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Analysis of Two Poems by Maya Angelou

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In Maya Angelou’s poem “They Went Home”, the persona has her reference on married men whom think of her as a friend and nothing more. Not a woman to them but a girl (Zefferino). However, they have a high perception of her personality but don’t have feelings for her like she does for them.
“I had an air of mystery”. The men referenced had the persona think that the relationship that they had could turn out to be more than it seemed to be. They think of her as kind, clean and humorous. Despite this they don’t want to be in a relationship with her.
The men that the poet references in the poem liked the persona because of her physical attributes and wanted to get involved with her physically, sexually. They wanted a physical relationship (Zefferino). “They liked my smile, my wit, my hips”. The attributes in this line specify in order the number of men that the persona desired, three men.
The imagery keys the picture of a woman that receives the kind of love that she thinks she ought to be given. The persona is insecure and has a low self-pride because of the rejection that she faces. Men want to lay with her but do not want to stay with her because they all return to their wives.
The last sentence of the first two stanzas, shows that the persona is willing and expecting to be used sexually by men that she has. The happening is predictable and repeats the notion that this mistreatment is happening to her or at least she is letting it to happen to her (Zefferino).
This poem has a total of three stanzas and each stanza has four lines. The rhyme scheme of the poem is aabc, aabc and aab. The poem has an unfinished end with the word “But…” only.
The repetition in the last line of the first two

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