“On the Pulse of Morning” is a 13-stanza free verse inaugural poem by Black American poet Maya Angelou. It was originally published in 1993 after Angelou performed it at Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration in January of that year. One of her best-known works, the poem reflects on a new era in American public life from the perspective of nature personified. Angelou calls for Americans to embrace unity in diversity rather than hiding from the uncomfortable truths of the country's past.
Maya Angelou (born 1928)--author, poet, playwright, stage and screen performer, and director--is best known for her autobiography, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1970), which recalls a young African...
Read more
Standing before the church congregation, little Marguerite Johnson realized that everyone was looking at her, and that she wasn't a white girl with long blonde hair. As she remembered that she was a g...
Read more
Maya Angelou's literary significance rests upon her exceptional ability to tell her life story as both a human being and a black American woman in the twentieth century. Four serial autobiographical v...
Read more
Biography EssayMaya Angelou's literary significance rests primarily upon her exceptional ability to tell her life story as both a human being and a black American woman in the twentieth century. Five ...
Read more