Maya Angelou describes her ability to rise above anything that happens to her in this poem. She also uses apostrophe to address her discourse, as well as give others the ability to share her voice. I believe this poem could be seen as Maya addressing someone, or as a sort of self-help/self confidence booster for others to recite.
Maya also asks questions throughout the poem, which give the readers the opportunity to review their lives, contemplate their beliefs, and review the questions being asked of them. The rhyme scheme remains the same as the beginning through the middle three stanzas. It seems like an ABCB pattern that is repeated until the very end.
The overall line by line analysis is fairly similar for the three middle stanzas and it's basic meaning is that is no matter what other do to hurt her, in the past or future, she can rise above it. She begins with a sort of taunting to the reader. She makes it feel as though she's saying you thought I couldn't do it, but look at me now! She then asks if her pridefulness is offensive, and then proceeds to say she doesn't care if it is or not. Finally, she says that you can try and hurt her any way that you want, but she's still going to rise above it.
There is a reference to roots and the slavery era, and she uses her ancestors experience as a resource for her ownstrength. She also says that she must preserve her ancestor's dreams (who were slaves) for success in a free world. In these last three stanzas she also uses questions to draw the reader in and require them to examine their own lives. She says that she will rise above the pain and suffering that her ancestors have experienced in order to fulfill their dreams of being granted the opportunity for success in a world where she is free. She also wants to emphasize the fact that she is not faltering from the pain and suffrage she and her ancestors have experienced, but she will continue to rise.
Mid term break
The poem is about the death of Heaney's infant brother (Christopher) and how people (including himself) reacted to this. The poem's title suggests a holiday but this “break” does not happen for pleasant reasons. For most of the poem Heaney writes of people's unnatural reactions, but at the end he is able to grieve honestly.
The boredom of waiting appears in the counting of bells but “knelling” suggests a funeral bell, rather than a bell for lessons. The modern reader may be struck by the neighbours' driving the young Seamus home - his parents may not have a car (quite usual then - Heaney was born in 1939, and is here at boarding school, so this is the 1950s) or, more likely, were too busy at home, and relied on their neighbours to help.
The father, apparently always strong at other funerals, is distraught (very upset) by his child's death, while the mother is too angry to cry. “Big Jim” (apparently a family friend) makes an unfortunate pun - he means to speak of a metaphorical “blow”, of course. The young Seamus is made uneasy by the baby's happiness on seeing him, by hand shaking and euphemisms (evasions, like “Sorry for my trouble”), and by whispers about him. When late at night the child's body is returned Heaney sees this as “the corpse” (not a person).
This contrasts wonderfully with the final section of the poem, where he is alone with his brother. Note the personal pronouns “him”, “his”, “he” - as opposed to “the corpse”. The calm mood is beautifully shown in the transferred epithet (“Snowdrops/And candles soothed the bedside” - literally they soothed the young Heaney). The flowers are a symbol in the poem, but also in reality for the family (a symbol of new life, after death). The bruise is seen as not really part of the boy - he is “wearing” it (a metaphor), as if it could come off. Heaney likens the bruise to the poppy, a flower linked with death and soothing of pain (opiates come from poppies). The child appears as if sleeping (a simile). We contrast the ugly “corpse, stanched and bandaged”, which becomes a sleeping child with “no gaudy scars” - dead, but, ironically, not disfigured. The last line of the poem is most poignant and skilful - the size of the coffin is the measure of the child's life. We barely notice that Heaney has twice referred to a “box”, almost a jokey name for a coffin.