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Africa

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Submitted By ludyd
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Ludwika Dorbecker
Per.2
Ms.Harter
April 12th, 2016
Analysis of “Africa” by Maya Angelou
“Africa” by Maya Angelou poem provides a substantial amount of vivid illustrations by using rhythm and personification enhancing both imagery and tone of the poem, to describe the conflict Africa went throughout time; and how it rose to a better Africa. Throught the stanzas each have different tones through the rhythm of the meters. For example, the tones of the poem move from a pleasant to contemplative. The dactylic meter of the first stanza imitates the sound of distant drums beating in Africa, giving a tense and desperate mood.
In the first stanza, Maya uses imagery and personification to describe the beautiful woman who everyone desires, “Sugarcane sweet desert, her hair, golden her feet,” (line 2-3). The reader cannot help but admire it’s beauty. The reverential and meditative tone gives us the feeling of admiration and the feeling to love this woman, in other words Africa. Although africa is shown as a woman with eternal beauty , Africa is also described as a sad and depressed woman; “Two niles her tears” (Line 6). After all Africa is passing through the violence of the Europeans, “thus she has lain, Black through the years” (Line 7-8). This shows how the colonization of Africa has been the same throughout the years, without change. This hurts africa, because her hometown and her soul are forced to change without letting her make any decisions of her own. Africa is being raped by the invasion of the Europeans, and she feels the pain they're causing a big change in the civilization of the lovely Africa.
The second stanza uses imagery to describe the domination of the Europeans over Africa showing everything that was forced upon them. For example, many people in Africa where taken away from their home, and their families into the slave trade, “took her young

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