On The Pulse Of Morning Maya Angelou Analysis

Maya Angelou’s autobiography, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, talks about her childhood that eventually led her to where she is now; she became a famous poet and one of her works include On The Pulse Of Morning, which speaks about the need to treat everyone equally. Angelou describes her tragic adolescence being filled of inequality and constant comparison between the black and white community. She writes about her jealousy of white people and how she wishes to be like them, look like them, and be given the same opportunities as them. In her famous poem read at the Presidential Inauguration, Maya takes a different approach and speaks about how we should start treating each other with equality, no matter the ethnicity because we are all human

She does not acknowledge the ignorant school children, but instead, continues humming a church song. Religion is a main coping mechanism for Momma, something that young Maya does not fully understand or even completely agree with. However, as she gets older, she uses a lot of biblical allusions in her works, portraying the faith that she has in God now. “On the Pulse of Morning” mentions “ a rock, a river, a tree” (1) throughout the entire poem, which can be interpreted as The Holy Trinity, and tying together her belief that God is also going to help us get to a state of equality throughout all races, since we still have so much separation between people even today. Angelou points this out in her poem when she writes “each of you, a bordered country” (28), describing the division between people due to their race, religion, sexual orientation, and money. She shows that the division amongst people can be due to more than race, however, no matter what the differences is, we should still be treating everybody with equality. Maya describes her tragic childhood, but progressively throughout the book she continues to grow. Angelou acknowledges the pain from her past, but does not let that stop her as she goes on to do and achieve remarkable things in her life. Similarly, in her poem, she inspires us that although there was a horrific amount of discrimination before, we can come together to change that. She writes “each new hour holds new chances / for a new beginning” (97-98). Although we have made mistakes before, that does not mean that we must continue being that way forever. This quote is significant because Angelou is reminding us that we can change now, that we do not have to wait for a perfect moment or continue doing what we have been for so many years, we can change the way we treat each other in this moment She ends her inspirational poem with the words, “here on the pulse of this new