Life Doesn't Frighten Me: Maya Angelou

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In the twelfth stanza of ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’, she explains that she has a “magic charm” that keeps her from being scared. It’s always “up [her] sleeve”. It allows her to pass through life without giving in to the fear that strikes other children. The last four lines of the poem repeat the refrain twice and then reemphasize it with the line “Not at all” twice. Fear is the enemy of creativity, the hotbed of mediocrity, a critical obstacle to mastering life. Few embody the defiance of fear with greater dignity and grace than Maya Angelou, who has overcome remarkable hardship — childhood rape, poverty, addiction, bereavement — to become one of today’s most celebrated writers. Like a number of other celebrated “adult” poets and novelists who have also written for children — including Sylvia Plath, Mark Twain, Anne Sexton, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Mary Shelley, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Aldous Huxley, Gertrude Stein, James Thurber, Carl Sandburg, Salman Rushdie, Ian Fleming, and Langston Hughes— so has Angelou: The 1993 gem Life Doesn’t Frighten Me ( public library), conceived and edited by Sara Jane Boyers, pairs Angelou’s simple, strong words with drawings by legendary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose signature style of child-like fancy and colorful emotional intensity offers a perfect match for Angelou’s courageous verses. Multiple choice, short answer questions, and writing questions - you can print the unit along with the poem

Hear Angelou read the poem herself, which she says she wrote “for all children who whistle in the dark and who refuse to admit that they’re frightened out of their wits”:The fourth stanza brings in “Dragons breathing fire” on her bedspread”. She isn’t afraid of those either. Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’by Maya Angelou is a fourteen- stanza poem that is separated into uneven sets of lines. The stanzas range in length from one single line up to seven lines. The majority are tercets, meaning they have three lines. Angelou made use of a simple rhyme scheme within the text. The tercets mainly rhyme AAAA or AAB While the majority of the other stanzas make use of an alternating rhyme scheme of AABB.

The tenth stanza brings the speaker, who is confirmed in these lines to be young, into the classroom. This is a place where most children experience fear at some point but she does not. The boys might pull her hair or taunt her, but she doesn’t care. If they show her “frogs and snakes” she isn’t bothered either. Angelou makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’. These include, but are not limited to, repetition, anaphora, alliteration, and enjambment. The first, repetition, is the use and reuse of a specific technique, word, tone or phrase within a poem. Angelou repeats the refrain, “frighten me at all” ten times in the poem. It often begins with “Life doesn’t” and other times starts with “They don’t” or “That doesn’t”. Anytime something is repeated so frequently a reader should take their time considering it and what it means to the poet. Moreover, she uses personification in “mean old Mother Goose” and “big ghosts in a cloud,” adding a touch of humor and lightness to the otherwise ominous list of things that don’t frighten the speaker. Alliteration occurs when words are used in succession, or at least appear close together, and begin with the same sound. For example, “Bad,”“barking,” and “Big” in lines one and two of the second stanza and “Mean” and “Mother” in line one of the third stanza. Marouska Danial : it's an amazing poem it makes me feel like I can do anything its a powerful poem but also very interesting its sinks deep in my heart Maya Angelou was an amazing woman and this poem proves it more then u think to read it s couple times or even listen to her say it rest in peace Maya Angelou and thank you for everything you have done you are an amazingly nice and very powerful womanThe poem begins with imagery of shadows on the wall and noises down the hall, setting a tone of eerie and unsettling surroundings. The poem’s imagery and repetition create a firm conviction in the speaker’s words. For instance, the use of vivid imagery helps her describe her actions in response to these supposed scares, such as “I go boo, make them shoo” and “I won’t cry, so they fly.” This imagery adds a playful and childlike tone to the poem, further emphasizing the speaker’s fearlessness. Life Doesn't Frighten Me" review activity printable - print all section questions at once (options for multiple keys)

In the first stanza of ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me,’the speaker begins by taking note of the few things that might if she wasn’t so sure of her place in the world, frighten her. These are the “shadows on the wall” and the “noises down the hall”. The perfect rhyme that these lines and the others in this poem have, make each of these statements feel like a nursery rhyme. Something that its meant for a child to hear, read, or remember and take strength from.Poetic elements are used to enhance the intended impact of the seemingly simple texts. Maya Angelou has added a variety of powerful poetic diction to make her poem a worth read. She has used imagery, symbolism, metaphor, and various other literary elements to convey a message of fearlessness and confidence. The reference to the ocean floor and not having to breathe is a masterstroke: note that she doesn’t say she can walk the ocean floor and still be able to breathe, but that she doesn’t have to breathe at all. This invites a seed of doubt into the poem: is it akin to holding one’s breath until a danger has passed, or is believed to have passed? Or should we take it at face value as an unequivocally positive image? The third and fourth stanzas are similar to the two that came before them. Angelou speaks on “Mean old Mother Goose,” making this poem feel even more like it is meant to resemble a nursery rhyme. She also uses alliteration to declare that the “Lions on the loose” do not frighten her either. The poem’s speaker is determined not to let these things scare her, and she uses her imagination to make fun of them, saying that she dares to make them disappear. She also has a magic charm that keeps her safe, giving her the power to walk the ocean floor and never have to breathe. This is a metaphor for her inner strength and confidence to overcome obstacles. The fifth stanza is the longest of the poem with seven lines. It is followed by the sixth stanza which only has one line. When the speaker comes upon the things she mentioned in the first four stanzas she scares them off. She says “boo” and they “shoo”. They run when she makes fun of them and they fly away when she doesn’t cry. She stands up to everything custom-made to scare her. The following single line is a repetition of the refrain “Life doesn’t frighten me at all”.