Multiple choice, short answer questions, and writing questions - you can print the unit along with the poem 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. The fourth stanza brings in “Dragons breathing fire” on her bedspread”. She isn’t afraid of those either.

Basquiat grew up in prosperous home but ran away at 15 and commenced his life of sex n drugs n ... rap. He was a grafitti artist, defacing or enhancing New York with his spray paint under the name of SAMO. He became associated with several galleries and patrons, most famously Andy Warhol's Factory. He'd always lived up on drugs and alcohol, but limited means bought limited supplies. The bounty that was fame brought money enough for excess, and at 27 he died from a heroin overdose.

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This poem I believe is great for children because it showcases how when life gets roughed we as human beings tend to become cowards and hide away from our problems which isn't a great decision but a normal responses when we are clueless to solving our problems. With this poem it helps the reader to realize that yes life can we difficult in different periods of our life but at the end of the day we must face our problems head on and look for the silver-lining or the rainbow at the end of a storm.

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. Someone who repeats to themselves before a stressful situation, such as a job interview, ‘you can do this, you can do this, you can do this’ must doubt themselves on some level, because they are having to tell themselves they can succeed, whereas there would be no need to do so if this fact was self-evident. At the same time, of course, fear can make us forget things which are self-evident, so perhaps the reminder is merely to overcome an irrational fear, or doubt, within the moment itself. 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. Life Doesn't Frighten Me" review activity printable - print all section questions at once (options for multiple keys)

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Maya Angelou is an American author and poet. She has published seven autobiographies, five books of essays, and several books of poetry, and is credited with a list of plays, movies, and television shows spanning more than fifty years. She has received dozens of awards and over thirty honorary doctoral degrees. Angelou is best known for her series of autobiographies, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, tells of her life up to the age of seventeen, and brought her international recognition and acclaim. Angelou's list of occupations includes pimp, prostitute, night-club dancer and performer, castmember of the opera Porgy and Bess, coordinator for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, author, journalist in Egypt and Ghana during the days of decolonization, and actor, writer, director, and producer of plays, movies, and public television programs. Since 1982, she has taught at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where she holds the first lifetime Reynolds Professorship of American Studies. She was active in the Civil Rights movement, and worked with both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Since the 1990s she has made around eighty appearances a year on the lecture circuit, something she continued into her eighties. In 1993, Angelou recited her poem "On the Pulse of Morning" at President Bill Clinton's inauguration, the first poet to make an inaugural recitation since Robert Frost at John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961. more… 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. 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 reference to the ocean floor and not having to breathe is a masterstroke: note that she doesn’t say she can walk the ocean floor and still be able to breathe, but that she doesn’t have to breathe at all. This invites a seed of doubt into the poem: is it akin to holding one’s breath until a danger has passed, or is believed to have passed? Or should we take it at face value as an unequivocally positive image? 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”:

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.