Literary Appreciation of Poem The Lesson by Maya Angelou

THE LESSON Maya Angelou

I keep on dying again
Veins collapse, opening like the
Small fists off sleeping
Children

Memory of old tombs
Rotting flesh and warm do
Not convince against
The challenge. The years

And cold defeat live deep in
Lines along my face
They dull my eyes, yet
I keep on dying
Because I love to live


I enjoyed the poem, The Lesson by Maya Angelou. This poem only have three stanza,but in each line has many lessons we can take. The Lesson is about life and death. At the first stanza of the poem the speaker start dramatically by claiming that she has died already, more than once, and that she will keep on dying. She describes death and pain so detailed that make the readers can sympathize with her. At the second stanza, she explains her reason for continuing to live through all the pain that she has endured. At the last stanza of the poem, the speaker remind the readers of the title and conclude that The Lesson is to embrace life, even at it is most bitter moments, and to press on through the hard times to make an opportunity for the good times.
The poem begin with dramatical line, I keep on dying again. The speaker claimed that she has died more than once and that she continues to do so. The speaker is not talking about death in the sense that most people think of death. Death for the speaker is not something that happens only once. Somehow, she believes that she has experienced death already, although she is clearly still alive to speak these words. At the second line she create clear imagery that helps the reader identify with the speaker. She has already said that she died once, and now she describes it very detail. The reader can picture the veins collapse. Opening like the small fists of sleeping children The allegory of the opening and closing fists of a sleeping child helps the reader to feel the kind of death the speaker is referring to.

At the second stanza of the poem is full of desperate feeling of the speaker. Memory of old tombs” These are perhaps the tombs of her death before. Thus, line five sheds light on why the speaker is claiming that she keeps on dying. She thinks about the rotting flesh and worms. The rotting flesh and worm are the emagenary of her insecure and pain in her live that make the speaker keep on dying. All the pain that she has experienced in her life, she is not persuaded to give up. Rather, she presses on. She says that even the thoughts of her dead and decaying loved ones do not convince against the challenge. This reveals that she views life as a challenge, and that she is not about to give up on it, no matter how many times she has to face death. No many pain or suffering can convince her to give up this challenge. With lines ten and eleven, she describes the physical effect that her suffering has had. She claims that the years and cold defeat live deep in lines along face. The speaker try to make the readers understand and potray the speaker. She is an old woman, with lines along her face. The speaker try to tell that she have gone through a lot of bittersweet of live. Those lines represent the pain and the suffering that she has experienced over the course of her life.
At the last stanza, finally I find the reason why she want keep on dying. they dull my eyes, yet . At these lines, the speaker explains why she will not give up the challenge. Even though the pain and the suffering can be seen in the lines of her face and in the way that her eyes have dulled over time, she claims that she will keep on dying. In the final line of the peom The Lesson, the speaker explains that the reason she will continue to die is because she loves to live. This last line brings in an entirely new aspect to this poem. Thus far, it would seem that life has been nothing but misery for this speaker. She has described the way she feels when she had a hard time on her life. She has claimed to have experienced death over and over again. Yet, she will not give up the fight. One might wonder why. Her life seems to be so full of pain. I feel amazed, Why does she continue to press on and rise up against the challenges life presents to her? Her last line offers a reason. She loves to live. This reveals that the joys of life, though she has not mentioned any specifically, are worth going through the pain. She is grateful for every day of her life, and so she is willing to go through the pain and the suffering because she loves life. This is why she submits herself to the reality that she will keep on dying. Rather than wanting to put an end to all the suffering she has experienced, she wants to go on experiencing it, because even the suffering produced by the death of a loved one is worth the joy that she gets out of living.