How the author’s history and culture have influenced the poem-Social, cultural & historical contexts. (adrija) 

-The poem Africa refers to the continent of Africa, however the poet is describing the continent as a woman. The poem essentially talks about the struggles people in Africa had to go through, the poet describes aspects of slavery which is a part of African American history, and the author, Maya Angelou is an African American woman, hence African American history being a very big influence to this poem.

-The poem describes all the pain and hardships Africa and the people of Africa had to endure, this poem was personal to Maya Angelou, as her ancestors had to possibly endure this pain and mistreatment for several years.

-In the end, the poet describes how Africa will rise after years of hardships and mistreatment. 

-This poem has multiple references to African American history, as it talks about how Africa’s history was slain, this was possibly said to reference the people coming to Africa to take young African people and put them into the slave trade.

Identify at least 5-6 literary devices along with their effect: How they convey the poem’s message.  ( janvi) 
1. Enjambment 
2. Personification 
3.
4.
5.
6.

For your presentation, the following topics must be clear for discussion at start: 
What does the title mean? 
Who is the subject of the poem? 
Purpose of the poem:
Audience & Themes: 
What is the poet’s attitude? 

For your presentation, the following topics must be clear for discussion at start: 
What does the title mean? 
The poem’s title is “The Negro Mother”, which is significant because the entire story of poem comes back to the themes of resilience and hope in order for there to be a better future for the children born to black mothers than the lives that were dealt to so many Africans who were enslaved. 

Who is the subject of the poem? 
The poem follows the story of an African woman who was enslaved, who experienced all the harsh and inhumane cruelties of slavery. 

Purpose of the poem:
The purpose of the poem is to tell the story of the people who were oppressed and forced into slavery who were silenced and to express that experience of strength and resilience. 

Audience & Themes:
The themes of this poem are freedom and resilience. Freedom because this poem tells a story of many who never got to be free, yet remained free in spirit, overcoming every obstacle in their path to one day see the light after the vast ages of darkness. Resilience is a main theme because the poem is a story about struggling, and the long pathway to freedom, of every cruelty faced by the enslaved and yet overcoming them with little more than hope for a better future for the children who would be born to black mothers.

What is the poet’s attitude? 
parineeta:
The Negro Mother's voice provides a powerful tone in this poem as she supports her children. Her speech captivates and draws the reader in, causing them to pay attention and pay attention to her words. This poem's attitude is full of love and hope for future generations of African Americans. The mother displays a lot of emotion throughout the poem, as well as a lot of tenacity in the words she uses.

Hyperbole: "I walk into a room just as cool as you please, / and to a man, / The fellows stand or fall down on their knees," Maya begins the second stanza. She demonstrates her superiority over men by using hyperbole.

Metaphor: The poem contains two metaphors. The first is used in the second stanza, "Then they swarm around me, / A hive of honey bees." Maya compares the admiring men to honey bees. The men swarm around her because they are drawn to her. The second is used in the eighth line of the second stanza, "it's the fire in my eyes," where she compares her confidence and passion to fire.

personification: Maya has used personification. In the third stanza of the poem, she personifies joy by saying, "the joy in my feet," as if feet are human.

3. Personification: Maya has personified joy in the third stanza of the poem where it is stated, “the joy in my feet” as if feet are human, and that they rejoice while dancing or walking.

4. Alliteration: An alliteration is the repetition of the same consonant sounds in the same lines of the poetry such as the use of /f/ in “fall”, “fire” and “flash.” This use has enhanced the musical quality of the lines.

5. Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers feel things through their five senses. Maya Angelou has skillfully created a visual description of a phenomenal woman who enjoys her beauty and loves being a woman. The images in this poem are aplenty. The examples of images are: “The curl of my lips”, “The swing of my waist”, “The ride of my breast”, “The stride of my steps”, “The flash of my teeth”, “and The palm of my hand.” The poet has used powerful imagery to describe the body of a woman. These images help readers to visualize the personality of a strong woman.

6. Irony: Irony is a figure of speech that states the opposite meanings of the situation being discussed. Similarly, the poet presents the image of a woman according to her perception in contrast with the opinion of the world. She beautifully mocks at the concept of beauty held by most people in the society which is primarily concerned with external beauty. Hence, she emphasizes that real beauty comes with inner strength and poise.

For your presentation, the following topics must be clear for discussion at start:

What does the title mean?

Who is the subject of the poem?

(Ryu) Purpose of the poem:
The purpose of the poem, "Phenomenal Women" is  to admire the beauty and self-confidence of a woman.

(Ryu) Audience & Themes:
The audience of the poem are young teenage girls. The poem talks about the confidence they should have on the skin color an individual has. This shows the themes of the poem to be identity, pride, self-love, and self-acceptance.

What is the poet’s attitude? 

Negro Mother is a poem by majorly influential author Maya Angelou detailing an African-American mother telling her children about how they must fight for equality and the labour and pain that she went through and to ensure that she can reach the proverbial ‘finish line’ via her children. We can see this in the lines “I am the one who laboured as a slave, Beaten and mistreated for the work I gave” and “Now through my children, Im reaching the goal”.

The purpose of this poem is to shed light on the hardships faced by African-Americans and how the fight for equality isn’t won in a day, instead through several trials and tribulations. The poem explains that one should fight for their rights and no matter how much pain and labor you experience, the war can still be won.

There is an incredible amount of beauty in this poem, showing a mother who was harmed and mistreated having the joy of being able to witness her children fight for the same goal and receive the fundamental rights that she was not given. This familial fight for rights allows for the audience to witness the pure beauty of this poem and how even if it takes generations, the fight for equality will never die.

The truth present within this poem is how African-Americans are treated in society. For the longest time they were slaves, seen as a subspecies and below human. Several different people even tried to prove why they were below others, chalking it up to false genetic claims and religion. The Negro Mother had suffered at the hands of others for so long, for a reason that had no scientific evidence to back it up and she wanted her kids to continue the fight she had fought.

The beauty present within the poem reveals the truth within as the mother serves as a way to represent the slavery, discrimination and pain experienced by the African-American community. 

Beauty may be used to conceal truth by changing the message of the story for those who do not look into the poem as much. At face value the poem is about a mother having gone through pain but emerged victorious and she is narrating that story to her children. However, on closer inspection you can actually see the tragedy, the mother functionally did not have a life, her life filled with labor and pain. She does not want that life for her children.

The poet’s attitude throughout this poem is one that is proud, reveling in her history and how even though she suffered she is still walking proud.  We can see this in the lines “I nourished the dream that nothing could smother, Deep in my breast - the Negro Mother. Another attitude is inspiring, inspiring her children to follow in her footsteps and help the fight against marginalized racism in the United States.  line that shows this is Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayers, impel you forever up the great stairs”

Bhumika- In this poem, “the Negro Mother” tells the childrem the history of the African Americans and what they had to go through. She tells them to remember the heritage as motivation to continue to fight for the equality of African Americans in society. The author uses allusion, repetition, and imagery to awaken the new generation of African Americans to stand up and fight for a better future. 

I think that the theme in this poem is perseverance because “the negro mother” just went through so much to fight for her rights and she got it at the end. “The Negro Mother” places a lot of trust in her children and lets them know that it’s up to them to continue to fight for equality, which creates a hopeful and optimistic mood. She makes the children feel confident to make their dreams come true. 

Allusion- the author gave references to historical events like the middle passage (“I am the dark girl who crossed the red sea”)

Repetition- the author repeats many words, (especially “I”) to add emphasis and mark their importance.

Imagery- the author uses imagery to show what she had to face, (“long dark way,” “look at my face-dark as the knight”) 

Seung and Bhumika- The theme in this poem is perseverance because “the negro mother” just went through so much to fight for her rights and she got it at the end. It also shows the love and motivation towards a specific race to help overcome future conflicts and to be treated equal as it is the hopes and dreams of a young mother. 

Seung- I think negro mother's audience is all human. All human beings deserve the same respect and the same treatment. Negro mother was enslaved because of her skin color.The reason she wrote this poem is probably to advocate for human equality, and for the fact that all human being has their freedom.

Arnav - The poem “Negro Mother” tells the story of a mother and the hardships she faced. She recalls all the toiling work she underwent without pay, as a slave. In one line she says “Bringing the cotton and the corn to yield. I am the one who labored as a slave”. She recollects what she did as a slave. By informing her children of her penury and years as a slave, they are more grateful for what they have. The freedom they have allows them to be their own men.

How the author’s history and culture have influenced the poem-Social, cultural & historical contexts - The author’s history is vital here, since her past experiences are being brought to the forefront here and she is informing her children about the hardships she faced. In those times, it was customary for people of the black race to work as slaves for people of the white race. She also took inspiration from other prominent black authors such as Langston Hughes, W.E.B Dubois and many other authors who influenced her writing. Her own personal history also comes into play in her poems. At age 8, she was raped which she recalls in her book “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings”. 

Amelia and Sanskriti: The poem uses many common literary devices such as metaphor, simile, symbolism, refrain etc- 

Metaphor- “Remember my years, heavy with sorrow,-And make of those years a torch for tomorrow.” A direct comparison is being made

Symbolism- “Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair. Remember my years, heavy with sorrow -” These sentences symbolize and give significance to the pain felt by the Negro mother.

Simile- “- dark as the night -, Yet shining like the sun” it has an indirect comparison,  and is similar in construction to metaphors, but it implies a different meaning. The sentence suggests something is shining as bright as the sun or is as dark as the night.

Imagery- “- dark as the night -, Yet shining like the sun”. This line also includes figurative language which helps to visualize better. 

Personification- “Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears,”A valley is a nonhuman object and is not capable of crying tears. 

Rohit - 

The poem, ‘Negro mother’ uses many phrases and sentences to show the struggles that dark skinned people went through. These can include phrases such as; ‘dark as night’, ‘labored as slave’, ‘beaten and mistreated’, etc. All these phrases show what people had to do in order for their own survival. E.g. the line; ‘labored as slaves’ shows that black people were a large part of the slavery industry. Another line used in this poem is; ‘beaten and mistreated.’ This can represent how dark skinned people did not have any choice in living. They were always underappreciated and overworked as they got sold from one individual to another.