Celebration of Womanhood in "Phenomenal Woman"

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how Maya Angelou in her four-poem collection "Phenomenal Woman" reflects the same enthusiasm for the self and elation that is present in the works of the American national poet, Walt Whitman. The paper analyzes how Angelou makes an unforgettable statement in favor of the belief in the self as the most important creed in the lives of black women. The paper portrays how Angelou's poetry is an art and an important teaching, with almost healing properties for the black audience that has to live under the shadow of the oppressive past.

From the Paper:

"Maya Angelou's short collection of poetry, entitled Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women, is, as the subtitle indicates, a celebration of womanhood. Angelou's poetry breathes forth the same enthusiasm for the self and the same elation that is present in the works of the American national poet, Walt Whitman. Just as Whitman sings the national self as well as the transcendent self in all its possible forms, Angelou sings her pride of being an Afro- American woman. Her poetry has obvious social and feminist implications, but at the same time, a transcendent meaning and a universal message are inherent in the poems."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Angelou, Maya. Phenomenal Woman: Four Poems Celebrating Women. New York: Random House,
• Hagen, Lyman B. "Poetry: Something About Everything," in Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writings of Maya Angelou, University Press of America, Inc., 1997, pp. 118-36.
• Ramsey, Priscilla R. "Transcendence: The Poetry of Maya Angelou," in Current Bibliography on African Affairs, Vol. 17, No. 2, 1984-85, pp. 139-53.

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