blog entry 3

Marguerite Johnson was born on April 4, 1928 in St. Louis, Missouri she goes by the name of Maya Angelou she’s a poet who’s currently alive at the age of eighty five years old. Marguerite is not only known for being a poet but she’s a singer, song writer, activist, and editor. She’s best known for her seven published autobiographies which were based on her childhood and adult life. The first one was published in 1969 which was called “I know why the caged birds songs”.  The poem I choose by Maya Angelou is called “Alone” the reason why I choose this poem because I feel it’s very real and true.  In the poem she talks about poverty and millionaires and it how it doesn’t matter because no one can make it in this world alone which I defiantly agree with.

In the poem Alone in the first stanza (1-3) “How to find my soul a home where water is not thirsty and bread loaf is not stone” this is symbolic action which can mean that Maya is saying people are in need of help which can be poverty. Bread isn’t stone but it may feel that way to someone who is possibly is in need of service, water isn’t thirsty but if you’re a person who homeless it may feel that way. The second stanza (1-6) “There are some millionaires With money they can't use their wives run round like banshees, their children sing the blues,They've got expensive doctors to cure their hearts of stone”. The symbolic action behind this would be that people who are considered to have money still have problems and need help like everyone else. The second stanza (1-6) ” Now if you listen closely, I'll tell you what I know, Storm clouds are gathering, The wind is gonna blow, The race of man is suffering, And I can hear the moan”. I believe the symbolic action is that life is going to take its course but people are still anguish and in pain and everyone knows but people need help they can’t do it alone.

            I think the major symbols of the poem are “Alone, all alone, Nobody, but nobody

Can make it out here alone”. Which basically mean being alone means being by yourself with no one around and can make it out here alone is saying you’re in this world but you can’t survive on your own. After each  stanza “alone, alone nobody but nobody can make it out here alone “ is always right after clearly reminding and stating that no matter what your situation is you need help you need guidance. That’s really my understanding of those words when you read them word by word and put them together. It comes back to what the overall message of the poem is.

            After reading the poem over and over I can’t help but think the poem is about the world and how people are in need of help, they are suffering. The people who have money and the people who don’t we are equally the same because we all have this need for help. The poem talks about different situations but it still comes back to full circle basically saying the same.