Life Doesn't Frighten Me: Maya Angelou

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In the final stanza, the speaker adds a touch of magic to her fearlessness by mentioning a “magic charm” she keeps up their sleeve and her ability to walk the ocean floor without breathing. This use of magical elements adds a sense of fantasy and wonder to the poem and further reinforces the idea that the speaker is not afraid of anything. Conclusion There is in the second stanza a reference to the barking dogs and “big ghosts in a cloud”. None of these things frighten her either. The poem takes the reader into the mind of a child who has, or so she asserts, found a way to overcome fear in her life. She repeats the refrain“Life doesn’t frighten me at all” several times in these lines. It reminds the reader, and also reminds the speaker herself, what she’s trying not to feel. The speaker takes the reader through many of the normal things that might scare a child and dismisses each one. It is at the end of the poem that one might start to doubt the speaker’s honesty. Perhaps she is hiding a bit of the real fear she has in her heart.

And then there is the end of the poem. What is the ‘magic charm’ kept up the speaker’s ‘sleeve’? Is it nothing more than the message of the poem itself: that life cannot and will not frighten her, something that she repeats to herself so that it becomes true? And is she repeating it to herself so often because she is trying to convince herself, but, despite the poem’s reassurances, her fearlessness is not quite so secure as she is making out? The fifth stanza is the longest of the poem with seven lines. It is followed by the sixth stanza which only has one line. When the speaker comes upon the things she mentioned in the first four stanzas she scares them off. She says “boo” and they “shoo”. They run when she makes fun of them and they fly away when she doesn’t cry. She stands up to everything custom-made to scare her. The following single line is a repetition of the refrain “Life doesn’t frighten me at all”. In the twelfth stanza of ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’, she explains that she has a “magic charm” that keeps her from being scared. It’s always “up [her] sleeve”. It allows her to pass through life without giving in to the fear that strikes other children. The last four lines of the poem repeat the refrain twice and then reemphasize it with the line “Not at all” twice. The third and fourth stanzas are similar to the two that came before them. Angelou speaks on “Mean old Mother Goose,” making this poem feel even more like it is meant to resemble a nursery rhyme. She also uses alliteration to declare that the “Lions on the loose” do not frighten her either. In the first stanza of ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me,’the speaker begins by taking note of the few things that might if she wasn’t so sure of her place in the world, frighten her. These are the “shadows on the wall” and the “noises down the hall”. The perfect rhyme that these lines and the others in this poem have, make each of these statements feel like a nursery rhyme. Something that its meant for a child to hear, read, or remember and take strength from.The tenth stanza brings the speaker, who is confirmed in these lines to be young, into the classroom. This is a place where most children experience fear at some point but she does not. The boys might pull her hair or taunt her, but she doesn’t care. If they show her “frogs and snakes” she isn’t bothered either. Life Doesn't Frighten Me" review activity printable - print all section questions at once (options for multiple keys)

The poem begins with imagery of shadows on the wall and noises down the hall, setting a tone of eerie and unsettling surroundings. The poem’s imagery and repetition create a firm conviction in the speaker’s words. For instance, the use of vivid imagery helps her describe her actions in response to these supposed scares, such as “I go boo, make them shoo” and “I won’t cry, so they fly.” This imagery adds a playful and childlike tone to the poem, further emphasizing the speaker’s fearlessness. Angelou makes use of several poetic techniques in ‘Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’. These include, but are not limited to, repetition, anaphora, alliteration, and enjambment. The first, repetition, is the use and reuse of a specific technique, word, tone or phrase within a poem. Angelou repeats the refrain, “frighten me at all” ten times in the poem. It often begins with “Life doesn’t” and other times starts with “They don’t” or “That doesn’t”. Anytime something is repeated so frequently a reader should take their time considering it and what it means to the poet. Poetic elements are used to enhance the intended impact of the seemingly simple texts. Maya Angelou has added a variety of powerful poetic diction to make her poem a worth read. She has used imagery, symbolism, metaphor, and various other literary elements to convey a message of fearlessness and confidence. To conclude, the use of imagery, repetition, personification, and magical elements in the poem helped the writer convey a message of fearlessness and confidence in facing life’s challenges.The last two lines of the eleventh stanza admit that she might sometimes be afraid, but it’s only in her dreams. There, she can’t control what she feels. Life Doesn’t Frighten Me” by Maya Angelou is a symbolic poem. Maya Angelou, an iconic American writer, poet, and activist, catalogs the things that do not scare her. In fact, the poem is a declaration of strength and courage, with the speaker confidently stating that she is not afraid of the various things that might scare others. Life Doesn’t Frighten Me’by Maya Angelou is a fourteen- stanza poem that is separated into uneven sets of lines. The stanzas range in length from one single line up to seven lines. The majority are tercets, meaning they have three lines. Angelou made use of a simple rhyme scheme within the text. The tercets mainly rhyme AAAA or AAB While the majority of the other stanzas make use of an alternating rhyme scheme of AABB. Fear is the enemy of creativity, the hotbed of mediocrity, a critical obstacle to mastering life. Few embody the defiance of fear with greater dignity and grace than Maya Angelou, who has overcome remarkable hardship — childhood rape, poverty, addiction, bereavement — to become one of today’s most celebrated writers. Like a number of other celebrated “adult” poets and novelists who have also written for children — including Sylvia Plath, Mark Twain, Anne Sexton, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Mary Shelley, Leo Tolstoy, Oscar Wilde, Aldous Huxley, Gertrude Stein, James Thurber, Carl Sandburg, Salman Rushdie, Ian Fleming, and Langston Hughes— so has Angelou: The 1993 gem Life Doesn’t Frighten Me ( public library), conceived and edited by Sara Jane Boyers, pairs Angelou’s simple, strong words with drawings by legendary artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose signature style of child-like fancy and colorful emotional intensity offers a perfect match for Angelou’s courageous verses. Hear Angelou read the poem herself, which she says she wrote “for all children who whistle in the dark and who refuse to admit that they’re frightened out of their wits”: