Qn: Do a critical appreciation on the following poem ‘Men’ by Maya Angelou, paying special attention to the effectiveness of the poet’s use of form, language and tone.
The poem “Men” by Maya Angelou is a powerful poem that speaks of a young girl coming of age. It relates what seems to be Maya’s personal experience – the poem is narrated, almost story-like, and amplifies her personal voice that is so strongly heard throughout - from her raw teenage perceptions at the start of the poem to a matured, almost indifferent point of view at the end. So strong is her personal voice that at one stage in the poem one invariably gets the feeling that the poem serves as a warning to other young girls. She sets the stage, so to speak, by telling us in the title that she is talking about men, and begins with “When I was young.” The rest of the poem sets off from this memory and helps the reader to discover the contrast between the appearances and realities of men. But by means of domestic imagery not commonly associated with men, Maya Angelou suggests something more than this: She asks her readers to see that people or things may not truly be what they seem all the time.
The poem clearly illustrates the contrast between what men appear to be with what they really are like in reality. Through the eyes of a “fifteen year[s] old” the readers are told that “their shoulders [were] high like the breasts of a young girl.” It is interesting to note that Angelou would make such a comparison early in the poem, perhaps to draw the attention of the reader to the fact that she is making a contrast, and possibly hinting a foreshadowing that their appearances or behaviour are not consistent with what the persona imagined them to be. For ...
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The poem clearly illustrates the contrast between what men appear to be with what they really are like in reality. Through the eyes of a “fifteen year[s] old” the readers are told that “their shoulders [were] high like the breasts of a young girl.” It is interesting to note that Angelou would make such a comparison early in the poem, perhaps to draw the attention of the reader to the fact that she is making a contrast, and possibly hinting a foreshadowing that their appearances or behaviour are not consistent with what the persona imagined them to be. For example, almost immediately after, she introduces domestic imagery, where the men were holding “you as if you were the last raw egg in the world” and “your mind pops…like the head of a kitchen match.” These images were more commonly associated with women, who, in the earlier days were expected to tend to the house, cook, and look after the children while the men worked. Through such domestic imagery, the reader is inclined to conclude that Angelou was speaking and appealing to mainly the women. Such contrasts were possibly in no way coincidentally introduced – they were meant to foreshadow the disappointment and cold indifference at the end as compared to her admiration for them in the beginning, when the persona realizes that the “men” she was “starving for” had indeed caused her to become “shattered”. The stark contrast between the persona’s impression of men is telling because she starts the poem with “When I was young” and the ending echoes back with “But this time”, suggesting that during the period of time that has passed she has matured and now sees the men through different eyes.
Just as the poem narrates the process that the persona has undergone, the form of the poem itself similarly seems to depict the persona’s coming to understanding men. Just like how everyone matures differently at different times, “Men” is mainly written in free verse, without a predictable or regular structure; this also allows the reader to internalize the each line of the poem at their own pace. Interestingly enough, each stanza seems to end rather abruptly, greatly contrasting the smooth run-on lines in the earlier part of the stanza. The short, staccatoish lines, some consisting of single words such as “Men” or “Maybe” could suggest that just like every other phase of life that we go through, this particular one of a young women coming of age is not entirely smooth-sailing either, but that every individual will face certain abrupt or unexpected challenges before entering a new phase. On a deeper level, however, Angelou could be suggesting that although the poem has a seemingly languid effect that the run on lines have on the poem as a whole, when examined in detail, one will notice the crisp and impactful lines that close each verse. This could relate to the persona’s experience of realising that her idealistic, on-the-surface beliefs in men being “sharp as mustard” were not so accurate after all, and after getting to know them better she realizes that they could potentially be harmful – thus the message to her readers to take nothing at face value.
The effect of Angelou’s personal voice coming through the poem is especially significant in the sudden transition from first person’s point of view to third person’s point of view. Starting off the poem with “I”, she abruptly switches to “you” as the poem progresses. This change in point of view creates an effect no different than as if she were telling a story. By using a first person’s point of view in the first stanza, she is alerting the reader that what she is about to say is rather close to her heart – in this case it is of her childish impressions of men whom she watched from “under [my] window.” The vivid images of “wino men, old men” and their “jacket tails slapping over those behinds” demonstrate how clearly this memory must be in her mind, and draw the reader into that very time and place where the persona stood watching them from “behind the curtains.” The effect of a first-person narrative also contributes to the reminiscent and rather dreamy tone of the poem, as though Angelou herself was recalling the days of her youth; it is as though we are watching the persona in the poem from a faraway place. Very quickly, however, she cuts off the dreamy effect of the poem by introducing the second verse with “one day they hold you in the palms of their hands.” The suddenness of change in point of view from “I” to “you” takes the reader by surprise because there is a rather sharp turn from the dreamy state of the poem without any warning. This change only serves to emphasis the severity that Angelou must have meant it to have, so much so that it seems like she is issuing out a warning to other young girls to take heed. More than just to merely engage the readers, the abruptness of the switch could have been deliberately introduced to show how harsh the persona had been smacked into reality, out of her dreamy and idealistic beliefs of the world, and of men. The image of a “raw egg/ exploding fiercely, briefly” is commensurate to the harsh and absolute reality that the persona now faces in the second verse – so vivid and explicitly illustrated that it is nearly disturbing, for now “your body has slammed shut. Forever”, where “no keys exist” suggesting that this change is permanent and irreversible.
However, Angelou springs another surprise on us just when the reader assumes that he has understood the persona’s message, where right at the end she unexpectedly comes back with “But I will simply stand and watch.” Could she be suggesting that the change is perhaps not as permanent as the reader thinks? This time, though, there is a certain tone of detachment in this sentence, suggested by the words “but” and “simply” as opposed to the fiery curiosity evident i in “I used to watch behind the curtains” in the first verse. The reader is left momentarily confused and before he can recover Angelou pulls another surprise by choosing to end the poem with a standalone verse: “Maybe.” So powerful is this closing line that it threatens to discredit the harshness and severity of the whole poem. It suggests a hesitancy and the possibility that the persona herself is unsure of whether she would want to go through the tantalizing experience of recognizing how wrong her impressions of men were, and how far their appearances differed from reality all over again. Perhaps she is suggesting that in order to be able to gain back the innocent concepts she once had, she would go through all of it again. Perhaps it means something more, that sometimes, the pain and hurt that people experience in life do not definitely enable them to remember the lessons in life which they should remember Either way, this poem leaves the reader dumbfounded because it highlights the complexity of the experiences of life we go through and the impacts it has on us.
Another interesting thing to note in this discussion pertaining to the startling presence of Angelou’s personal voice is that the persona describes herself observing the men from “under the window.” In Literature, windows are commonly referred to to signify and represent the eyes of the soul. Likewise, the poem comes full circle when it is stated again that the persona watches the men once more when “the window draws full upon your mind”, albeit through more matured eyes this time. She also compares her body to a door – “slammed shut” and “no keys exist.” This comparison of herself ties in with the domestic imagery discussed earlier and it seems to suggest that just as she is standing in a room, literally watching from behind the window, she is also she likening herself to a room - metaphorically speaking – which had been forced into by these men, as they “wrench out a smile that slides around the fear” until her mind “pops.” And as a result of reeling from the traumacy of this experience her body has “slammed shut. Forever./No keys exist.”
In a twist of unfortunate events, Angelou had once been sexually abused in her childhood, and “Men”, a startling and gripping poem seems to come the closest to giving readers a glimpse into that unforgettable experience in her life. Angelou’s voice is resonantly heard from beginning to end, as a warning to her readers that appearances are not the same as reality. She effectively employs free verse form, domestic imagery, and contrasting tones, interweaving the persona’s experience with the finer subtleties of the poem. Although we can seem to sense the harshness of her warning through vivid images of the popping of a raw egg, she leaves the reader to make up his own mind at the closure of the poem with “Maybe” in a rather matter-of-fact fashion. As such, one can never be absolutely sure of what Angelou meant to convey, but as readers, perhaps we can further decipher the poem by looking a bit more at her life. In this way, readers are connected with the poem in an intimate and inviting way.
