Comparing Poems By Maya Angelou And Phenomenal Woman By Nikki Giovanni

The poems in this essay both talk about being a woman. “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou is about more of a confident woman while “Woman” by Nikki Giovanni is about a woman who wants a man to change for her. The poems though very different, are also similar because they both talk about confidence as a woman. By the end of both poems the narrators both know that they are women who are strong and do not need anyone else 's acceptance but their own. They know their own self worth and that is enough for them. “Phenomenal Woman” is a poem about a woman who has men naturally attracted to her. She is not the one people always find “pretty” but she has confidence and has women jealous. Men are constantly around her and swarm her like honey bees (Angelou

In “Phenomenal Woman” she has so much confidence that men are just naturally attracted to her; for example, “And to a man, / The fellow stand or / Fall down on their knees. / Then they swarm around me, / A hive of honey bees / I say / It’s the fire in my eyes… / I’m a woman / Phenomenally,” (Angelou 16-27). This is different from the other poem Women because in the poem by Nikki Giovanni the speaker keeps changing for someone and they constantly reject her. This shows that she does not have the confidence to be who she truly is without their approval. “She wanted to be a blade / of grass amid the fields / but he wouldn 't agree / to be the dandelion,” (Giovanni 1-4). These lines show that they do not want to be amongst

The tones of each poem are a very different. The tone in “Phenomenal Woman” is that of a confident and strong colored woman. You can sense both of those things and see it so clearly. She doesn’t need anyone to be herself. The tone in “Woman” is more unconfident. Someone who depends on another 's approval. In the end of “Woman” though, it is a tone of confidence. She realizes that she does not need someone else to tell her that her change is good. It is more confident and there is lots of self realization. It is almost like you can see the change in her eyes like she has woken up and realized that she is so much more. She thought she needed a man to be herself when she really did not and she figured that out. She found her confidence on her own because of who she is just like the woman in “Phenomenal