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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

THIS WAS THE BEST BOOK I HAVE EVER READ!!!! IT IS VERY VERY VERY VERY INSPIRAIONAL!

Pure beauty.

I feel that Maya Angelou is the female Langston Hughes--and for a new generation. There's that same rhythm, the same flair, the same knowing. Of course, all poets want to be their own voice, and she really is that. It's just that some of her things have a Hughes quality to them.

There are masterful poems throughout the book. A few of my favorites are "Late October" with its gently reflective cast, the impatient "The Telephone," and "He Went Home." There are too many wonderful poems to count. Many of them share a sense of loneliness, of betrayal, of bitterness, but that's not the theme of the whole collection.

I need to own this book. It's funny; I always enjoyed the few Angelou poems I heard others quote, and I respected the few that I heard aloud but didn't always understand. Somehow I think I sold her a little short before I read this anthology, though. I'm moved in ways I didn't expect to be. Powerful stuff. I guess it proves (at least, in my case) that poets are often treasured more after their passing. Well--better late than not at all.

Invigorated, reduced to tears, moved...this collection speaks through years, fears, triumphs, atrocities, and dreams. If only I had gained the chance to sit and speak awhile with Maya Angelou.... The Complete Collected Poems, at least, exists, and shares thoughts and experiences bigger than just one soul.