Reviews

The Complete Poetry by Maya Angelou

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bhurlbut's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

dyant's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective

4.0

mary_soon_lee's review against another edition

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4.0

First, a note that this is a 1994 collection, and so, the title notwithstanding, it doesn't contain Maya Angelou's later poetry. Second, a complaint that my copy of the 1994 Random House hardcover is printed horribly with an abundance of (incorrectly) blank pages. Eight poems are omitted entirely, half a dozen more are incomplete, sending me to the internet to hunt down the missing work.

Now for the meat of the matter. These are good and important poems, often very good and very important poems. Rightly, many of them are also upsetting poems. They speak about slavery, injustice, about being black in America, about being a black woman. They do so with a rhythm and sound and humor that sometimes makes them feel deceptively slight, and sometimes resounds like an anthem. Here are two brief examples:

The ending of "Televised" --

Why do Black children
hope? Who will bring
them peas and lamb chops
and one more morning?

And the ending of "Africa" --

Now she is rising
remember her pain
remember the losses
her screams loud and vain
remember her riches
her history slain
now she is striding
although she had lain.

Written decades ago, Angelou's poems resonate today. They matter. Highly recommended.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).