On The Impulse Of Morning Maya Angelou Analysis

Maya Angelou’s “On the Pulse of Morning” reflects on the suffering of Native American tribes, stating “Pawnee, Apache, Seneca, you Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then forced on bloody feet”. Countless Native Americans were massacred, and several had to stand and continue living on “bloody feet” because of vindictive and inhumane settlers. Consequently, many in the late 20th and early 21st centuries still struggle with poverty at their reservations and modern racism due to the cataclysms their ancestors faced. However, the same can be said about African Americans. Angelou continues on discussing African tribes as well, writing, “You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought, sold, stolen, arriving on the nightmare praying for a dream.”

When people from these tribes were forcefully taken to America, they wanted to dream and escape the agony. This affects African Americans in both centuries because the trauma their ancestors went through results in modern racism as well.

On the other hand, Richard Blanco’s “One Today” poem is regular working folk. It talks about the hardships of blue collar Americans and Americans working in common jobs, which is relevant to both the 20th and 21st centuries. From “the pencil-yellow school buses” and “Silver trucks heavy with oil” to teaching in schools, and “hands gleaning coal or planting windmills in deserts”, all of these jobs are stressful and demanding. Blanco said his mother rung up groceries for 20 years, which allowed her to take care of him. He says in the poem that it helped him write “One Today”. Later on, he wrote his father cut sugarcane so he and his brother could have shoes and books. Life was hard, but the taxing work by was done to make sure their children was taken care of.