Poetry Activity – Maya Angelou
Materials Needed: Maya Angelou‟s biography from the Strong Men and Women Series
(1995 Honoree) and the attached poem.
Objectives: Students will establish parallels between Angelou‟s life and one of her poems.
Students will paraphrase lines from an assigned poem.
Students will identify the theme/message in an assigned poem.
Instructional Activity: Students should read carefully Maya Angelou‟s biography posted
on Dominion‟s Strong Men and Women Series. Using colored markers, they should
highlight important details or images. Determine if students are aware of the traumatic
experience alluded to in the biography.
Once they have completed the bio, hand each student a copy of Angelou‟s poem “Alone.”
Allow students to read silently first, then call on a student to read it aloud.
Students should then answer the following questions based on their reading of the poem.
1. Are there statements/events in her biography that would support her writing a poem
on this topic?
2. How do you explain the speaker‟s feeling in the 3rd line: “How to find my soul a
home”?
3. Explain the speaker‟s meaning in these lines: “where water is not thirsty/and bread
loaf is not stone.”
4. What is the effect of repetition in the poem?
5. Define the word paraphrase. Then, paraphrase the 3rd and 5th stanzas.
6. What is the theme/message of the poem?
7. Although the title is simplistic, what specifically makes this poem meaningful and
poignant?
Creative Writing Activity: As a class, brainstorm the various emotions many of us
experience. Students should write an original poem using a single emotion.
Alone
--by Maya Angelou
Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don‟t believe I‟m wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
There are some millionaires
With money they can‟t use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They‟ve got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Now if you listen closely
I‟ll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
„Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.
Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.