the poem is talking to the readers. By doing so Angelou got the readers to get more personally involved in the poem emotionally which helps to make readers realize how humans are all guilty of discriminating others in some form. The poem should be read with confidence, especially in the parts “I’ll rise and “I rise” to show the strong attitude the person (“I”) has about them self. In some lines for example “’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines” the tone changes almost to a point where the reader is chuckling like how it says in the poem. The main theme in the poem Still I Rise is discrimination. This poem portrays a strong person living with a positive attitude. I chose to do this poem because although it was written in 1978, the message portrayed in the poem is very powerful and can be related by anyone even in this time period. This poem is very straightforward which makes the message that much more meaningful and affective. At some point in life everybody experiences discrimination, although it may be in different ways and extents it is a struggle that all people go through within their lifetime. This poem teaches readers that all humans have strength that lays within us that can help to overcome any obstacles. This poem also makes readers realize the importance of having pride and hope in ourselves. The line “Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave” shows the importance of having appreciation in those in previous generations for what they have done for us and what they have left. Also, the line “I am the dream and the hope of the slave” shows how Angelou believes that one person stepping up to make a difference or to have their voices heard will not only help themselves, but it also has a potential of helping those who are also suffering from the same or similar discrimination.        

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise. 

Maya Angelou