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Complete Collected Poems

maya angelou

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Maya Angelou's poetry- lyrical and dramatic, exuberant and playful - speaks of love, longings, partings; of Saturday night partying and the smells and sounds of Southern cities; of freedom and shattered dreams. Of her poetry, Kirkus Reviews has written, 'It is just as much a part of her autobiography as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Gather Together in My Name, Singin' and Swingin' and Gettin' Merry Like Christmas, and The Heart of a Woman'

null pages, Paperback

First published February 1,1994

This edition

Format
null pages, Paperback
Published
February 1, 1994 by Time Warner Books Uk
ISBN
9781844082230
ASIN
1844082237
Language
English

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About the author

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maya angelou

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Maya Angelou was an American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist. She published seven autobiographies, three books of essays, several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning over 50 years. She received dozens of awards and more than 50 honorary degrees. Angelou's series of seven autobiographies focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969), tells of her life up to the age of 17 and brought her international recognition and acclaim.
She became a poet and writer after a string of odd jobs during her young adulthood. These included fry cook, sex worker, nightclub performer, Porgy and Bess cast member, Southern Christian Leadership Conference coordinator, and correspondent in Egypt and Ghana during the decolonization of Africa. Angelou was also an actress, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. In 1982, she was named the first Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Angelou was active in the Civil Rights Movement and worked with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Beginning in the 1990s, she made approximately 80 appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" (1993) at the first inauguration of Bill Clinton, making her the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy in 1961.
With the publication of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou publicly discussed aspects of her personal life. She was respected as a spokesperson for Black people and women, and her works have been considered a defense of Black culture. Her works are widely used in schools and universities worldwide, although attempts have been made to ban her books from some U.S. libraries. Angelou's most celebrated works have been labeled as autobiographical fiction, but many critics consider them to be autobiographies. She made a deliberate attempt to challenge the common structure of the autobiography by critiquing, changing, and expanding the genre. Her books center on themes that include racism, identity, family, and travel.

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Community Reviews

Rating(4.1 / 5.0, 100 votes)
5 stars
36(36%)
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34(34%)
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30(30%)
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100 reviews All reviews
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lavaknight05
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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As with all collections, my rating refers to my overall impression, an informal average. In this set of poems, I found several which I loved for the rhythym & rhyme, several others I loved for the content. Others I found stirred up my feelings, which I admire and are powerful but disturbing. Only a few left me uninterested.

I would strongly recommend this poetry, especially to women. Angelou has a strong feminist voice as well as a voice for African-Americans. She captures the anger as well as the pride, the hope and the despair.
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Haiua
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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In an ongoing effort to decenter whiteness, I have been attempting to read more authors of color, and specifically, more women of color. This was my first real foray into Maya Angelou, and I read the complete works cover to cover.
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alpha_Xes
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Breathe, Brother,
and displace a moment’s hate with organized love.

Still I Rise is one of my favorite poems. Watch her reciting it here, it will melt your heart: https://youtu.be/qviM_GnJbOM
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KaijuLex
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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maya angelou is wonderful. favorite from the collection:

the detached

we die,
welcoming bluebeards to our darkening closets,
stranglers to our outstretched necks,
stranglers, who neither care nor
care to know that
DEATH IS INTERNAL.

we pray,
savoring sweet the teethed lies,
bellying the grounds before alien gods,
gods, who neither know nor
wish to know that
HELL IS INTERNAL.

we love,
rubbing the nakedness with gloved
hands,
inverting our mouths in tongued kisses,
kisses that neither touch nor
care to touch if
LOVE IS INTERNAL.
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NinjasonFG
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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We die,
welcoming Bluebeards to our darkening closets,
stranglers to our outstretched necks,
n  stranglers who neither care
nor care to know that
Death is internaln
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Th3DarkLight
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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Maya Angelou writes with rhythm, verve, anger, celebration, sexiness. Her poetry is measured, balanced, and rhymed, and it carries the music of her spirit. Whether defiant, empowering, confrontational, sensual, or accepting, each poem is an anthem.

Personal favourites include Caged Bird, Preacher Don't Send Me, On Working White Liberals, Still I Rise, and Equality.


Equality
You declare you see me dimly
through a glass which will not shine,
though I stand before you boldly,
trim in rank and marking time.

You do own to hear me faintly
as a whisper out of range,
while my drums beat out the message
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

You announce my ways are wanton,
that I fly from man to man,
but if I'm just a shadow to you,
could you ever understand?

We have lived a painful history,
we know the shameful past,
but I keep on marching forward,
and you keep on coming last.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.

Take the blinders from your vision,
take the padding from your ears,
and confess you've heard me crying,
and admit you've seen my tears.

Hear the tempo so compelling,
hear the blood throb in my veins.
Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
and the rhythms never change.

Equality, and I will be free.
Equality, and I will be free.
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TyphSZ
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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to be aware of language as a powerful tool that can be used to strike at an oppressor or uplift an entire community but also as a thing of joy, of playfulness and whimsy - to be able to wield it either way with such effortless mastery! a thoroughly impressive body of work & one that i (mostly) enjoyed a great deal
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Gertwor
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 26,2025
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She came to my college to give a lecture. Unfortunately, as I was the night circulation supervisor in the library, I couldn't go. But - my favorite literature teacher, Helen Cullins Smith (who was the lady responsible for Ms. Angelou's coming) gave her the poem I'd been inspired to write...Helen came into the library the next day and gave me an announcement that Maya had signed...it said "Wanda Lea — Write On!" I'm still reading her works.
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