Two Pesentations of Love in Maya Angelou's Poems: ‘A Kind of Love, Some Say’ and ‘Where We Belong, A Duet’

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These poems written by Maya Angelou both portray love in a very different way. The detrimental effects of love are shown in ‘A Kind of Love, Some Say’ and the empowering effects of love are shown in ‘Where We Belong, A Duet’. ‘A Kind of Love, Some Say’ shows that Love and relationships is what causes the struggle for identity as in the other poem being in love and in a relationship allows the persona to find their true identity.

The poem ‘A kind of love some say’ is one of Maya's more emotional poems. The reader gets the feeling that the poet is discussing the pain that comes from an abusive relationship, both physically and mentally. She compares the differences between both physical and mental anguish, giving the impression that emotional pain can last a lot longer than the visible pain that comes from physical confrontation. ‘A kind of love some say’ uses poetic techniques to emphasise the extent of the violence inflicted on the women. The short sentences that Maya Angelou uses in the first stanza create the sense of a fast impact, showing us the harsh portrayal of domestic abuse. By using quick and abrupt sounds ‘Bones’, ‘sudden shock’ and ‘bruise’ aggression is shown through her writing making it seem as if the abuse is happening as you read the poem. This suggests to us that when we open ourselves up to love we open ourselves up to hurt.

The portrayal of love is shown very differently in ‘Where we belong, A duet’. Through Maya Angelou’s description she creates images of loneliness and distraction. This is very different to ‘A kind of love some say’ when it presents a fine line between love and hate, ‘Hate often is confused’.

In ‘Where we belong, A duet’ the quotation ‘brightening my days with the light in your eye...

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...t on that special day. Here the persona contradicts herself by saying she falls in love forever however this is followed by only twice a year. Here we see that maybe this lifestyle of falling in and out of love is normal for her. Maybe this is because she is scared to enter a real relationship because of hurt, pain or abuse which is shown and experienced in ‘A kind of love, some say’. This also shows us that when we open ourselves up to love we open ourselves up to hurt and pain.

Both of these poems both portray love in a very different way. ‘A kind of love, some say’ is an emotional poem, which explores the theme that emotional pain lasts a lot longer than the visible pain that comes from physical confrontation. Whereas ‘Where we belong, A duet’ shows the empowering effects relationships can have on people and this helps them to finding there true identity.

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