Maya Angelou's Poetry Research Paper

Poetry is a type of art that uses our words to evoke emotions in someone. Poetry can be used to enact drama or suspense, convey ideas, offer vivid descriptions or express our many inward feelings in different states of mind. It can pull feelings that are suppressed or give you a new perspective on one’s surroundings. It does this in many different forms such as limericks, sonnets, ballads, haikus, free verse, and many others. Some famous poets who are known for their different views on love are William Shakespeare, Alfred Tennyson, Emily Dickinson, and Maya Angelou.
William Shakespeare is known for a paradoxical approach to some of his poems for example, ”she’s love, she loves, and yet she is not lov’d”. But he didn’t stop there. In 36 plays …show more content…
He gave a voice to his own consciousness and to things going on in his own Victorian society. And also frequently writing about the past and historical events as shown in the ballad, Lady of Shallot. This poem is about a woman, Lady of Shalott, who is isolated to her own island and spends her days weaving a magic web because she has been cursed, prohibited from looking outside. Instead she watches those pass by in her magic mirror until one day a man, Sir Lancelot, rides by on his way to Camelot. Enthralled by him, she takes a chance by looking out the window causing her magic mirror to break. When this happens she knows she is doomed so she finds a boat nearby, gets in, and lets it slip downstream towards Camelot. She sings in the boat before finally freezing to death in the cold. When the boat arrives at Camelot Sir Lancelot says she is pretty and says a prayer for her. Tennyson describes the woman’s isolation and how love played a big role in her life and death. In the song, Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes, it also discusses the role of love in one’s …show more content…
In Sonnet 29, he started out in insolation only to have love pull him back out. In Lady of Shalott, the woman also started out in isolation and the idea of love made her take a chance on leaving her safe, secluded island. Whether the mirror breaking gave her the courage to leave or she thought she was doomed anyways, she left in hopes of reaching Camelot for Sir Lancelot. The Lady might have had a better chance at her happily ever after though if she put some blankets in the boat with her. In the song, Owner of a Lonely Heart, it is the opposite. The person took a chance at love only to have it backfire and change their outlook on love. The song is sort of a paradox on the idea of loneliness because once you’ve been hurt you would rather have a lonely heart than a broken one. These works all compare in their themes of love and isolation and how they go together pretty well. You are usually lonely before love but once it's over you’re lonely