Christina Rossetti and Maya Angelou Influences and Themes Comparison

Document Type:Essay

Subject Area:Literature

Document 1

By the time she died in 1894, she had built a reputation for herself as a poet with works that ranged from Christian devotion, romance as well as children’s content. Maya Angelou, an African American, on the other hand, is a contemporary writer, born in 1928 and died in 2014. She was born Marguerite Johnson and only adopted the names Maya Angelou later on as a performer and actor. She was famous not only for poetry but also as a novelist. The novel I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is one of her acclaimed works. Interestingly, Maya Angelou is appreciated as both as an outstanding autobiographer and a poet. She has to her name some of the best resonating poetry pieces in contemporary America.

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Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise is her most famous poem. Other poems by Maya Angelou, some of which that will be revisited in the course of the paper include Caged bird, Africa, Alone, Woman Work, Men, Touched by an Angel, and The Black Family Pledge, among others. Similarly, her life experiences and the environment she lived in will be examined to shed light on the themes she tackled and the prevailing historical and cultural influences. It is correct to assert that such works as hers contributed to the Golden Age of literature and illustration in England (Kooistra 6). Still, Christina Rossetti, although visibly feminine in her poetry compared to her contemporaries, should be viewed as a woman who attained significant milestones including literacy in an unsupportive social environment.

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Notably, the women’s matters were almost disregarded in the male-dominated 19th century when Rossetti penned her pieces and attained significant success through the print media even though it remained dominated by men. The Christian belief heavily influences her style of poetry and the themes she explored. Right from her childhood poems, devotion to God continues to be visible in her creations as evidenced by Biblical allusions that she delivered as ballads and sonnets while also employing imagery and symbolism. Such is what the poem Kin asserts, “Your children, burdened with / Disbelief, blinded by a patina / of wisdom” (Du 65). From her poetry, it is quite clear that she purposes to redefine the African American from an identity and cultural perspective, or rather she espouses self-actualization of the Blacks.

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The poem Africa presents a glimpse of the events that characterized the European colonization of Africa. Vividly, she describes Africa is figuratively represented by a helpless mother who suffers the torture of losing her children. She asserts that the colonizing powers, “took her young daughters / sold her strong sons,” leaving her bruised and depressed. The influences were critical in the themes they explored; cultural identity and religious devotion for Maya Angelou and Christina Rossetti respectively, as well as their distinctive styles of delivery. Considering the separate sets of influences and audiences, and distinct historical times, and the fact that they both produced high-quality poetry that will remain relevant even in the future, it is hard to ascertain superiority of one over the other as a poet.

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