“Woman Work”
“Woman Work” – Maya Angelou (Poet’s Life)
By the time Maya Angelou wrote "Woman Work" in 1978, she had already published three volumes of prose in addition to two
previous collections of poetry. It is for her prose that she is most highly praised but her poetry—and "Woman Work" in particular—
explores themes such as exploitation and self-identity in an intimate and immediate way that cannot be achieved in prose. Poetry is by
its nature more personal and in most cases, relies heavily upon the meaning and value of every single word. Feelings, nuances, and
emotions must be inferred or explained in a more economical format, making every word matter.
Angelou's identity as an African American, a woman, and an African American woman influences much of her poetry. This is true of
all the poems included in the collection And Still I Rise (republished in 2001 as Still I Rise). The theme of self-identity in "Woman
Work," is especially interesting because the poem allows for two related but differing interpretations. Using imagery and rhythm,
Angelou provides the reader with details of her speaker's workaday world, a world in which every day is like the last, and relief is
found only in communing with nature. Angelou's masterful manipulation of words presents two possible scenarios: the narrator is a
slave or she is representative of any woman whose daily life is dedicated to caring for others.
"Woman Work" was published in a decade when poetry was more mainstream than it is in the twenty-first century. The 1970s were
years of self-exploration for women but also for young people in general. This was a transitional decade marked by the end of the
controversial Vietnam War, the increasing momentum of the Feminist Movement, and a shift in how Americans considered
themselves and their place in society as social norms and values changed. The cultural focus became one of individualism, and the
increased interest in self-analysis and understanding manifested in an surge of self-help books and self-awareness discussion groups.
Poetry was the ideal literary form for the decade because it could have structure or not; it could rhyme or not; it could be specific or
general. In other words, poetry was a personal expression that could take virtually any shape and still be a legitimate literary form.
People who might not write an essay or an article could express themselves in poetry. And so, poetry in the 1970s was used as a
vehicle to explore one's self in relation to the world. "Woman Work" does that.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Ann (or Annie) Johnson on April 4, 1928, in St. Louis, Missouri. Her parents divorced when she
was just three years old, and she and her brother (who nicknamed her Maya) were sent to live with her paternal grandmother in the
poverty-stricken rural town of Stamps, Arkansas. The children called their strict but loving grandmother Momma and spent those
Arkansas years in relative calm.
At age seven or eight, while visiting her mother in St. Louis, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. When she told her uncles
what had happened, they murdered him. Angelou felt responsible and suffered extreme feelings of guilt. She ceased talking and was
returned to Momma in Arkansas.
Angelou was mute for five years, during which time she developed a love of language and, ironically, the spoken word. She
memorized poetry and secretly—for white authors were forbidden by Momma—read William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and
Edgar Allen Poe. At twelve, Angelou began to speak again.
Momma and the children moved to San Francisco, where Angelou's mother was living, in the 1940s when the presence of the Ku Klux
Klan made Stamps a dangerous place to live. Angelou graduated from high school at seventeen and soon gave birth to a son she
named Guy. She held various jobs in those early years, including dinner cook and night club dancer. In the early 1950s, Angelou
married a white man named Tosh Angelos. The marriage did not last, and after the divorce she studied dance and joined the cast of a
touring production of Porgy and Bess. Angelou continued to dance professionally throughout the decade.
After another brief marriage that took her and Guy to Egypt, Angelou moved to Ghana, West Africa, in 1962. She earned a living as a
freelance writer and feature editor. Returning to the United States in the mid-1960s, Angelou took a position as a lecturer at the
University of California in Los Angeles and continued acting. She began writing her first autobiographical volume, which was
published in 1968. Nominated for a National Book Award, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings remains Angelou's most famous and
beloved work. She eventually published five more volumes of her autobiography.
Angelou turned her sights to poetry and published her first collection in 1971. Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie earned
its author a Pulitzer Prize nomination and was followed by two more volumes that decade, the second of which was And Still I Rise
(1978), in which "Woman Work" appears. Angelou married once more, in 1973; the union ended in 1980. By 2009, Angelou had
published more than thirty best-selling volumes of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. In addition, she has written plays, children's books,
essays, film and television scripts, and dozens of articles for various journals and periodicals.
In addition to writing, dancing, acting, and teaching/lecturing, Angelou's career includes civil rights activism (with Malcolm X and
Martin Luther King, Jr.), singing, and film directing. Highlights include an invitation to compose and read a poem at President Bill
Clinton's inauguration in 1993 and a seat on two presidential committees.
Angelou's work and efforts have been honored with countless awards, including three Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts
(2000), the Lincoln Medal (2008), and more than thirty honorary degrees from universities across the country. In 2009, Angelou was
featured as one of Success Magazine's top five women who wield extraordinary influence through their work. Cited especially for her
efforts to combat racism and injustice, Angelou credits her self-directed education for empowering her to incite change. In the
interview with Erin Casey, Angelou explains how education "liberated me from some of the ignorance that can make a person mean
and cruel and prejudiced and stupid. Education has helped me understand that this is my world, but no more mine than yours."
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition): "Woman Work." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 33. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 287300. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
“Woman Work” – Maya Angelou (Historical Events)
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The 1970s were a decade of social and cultural transition in the United States. America was well into the Vietnam War, and the
country found itself divided according to political ideology. The 1960s, known as a period of great social activism owing in part to the
war, faded as the 1970s morphed into a culture of self-absorption. As the war came to an end, the Feminist Movement came to fruition
and gained momentum. As women challenged traditional societal expectations and gender roles, the emphasis shifted from what
America was as a society to who Americans were as individuals and what they needed and wanted. It became a decade of
psychological analysis and self-awareness.
Social Movements
Three social movements defined the 1970s: Environmentalism, Feminism, Gay Rights. Major environmental legislation was passed,
most notably the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970, followed by the Clean Water Act of 1972 and the
Endangered Species Act of 1973. As concern for the environment and its resources increased, so did the interest in nuclear power.
When the Three Mile Island nuclear plant meltdown in 1979 made headlines across the country, opposition to nuclear power
intensified.
The women's rights movement known as the second wave of feminism gained momentum throughout the 1970s. Women demanded
equal consideration and treatment and joined the workforce in numbers never before seen in America. Women's groups—such as the
National Organization for Women—that were formed in the 1960s increased their memberships as women sought both social and
political balance in their lives. By the mid-1970s, many federal laws had been passed promoting equality for women. Title IX of the
Education Amendments of 1972 made discrimination on the basis sex illegal in any educational institution that received federal funds
and opened the way for greater opportunities for women. Military academies began accepting female students. The most controversial
case ever to appear before the Supreme Court made legal a woman's right to have an abortion. Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973 and
remains at the forefront of political and social issues even in the twenty-first century.
Politics and the Economy
America's political scene in the 1970s was as tumultuous. President Richard Nixon began pulling troops out of Vietnam in the early
years and began efforts to improve relations with China and the Soviet Union. These activities increased his popularity and helped him
win reelection in 1972. By 1974, Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal and Vice President Gerald Ford was sworn in as
president. Ford was not a popular president, largely because he had pardoned Nixon, and he lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter
whose problems with the Iranian hostage crisis served to point out the continuing discontent with American foreign policy.
The end of the decade saw America in economic and energy crisis, the foundation of which was the soaring cost of imported oil.
Gasoline was rationed, and the country found itself in energy conservation mode, a huge factor in the rise of the environmental
movement's activities. Inflation and recession both hurt economic growth.
Culture
As women gained more rights with the passing of federal legislation, social norms and laws were increasingly favorable to women.
They became more visible outside the home and neighborhood and in the media as they broke traditional gender role expectations and
blurred the lines of the social structure.
At home, American viewers enjoyed what became known as "social consciousness" programming. All in the Family was a comedy
that explored controversial topics such as racism, feminism, poverty, and more and remained the highest-rated television series from
1971 through 1976. By the late 1970s, however, America was more interested in lighter-hearted series such as Charlie's Angels and
Three's Company.
Art Mimics Life
All of these factors—social, political, economic, and cultural—influenced the arts of the 1970s. Whether art reflected life at the time
or the other way around, one thing was certain: literature in the 1970s was all about self-exploration, mainly through poetry and
primarily by women. Parallel to the increased exploration of racism and feminism was the rise in the interest of African American
writers and their works. Popular poets of the decade include Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and Gwendolyn Brooks, each of whom
wrote about women, their lives as African Americans, and the hardships experienced as both.
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition): "Woman Work." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 33. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 287300. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.
“Woman Work” – Maya Angelou (Criticism)
POEM SUMMARY
Lines 1-14
This first stanza of "Woman Work" is the most important in the poem because it is here the reader could infer that the woman
speaking is a slave.
Lines 11 and 14 talk about crops that need tending. These are not just any crops, but those grown in the Deep South and traditionally
harvested by African American slaves. Cane and cotton were two of the most profitable crops in the Antebellum (pre-Civil War)
South, and plantations relied on them for profit. The most economical means of harvesting them was through free—slave—labor.
Once that fact is established, the first stanza takes on new meaning. The chores listed are not necessarily—or even probably—the
woman's own. Whose children is she tending, whose clothes need mending? Is the floor that needs mopping her own? Surely not,
since line 12 tells the reader she lives in a hut. Would she be having company? Probably not, but wealthy plantation owners often
entertained guests. Most, if not all, of the first stanza refers to activity that is imposed upon the woman for the benefit of others.
Nowhere does she talk about herself except in relation to the responsibilities she is expected to fulfill.
Conversely, some readers might interpret this first stanza to be a description in the life of any hardworking woman in a domestic
situation. Until the late 1940s and early 1950s, African Americans often found work as sharecroppers in the south; they worked and
lived on the land as tenants. In return, a certain percentage of the harvest was given to the landowner. Cane and cotton were prominent
crops in the American South and needed someone to tend to them.
Read from this perspective, the woman's life would be very similar to that of a slave because much of her daily work is done for the
benefit of someone else, though to a lesser extent. Her housing would still be shabby, accurately described as a "hut," perhaps with
wooden floors that required mopping.
Lines 15-30
The remaining four stanzas can be analyzed together because they work as one unit. Whereas the first stanza, which is nearly four
times longer than each of the remaining four, concerns itself with what the woman must do on a daily basis for someone else, the
remaining sixteen lines are all about what nature can do for her.
Lines 15-18 invoke the sun's warmth and the rain's dewy moisture to cool her brow.
Lines 19-22 beseech the storm and its wind to blow her across the sky, far from where she is, so that she might find rest.
Lines 23-26 rely on gentle snow to cover and comfort her so that she can rest her weary body and mind.
The final stanza, lines 27-30, acknowledges that the woman owns nothing but nature's elements, and even that ownership is figurative
rather than literal. Every moment of the woman's life is spent in service to others, and when at last she is done at the end of a long and
tiring day, all she has left is the natural world surrounding her: sun, sky, mountain and stone, stars, and moonlight.
These last four stanzas are all about finding comfort and release, stolen moments of peace from the monotonous and never-ending
routine of her daily life. Nature is the source of this woman's strength. The idea that the woman speaking is a slave is reinforced in the
final line of the poem.
While lines 11, 14, and 30, support the idea that the speaker is a slave, so does the placement of the poem in the collection And Still I
Rise. "Woman Work" is situated between "To Beat the Child was Bad Enough" and "One More Round." The former is about child
abuse; the latter about slavery. Both surrounding poems explore themes of bondage and abuse, and "One More Round" discusses the
"daily grind" of slavery, suggesting a routine of toil and exploitation. It would make sense that "Woman Work" examine a similar
topic.
THEMES
Slavery
Upon first read, "Woman Work" may seem like a poem written about any woman with a family to care for. Lines 11 and 14 clearly
change that impression because most women in modern America do not cut (sugar) cane or pick cotton. These two chores indicate that
the woman is a slave.
Considered in this light, the reader understands that the bulk of the chores that make up the woman's day are not self-serving; they are
chores she must perform for her master. The children belong to him. The floor that needs mopping in line 3 is probably not hers, since
she lives in a hut. The company she must feed? It is probably not hers. Although some of what she must accomplish may be for
herself, most of it is not. Line 12 suggests the woman is a slave. Most people, even those living in abject poverty, would not refer to
their homes as huts. The woman in the poem lives in a hut—a small, crude shelter. Most slaves lived in shacks and huts while their
masters lived in great, sprawling mansions. It is possible that the woman is simply poor, but this line, taken along with the others,
strongly suggests she is a slave.
The final line of the poem also makes clear that the woman is a slave. By claiming only nature as her own, she acknowledges her lack
of control or ownership over the rest of her life. At the end of a long, back-breaking day, this (slave) woman takes comfort in the sun
and the rain, the stars and the moon. They assuage her sadness and soothe her spiritual emptiness. They are all she owns in the world.
Those readers who interpret the poem to be about women in general rather than those within the confines of slavery might substitute
the slavery theme with one of work. Lines 1 through 14—nearly half the poem—examine this theme by listing chore after chore after
chore. The reader quickly understands that the woman's life revolves around the duties she must perform.
Self-Identity
The poem is an exploration of self-identity. This particular woman identifies who she is by what she does: She works for—is owned
by—someone else. She is a slave. She is a tired woman who wants nothing more than to rest. Lines 22 and 26 support the idea that her
world is a weary one.
There is no evidence throughout the poem that the woman identifies herself using any other means of measurement. She makes it clear
in line 30 that she owns nothing more than her natural surroundings. She lives without. She is nothing more than her role allows her to
be.
Self-identity is a theme of the poem regardless of reader interpretation. Even if the speaker is not a slave, she clearly considers her life
in terms of its drudgery and daily routine. Enjoyment is found only when the work is done and she can rest.
African American Culture
The institution of slavery is a major, if not the primary, factor in understanding the African American culture and experience in
America. Because "Woman Work" explores the theme of slavery, by extension it explores the theme of African American culture.
Gender Roles
"Woman Work" examines what it meant to be an African American woman in a slave culture. If this poem were about a man, the first
14 lines would read quite differently, with the exception of lines 11 and 14. Although male slaves cut cane and picked cotton
alongside the women, the bulk of their chores were different, perhaps not so mundane.
In that same vein, there is no way to know if line 15 through 30 would have been written as they are if the person speaking was male.
Historically, women have been more connected to nature (Mother Earth) and its physical aspects; their work has centered around
natural functions: caring for children and the sick, preparing food and cleaning up afterward, even the act of sex has been, historically,
an obligation for women. Men interact with nature in a more exploitive way, generally speaking. Their interaction with the physical
aspects of the earth has historically been to take what they need or want by hunting, mining, drilling, logging, and so on.
That the woman in the poem finds comfort in nature is a natural extension of her traditional gender role. Were the speaker a man,
those four stanzas would create a completely different message because of their traditional gender role and relationship to nature.
Exploitation
To be exploited is to work excessively hard for someone else's benefit. The first stanza of this poem explores the theme of exploitation
whether the woman is understood to be a slave or simply representative of most women. The list of chores never ends; as soon as she
completes the last one, the cycle begins again. She is overworked, exhausted, and weary, but all the effort expended is for someone
else's benefit.
Nature
The four shorter stanzas consisting of lines 15-30 concern themselves with nature as a source of comfort and rejuvenation. For the
woman whose life is defined by what she must do, the peaceful qualities found in nature—gentle snowflakes, curving sky, cooling
dewdrops—are gifts she relies upon to provide respite from her activity-filled days.
Transcendence
Despite the obvious repetition of the chores described in lines 1-14, "Woman Work" is about transcendence, or rising above and
beyond the limitations imposed upon the speaker. Lines 15-30 find her engaged in a sensual (meaning of the physical senses), almost
spiritual experience as the dew cools her brow and the winds carry her across the sky. She is communing with nature and finding
peace and even a kind of balance in her dreary life.
STYLE
Rhyme
Rhyme is a technique that often lends a singsong quality to a poem. Angelou's use of rhyme in much of her poetry is one aspect critics
tend to criticize because they believe it makes her poetry sound juvenile.
Angelou's use of rhyme in the first 14 lines of "Woman Work," however, is appropriate and underscores the meaning behind the
stanza. By developing the stanza using rhyming couplets (every pair of lines rhymes), the poem shows that the work is mundane. That
rhyming quality makes the stanza seem more like a list whose items must be checked off every day. The woman's frustration can be
felt as she reels off the list of activities she must complete.
Rhyme is used but more loosely in the four shorter stanzas and not to the same effect. Instead, the end rhyme is a means of pulling
together each stanza to present a complete image in the reader's mind.
Imagery
Imagery is descriptive language that evokes a sensory (sight, smell, taste, sight, and sound) experience. The poem's four shorter
stanzas, in which the speaker refers to nature and its elements, uses imagery to convey meaning. For example, in the third stanza, lines
19-22, she uses words and phrases that force the reader to envision what is happening: storm, blow, fiercest wind, float.
Likewise, lines 23-26 rely on imagery: Snowflakes fall gently, giving cold, icy kisses. The reader can actually see these images as the
speaker describes them.
Rhythm
Angelou does not use a consistent rhythm throughout the poem or even throughout each stanza, but she uses it in much the same way
she does rhyme: to underscore the meaning of her message.
In lines 1-14, the lines are relatively short—4 to 7 syllables. Nearly every word in those lines is one syllable. These two features
considered together give the stanza a choppy feel, even as the aforementioned rhyme lends a singsong quality. The brevity of both
words and line length add to that feeling of the speaker checking off each activity as its listed or reeling off the (seemingly) endless list
quickly before she forgets something.
Repetition
Repetition is used only in the first 14 lines. Like the rhyme and rhythm techniques, this repetition lends itself well to the point of the
stanza. Lines 1, 7, 9, and 12 begin with some form of the word "I," a reminder that the speaker is burdened with this laundry list of
chores. Lines 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, and 11 begin with "the." Again, this repetition adds to the singsong rhythm that serves this stanza so well.
Lines 5, 6, and 13 begin with "then." First the speaker must do this, this, and this, and then she must do that, that, and that. Repetition
emphasizes the endlessness of the responsibilities shouldered by the woman.
Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of consonants, and Angelou employs alliteration all the way through the first stanza, or 14 lines. She uses
hard consonant sounds, primarily "c" and "t." These give a harsh, angry tone to the words of the stanza. This harshness is emphasized
by the short length of the words: tots, cane, cut, hut, sick, pick, mop, shop.
Personification
Objects are personified when they are given human characteristics. Although Angelou does not use personification very much, she
does use it when talking about the woman's interactions with nature.
In lines 17 and 18, the dewdrops cool her brow. Usually, the idea of cooling one's brow involves one person comforting another. In
lines 23-25, the snowflakes cover the woman with kisses. Again, this is an act of comfort, one usually involving humans.
This use of personification emphasizes the important role nature plays in the speaker's life. Nature relieves and comforts, restores and
provides. It acts as a sort of soul mate in the life of a woman who has spoken not one word of having a partner or husband or even
friend.
Spoken Word
All of the style techniques mentioned previously are more obvious if the reader reads this poem aloud. Angelou writes in the oral
tradition, meaning she intends for her work to be spoken aloud. By speaking the lines, the reader more clearly hears the rhythm, the
rhyme, the repetition, and alliteration. Sounds of letters and words support the imagery. The combination of sound and voice
intonation brings this particular poem to life.
CRITICAL OVERVIEW
Maya Angelou is known and praised primarily for her autobiographical volumes. Her poem "Woman Work" was published in her
third volume of poetry And Still I Rise. Of that collection, a Publishers Weekly critic writes, "Hers is not a major poetical voice…. But
her warmth, honesty, strength and deep-rooted sense of personal pride—call it defiance—come through in almost every word she sets
down."
Angelou's poetry written in the early 1970s focused on the role of African American women in the slave culture of the mid-nineteenth
century through the more rebellious era of the 1960s. Though published in 1978, "Woman Work" is a poem that easily fits along that
continuum. The thirty-two poems included in And Still I Rise include her oft-examined themes of love and its accompanying
loneliness as well as the Southern oppression of African Americans. Yet this is the collection in which Angelou begins exploring other
themes as well, including the nature of woman. Whether one considers "Woman Work" a slice-of-life portrayal of an African
American slave woman or as a general commentary on the life of any woman in general, it is clear that Angelou is committing to print
her thoughts on what it means to be a woman.
In the 1996 book, Heart of a Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet, Lyman B. Hagen extols Angelou's gift as a natural
storyteller saying, "She sometimes describes, sometimes narrates, but most often dramatizes." Angelou uses this gift in her prose and
poetry alike.
In the twenty-first century, Angelou remains admired more for her prose than her poetry. Most of her poems are relatively short and
rely on rhyme and simple language. Critical reception of her poetry has generally been more negative than positive, with critics
unimpressed with the quality. Janet Blundell of Library Journal judged one poetry collection to be "no match for Angelou's prose
writings." Yet the author has a dedicated and loyal audience for her poetry as well as her prose.
Angelou's Random House editor, Robert Loomis, writes in a letter to the critic Lyman Hagen, "I've always believed that those who
have reservations about Angelou's poetry simply don't understand what she's doing…. What she is writing is poetry that is very
definitely in what I could call the oral tradition." This assessment goes hand-in-hand with Hagen's belief that Angelou is a storyteller.
Stories in African American cultures were passed down orally; they rely on rhyme, rhythm, and sound for meaning and full
appreciation.
Source Citation (MLA 7th Edition): "Woman Work." Poetry for Students. Ed. Sara Constantakis. Vol. 33. Detroit: Gale, 2010. 287300. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 6 Feb. 2014.