Angelou And Hughes: Poem Analysis

During times when racial tensions were high, many African American authors and poets began to rise and give consciousness to racial inequality and injustice. Famous poets like Maya Angelou and Langston Hughes began to give a voice to African Americans. For example, in Maya Angelou’s, “Still, I Rise,” she speaks of overcoming her oppressors as a woman and expresses a great amount of self-love and self-worth. In Hughes’s poem, “I, Too,” he states that he is an equal and emphasizes that being black does not degrade your beauty which allows the readers to feel empowered. Angelou and Hughes used similar means to raise awareness and fight for their rights through literature, even though, Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise,” also states the issue of sexism and Hughes’s poem, “I, Too,” just focuses more on equality.
An example of a similarity between the two poems is the optimism and liberal expression of rising against their oppressors. In Angelou’s poem, she says, “You may shoot me with your words… but still, like air, I’ll rise” (Angelou). In Hughes’s poem, he says, “Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table when company comes. Nobody’ll dare say to me, ‘Eat in the kitchen,’ then”

(Hughes). Both of these excerpts demonstrate the aspiration of rising against their tormentors. With these confidant words, the audience, who are generally African Americans, is inspired to stand up to their oppressors to fight for equality. Another example of a similarity is how both poems advocate beauty and self-worth. When Angelou states, “Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise that I dance like I’ve got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs?”, she is coming off as powerful and shows a great amount of self-worth that ever since the beginning of slavery many African Americans lost against to racism. Hughes also expresses the importance of beauty, “Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am and be ashamed…” (Hughes). He wants his readers to know that they are all beautiful and precious. This advocating of beauty and self-worth allows blacks to feel more encouraged and proud to fight for equality in America.
Although there are many similarities, there is one difference between the two poems.

In the perspective as an African American woman, Maya Angelou speaks of the issue of sexism in her poem. In this quote, “You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies…”, Angelou sheds light on the problems women faced during her time. Many had to also face the discrimination from men as men control them and put words in women’s mouths. This indicates the doubled amount of burden that African American women had to go through and it was important for Maya Angelou to speak of this issue through literature and give a voice to women who were struggling with the same conflicting situations. In contrast, Hughes’s, “I, Too,” poem states the African American inequality more generally than Angelou’s

poem.