Maya Angelou Literary Devices

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16. The literary devices in the poem influence the poem specifically through metaphors, imagery and repetition. For example, in the line “Then they swarm around me, A hive of honey bees”, this metaphor describes the scene very well when the woman enters the room. This metaphor is comparing the men to bees to show the men’s interest in her and this flows with the poem because it further shows us how other people see her, and act around her. Another literary device that has an impact in the poem is imagery, it helps us visualize how she looks, and majority of the imageries helps us see that the woman is very confident and proud. For example, in lines 7-9 she expresses imagery by stating "The span of my hips/The stride of my step/The curl of my lips." …show more content…
In addition, repetition is another important literary device in this poem because the poet repeats the phrase "I'm a woman/Phenomenally/Phenomenal woman/That's me." Using this literary device Angelou stresses to her audience the importance of her believing she is a phenomenal woman. Besides, with repetition, it makes the poem flow easily, and the poem flowing more easily shows what a phenomenal woman she really is. In conclusion, with these literary devices, it helps us understand and see the emphasis on the themes of inner beauty and woman being powerful.

The poem, Phenomenal Woman by Maya Angelou, through the lens of feminism is about how women are expected to act and have a specific body type. However, Angelou dismisses the thought that women should be viewed based on their body and their appearance, but she believes that inner beauty is more important because that is the real person. For example, as Angelou writes, "Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. / I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size". In today’s society being skinny means that you are pretty, but the poet challenges this idea because she does not fit
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