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||> ==Biography:     ==
 * ==MAYA ANGELOU ==

 Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928 in Saint Louis, Missouri. Her given name was        Marguerite Johnson         but her younger brother gave her the nickname Maya early on in life. Her first book,    //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);"> gave incite to the first 16 years of her life. She told readers how, after her parent’s marriage ended during the Great Depression      <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;">  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">, she and her siblings went to live with her father’s mother in Stamps, Arkansas. Four years later Angelou’s father returned to Arkansas unexpectedly to return his children to their mother in Missouri. Upon returning Angelou, age eight, was sexually abused by her mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Freeman, and after confiding in her brother about the incident Freeman was jailed for one day but four days after his release found killed by Angelou's uncle. Young Angelou blamed herself for the man’s death saying that “my voice killed him” and remained mute for about five years until the age of 13. <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);"> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">   <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">         <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">        <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;">  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">Soon after Freeman’s death the siblings were sent back to live with their grandmother where Angelou met Bertha Flowers who introduced her to classic literature and authors and this is who Angelou credits for helping her begin to speak again. At age thirteen Angelou and her brother returned to live with their mother on San Francisco where Angelou attended George Washington High School and received a scholarship for the California Labor School where she studied dance and drama. In Angelou’s second autobiography,    //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">Gather Together in My Name,     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);"> she described her life from ages seventeen to nineteen as “a single mother's slide down the social ladder into poverty and crime." Throughout the 1950's Angelou wrote lyrics for songs and recorded her first album,     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">Calypso Lady     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">. After a failed marriage to Tosh Angelos, Angelou moved to New York and joined the Harlem Writer's Guild to further develop her writing career. <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);"> <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">   <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">         <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">        <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Georgia, serif;">  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">In 1973, after marrying Paul de Fue, Angelou composed various poems, music for movies, short stories and autobiographies such as     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">Singin’ and Swingin’ and Getting’ Merry Like Christmas     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);"> (1973),     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">The Heart of A Woman     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);"> (1981), and     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">All God’s Children need Traveling Shoes     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">(1986). In 1971 Angelou was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her poem    //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);">Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'Fore I Diiie     //  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(15, 191, 245);"> (1971). In 1993 she recited her poem “On the Pulse of Morning” at President Clinton’s inauguration and in 2002 allowed Hallmark to use her writings and name on a series of gift cards. Throughout her career Angelou was awarded with over thirty honorary degrees including the Presidential Medal for the Arts and the Lincoln Medal <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 214, 255);">. <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 214, 255);">  <span style="font-family: Georgia, serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, serif; color: rgb(0, 214, 255);"> ||

Poetry links
> ||>  ||
 * * __ [|Maya Angelou: Still I Rise] __
 * [|Maya Angelou: I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings]
 * __ [|Maya Angelou: The Lesson] __
 * [|Maya Angelou: Woman Work]

Explication
=  =

<span style="color: #e26a40; font-family: Georgia, serif;">
 * <span style="font-size: 13pt; color: #e26a40; font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The poem "Why the Caged Bird Sings" was written by Maya Angelou with text obtained from poemhunter.com. It parallels the lives of two birds; one trapped in a cage its whole life and the other free in the forest. This poem shows the difference between two different life styles. This poem basically tells how a free bird spends it's days doing whatever it pleases in the wilderness and then says how a caged bird is limited in what it does and how it sings to substitute for all that it misses out on because it is in a cage all day and unable to fly. The free bird in a way takes everything it has for granted but the caged bird longs for all of those privileges because he knows how amazing they are. This poem personifies the caged and free bird. The caged bird longs for all the great pleasures the free bird has and the free bird "claims the sky his own" and thinks to himself all the different things he has done. When Anglou wrote this poem she wanted to inspire people to do whatever they can to escape a bad situation because if you try your hardest you can achieve anything. After explaining that the caged bird's wings were clipped and feet were tied she said that he sang because that’s all he could do. Even though the bird's life was not anything compared to the free birds, he never gave up hope by always singing and longs for everything that he could have if he was free. Angelou used strong wording to make a big impact on her readers. The comparisons between the two bird’s lives were so contrasting that it made readers want to reach out for the caged bird. The images of how blissful the free birds life was compared to the dark, isolation of the caged birds life brings a since or pity to the poem. Because the poem didn't have any rhyming in it, the poem seemed more solemn. I really like the descriptions of the free bird’s life because the imagery was so real, I felt like I could reach out and touch the forest's trees or feel the streams water. I could relate to this poem because I think everyone knows how it feels to want something so bad that you'll do anything to get it but not being able to. **<span style="font-size: 13pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">

<span style="color: #080707; font-family: Georgia, serif;">Sources
=="Maya Angelou Biography." Achievement.org__. 26 Aug. 2005. Academy of Achievment. 29 Nov. 2008. <[|http://http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/ang0bio-1]>. __==