Maya Angelou was an acclaimed writer and civil rights activist who reached a wide audience through her works. Although she is perhaps best known for her autobiographical prose, her poetry changed the landscape of feminist writing, introducing a new idea of ​​celebrating self-definition and individuality as integral to achieving liberation and agency. plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Her poem Woman Work outlines a woman's life as similar to that of a slave. Although the idea is latent in most of the poem, its concept becomes quite evident when cotton picking is mentioned. Part of the poem reads like a breathtakingly paced list, indicative of a woman's boring life. The rhyme scheme is not regular, but exists in one part of the poem to further speed up the pace of the poem. This rhythm of the poem is representative of a woman's life, which has no time to stop; the list of his works seems to go on and on. In the following lines, this idea is particularly evident. I have the children to take care of, the clothes to mend, the floor to clean, the food to buy, then the chicken to fry, the baby to dry, I have company to feed, the garden to weed, I have t-shirts to iron, the children to be treated. dressThe jar to be cutI must clean this hutThen take care of the sickAnd the cotton to pick.In these verses, the poet outlines the life of a woman. This part of the poem makes it seem like someone is reading it breathlessly. The woman's jobs range from her domestic duties, such as caring for children and shopping, to slave labor, such as picking cotton. This shows the type of life that women, especially black women, were forced to lead as they were condemned to live a life on the margins. The idea of ​​the double colonization of the third world woman comes to mind when the reader sees the part about picking cotton. African women were discriminated against on both the basis of race and gender. They were therefore pushed to the margins of society, deprived of any voice or agency that "Others" of different demographics might have. The pace of the poem then slows in the next stanza, and a sense of relief is communicated in the next stanza. following verses: Shine on me, sun Rain on me, rain Fall softly, dewdrops And cool my forehead again. Storm, blow me from here With your fiercest wind Let me float across the sky until I can rest again. Fall softly, snowflakes Cover me in white Cold, frozen kisses and Let me rest tonight. Sun, rain, curved sky Mountain, oceans, leaves and stones Shine star, moon shine You are all I can call mine. The speaker finally seems to find some rest. What's interesting is that it seems like nature is his only escape. Where humanity has condemned her to a life of submission, nature offers her catharsis. One of the very significant themes that emerges in this part of the poem is that of the binary between nature and humanity. Nature does not discriminate and provides the only comfort the speaker seems to find. Some deductions can be made from this poem. It is very clear from the lines of the first stanza that the poet wants to draw a parallel between the life of a woman and that of a slave. both have been marginalized in terms of suffering. So often we forget that there is an intersection between gender and racial prejudice. This poet attempts to expose the reality of living a life when one is marginalized whether due to gender or.