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Name: Fahimy Salomon
Date: 4\5\2010
Sample: “Touched By an Angel” by Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
Maya Angelou was born in St.Louis Missouri as Marguerite Annie Johnson on April 4, 1928. At the age of 3 years old she and her younger brother was sent to live with her grandmother on a small town called Stamps in Arkansas. Maya Angelou experienced racial discrimination in stamps, however she has overcome racial discrimination by writing poetry that explained the different type of emotions she was feeling at that moment in time. Throughout her career Maya Angelou worked with many famous people such as: Martin Luther King J.R, Malcolm X and James Baldwin. Maya was the first African American to be filmed, and be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. She wrote a book called “I know why the caged Birds Sings. This book describes what she had to endure in order to survive in a society that was full of racism, while raising her son as a single mother. She wrote a lot of poems such as: I still Rise, Phenomenal woman, Equality, and Touched by an angel.“Touched by an angel” was written in 1985“Maya Angelou”.Wikipedia.org. Web 18 .Apr.2010http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_angelou
The poem is composed of three stanzas. The first stanza contains six lines, the second stanza contains seven lines and the last stanzas contain eight lines. The poem is located on the left margin on the page.
“Touched by an Angel” describes the power of love. Stanza one state how we are absent form joy because “we lived coiled in shells of loneliness” (line 3). “When love leaves its holy temple and comes to our sight” (line 4-5). Love frees us into life. Stanza two describes how love is a train of overpowering emotions that brings back old memories of Joy, and erases past pain (line 9-10). However, if we are fearless, love strikes away the chains of fear from our body and mind. Stanza three is about how love freed us from lack of confidence, and with strong emotions come light. If we dare to be courageous and take chances, we eventually see how love can cost all we are (line 17-18). However, it is only love that can liberate us.
The predominant symbols of this poem seem to be 1) Angel, love Holy temple and life; 2) Train, pain, bold and souls; (3) dare and cost; 4) light and liberating.
This poem has lot of symbolisms that help convey its message. The word “Angel” is defined as an act of kindness by Dungeon creatures that intermediate from Heaven and Earth. According to the dictionary of symbolisms, Angels are immaterial beings made of pure spirit where man consist of a “body and soul” (Julien 15). Angels are known as the messenger of God that travel from Heaven and Earth. Angels is symbolic for protection, and nature. Therefore, Love is describes as a profound, tender, passionate affection for another person. However,“love can cost all we are” means betrayal, pain, lost of oneself, and destruction. Holy temple is defined as a church where every individual goes to worship God. The word “Holy” means pure and divine. According to the dictionary Pain is a physical symptom. It is ironic that “ancient histories of pain” refers to an individual’s emotional pain instead of physical injury. The soul is a spirit that intertwines with the body and mind as one. According to the dictionary of symbolism light stands for intelligence, goodness, and the ultimate reality. Light represents the sun through darkness. Therefore, “Loves light” stands for deep feelings a certain individual has toward that special someone that overshadows any pain. Liberating means to free the mind and accept new ideas. “Love can set us free” symbolizes an escape from sorrow, depression, and pain.
The basic tone of the poem is very passionate and heartfelt. The repetition of the word “love” in every stanzas indicates that this poems is very passionate. Therefore, “Love strikes away the chain of fears from our souls” shows how love can erases an individual sorrows, and pain physically, emotionally, and mentally. The lines “live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life” indicates relief and happiness.
I can interpret that “Touched by an Angel” is about how love can be fulfilling and rewarding for every individual, however love is a risk that can cause heartbreaks and depression to a certain individual once they fell in love. Depression and heartbreaks can lead to destructions. Maya states how “we live in shells of coiled/until love lived its high Holy temple” (line3-4). This enforces how love comes from our creator God, and he creates the images of love in all of us. The word “holy” emphasizes how love is pure and powerful just like god. I can interpret that when two people falls in love their love is pure because their love is built on a deeper foundation which shows Angelou that it can’t be seen but are felt. Angelou shows the fulfillment of love by describing how a certain individual would feel when strong emotions take over. She stated when “love arrives/and in its train come ecstasies/old memories of pleasures/ancient histories of pain” (lines 7-9) confirms when two people are in love their emotions of pain, sorrow, and depression are over powered by happiness through their minds and body. The word “bold” (line 11) implies how strong emotions can cause certain human beings to be fearless by taking away all the doubts they might have.
Angelou stated that “love costs all we are” (line 18) describing the consequences of risking your heart for love by implying that if a certain individual fell in love and gets hurt their heart will be shredded into a million pieces causing them to lose not only their identity but also leading them into a path to becoming destructive. However, those strong emotions are the only escape that can take all the grief and drama away from us through the light of happiness
Work cited
1) Julien, Nadia’’ The Mammoth Dictionary of Symbols’' Understanding the Hidden Language of Symbols. New York: Carol and Graf: 1996. Web 17.Apr.2010
http://www.umich.edu/~umfandsf/symbolismproject/symbolism.html/L/light.html
2) “Maya Angelou”.Wikipedia.org. Web 18 .Apr.2010
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_angelou
3) Dictionary.com .Web.17.Apr. 2010
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/+love
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/+light
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/+bold
The language needs to be cleaned up some at the sentence level. Also, in the introduction, be sure to cite where you got the biographical information.
ReplyDeleteYou are also mixing the symbolism section with interpretation. Double-check the sample. Though I can see that you have the symbols down--good.
ReplyDelete1. this draft fits the elements of the assigment. you followed the rules good.
ReplyDelete2. in the form, you didnt specify the rhyme scheme.
3. you interpreted the poem a bit instead of summarizing. revise.
4. you analyzed the tone correctly.
5. all of the symbols were defined.
6. i didnt see any archetypes.
7. the interpretatoins made sense. you pretty much interpreted every element of the story.
8. the language is on point.
9. the works cited looks good.
You still have some interpretation mixed with the early sections but I can tell you worked hard on this poem and really "got into it". BLOG EIGHT: Pick another short poem by Angelou and write a one paragraph interpretation.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to be the Best Essays in your paper. You need to work it hard, to achieve it.
ReplyDelete