Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Explication of "Africa" by Maya Angelou



The poem “Africa” by Maya Angelou tells the history of Africa. The poem is broken up into stanzas that illustrate different points in history. The first stanza is about the natural beauty of the continent, and mentions the deserts, mountains, and Nile River (3-6). This stanza starts out with the line “Thus she had lain” (1). In this line, the word “lain” is unstressed, showing the passive and calm nature of Africa. In the last line, the work “black” is emphasized, which shows that Africa was beautiful before white intervention. The second stanza is a shift in the tone, and the topic shifts to white intrusion in Africa. Angelou mentions that people crossed the “white seas” (9), and she refers to the white people as “brigands ungentled/ icicle bold” (11-12). Brigands have an obvious negative connotation, and words such as “icicle” (11) and “cold” (10) have connotations of lack of sympathy. The second stanza has trochaic meter to emphasize the important words. Angelou says the white people “took her young daughters/ sold her strong sons/ churched her with Jesus/ bled her with guns” (13-16). In these lines, the natural stress is on the first words. This emphasizes the cruelties that took place in Africa during the slave trade and civilization missions.
            The last stanza switches to present day, and expresses a hopeful, optimistic attitude. Many of the lines start with the word “remember” to show the importance of acknowledging Africa’s history. The words “pain” (19) and “losses” (20) are stressed to further show the importance of the history behind Africa. In the line “now she is striding” (24), the words “now” and “striding” are stressed to show the improvement the Africa has made in the present day. The last line, “although she had lain” (25), relates back to the history of Africa and shows that Africa is still prospering despite the cruelties that occurred.

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