Posted on 05/30/2014 6:55:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Flynn calls her “an author more revered than read,” and that gets to the heart of the Angelou phenomenon. I will give her credit, as Flynn does, for playing a role very well. That role was as a victim who rose beyond her victimhood to become an icon. But an icon of victimhood as badge of honor, cultivating a voice, a manner, a persona that embodied dignity, thereby triggering waves of adulation from those who, out of guilt or hope, devoutly wished her to be a giant, so that all who have been a dealt a bad hand at birth could similarly rise and find dignity. She gave the suckers what they wanted. Flynn has got her number:
“I’m not modest,” Angelou explained last year to the AP. “I have no modesty.” She got to know herself, apparently, after getting to know poetry and politics and songs and stage. She usurped her parents’ privilege by renaming herself after finding “Marguerite Johnson” not quite arresting enough. In this spirit, she insisted that others call her “Dr. Angelou” though she never obtained a college degree.
The fact that she turned left – hard left, embracing Fidel Castro, a murderous tyrant who has impoverished and enslaved his people – was a good career move.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Rod McKuen is who I thought of too. Young girls swooned at his hackneyed drivel, and this lady seems to have a similar effect for a similar reason.
I’ve heard that quote often. I doubt very seriosuly it originated with Angelou.
Probably more than she did.
I preferred Chuck Berry.
Very fine! Let me try:
You see her name on the Interwebs
She’s dead, they say, and type their sorrow
Lauding her self-enumerated talents and her fake degree.
You hear her mourned on the TV
By sycophants of Democrat persuasion
For them, any occasion of a death of someone black
Is reason to attack their own blond ancestry again.
When will it stop, this o’er-the-top fan clubbery
Of cocktail party-worthiness and fake distinction?
When piglets fly. Hold not your inspiration
Lest you suffocate. You hate.
After a lifetime of reading poetry (between the ages of 11 and 17, I read all of Chaucer in both contemporary and middle English, and all of Shakespeare; and between 17 and 30, plenty of other poets, ancient and modern), I tried -- twice -- to read her masterpiece, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and failed. Both times. Her writing made me feel bored.
Then I started seeing her on television. And her opinions and presentation made me feel disgusted.
Brilliant contrast. Her writing was not just amateurish, but derivative.
Good taste: Tennyson’s “Ulysses” has been the most influential poem in my life. Another beautiful work drawn from the same story is Wallace Steven’s “World as Meditation,” BTW.
I think the reason most people don’t get poetry is because they don’t read it aloud with an ear to the music it contains. Poetry is music - augmented by the meaning of the words, yes, but the meaning alone falls flat. To hear recordings of someone else reading poetry, or hear such things at a poetry reading also falls flat for me: I have to read it aloud to bring it to life.
Get a copy of Robert Fagal’s translation of the Iliad, and read it aloud, and listen to the music as you do so. Or, to come back to Ginsberg, read Howl allowed and get into the rhythm and melody of the sounds. It comes alive. That’s why he’s great, IMO - he understood the music in the poetry.
Her "art" was completely tied into her persona and had no hope of standing on its own. If you found a hidden stash of her poems and told Maya Angelou fans that they were written by a white guy - they would point at the poems and laugh at how trite and mundane they are.
Although, this one is pretty good:
Trayvon
by Maya Angelou
I sing of thee Trayvon
Lamented burnt umber crayon
Shoud of stayed at home
and got your lay-on
But you heard the siren song of wet grass
and headed for Seven Elevon.
Zimmerman the triggerman
Big game hunter lay in wait
White hispanic in a panic
Rubberheaded, held your fate.
By punching him, you tried to reason
You cant of known - was black-boy season
Stand your ground, ground and pound,
Frito Bandito shot you down.
Why should he complain or explain anything? He gets an extra paid vacation at taxpayer expense for simply being overheard by the thought police.
“If she had been white, we never would have heard of her.”
—
Dying young brings fame the same way as being black does.
Sylvia Plath.
.
bump
Don't forget Paul Lawrence Dunbar, another so-called poet no one would ever have heard of had he been White.
More than likely. Hughes reveled in ghetto culture.
The Dr Seuss of Poet Lauriets...
A sample of her “Genius” from the Clinton inaugural...
“So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew
The African, the Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
They all hear
The speaking of the Tree.
Might as well add “ Doctor, Lawyer Indian Chief”
“ Our new President is a Liar and Thief”
To hell where they belong I hope.
not to worry....they have plenty left.....Angela Davis for one if one wishes to scrape the bottom of the barrel.
I never really got Sylvia Plath. I do know she was depressed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.