Woman Work By Maya Angelou

The central idea revolves around the theme of strength and responsiblities a woman carries. The speaker talks about all the chores she has to do around the house and the erands she has to run. She also expresses how its expected for her to do these things like caring for childen, taking care of the house, and other daily tasks. However, besides the expectations she has to uphold as a woman, theres also a yearning for peace and wanting to relax for once but never being able to. This poem reflects on the exhaustion and burden woman face, but it also highlights the strength that Woman have as well. Angelou uses imagery to contrast the demands of work and the need for peace.

Angelou use of reptition with “ive got” emphsizes the duites she had fufull around the hous. It also represents the responsibility she feels and how she just is exptected to get the chorse completed .It highlights the nature of society duing this time and the exhaustion woman may have felt during this time. The speaker wishes time to pause and rest from all the work she must continue performing because her responsibilities consume her day. In Angelou’s work the searcher sheds light on rest not merely as physical relief but as both an emotional remedy and a spiritual recovery.

The universal expectations female society holds toward women become prominent in this poetic work. Through her job responsibilities that include child care and house maintenance and personal service to others the speaker illustrates traditional social expectations women must fulfill without voice of objection. Society demands that women provide every possible service to everyone but they never obtain time to tend to their own personal needs.

Maya Angelou presents through “Woman Work” an insightful analysis of how women conduct extensive physical and emotional work in their everyday lives. Through its narrative this work displays the feelings of tiredness and fustration that women experience caring for their houshold, it also reveals their power and endurance and desire for freedom of all these expectations. Through carefully chosen images combined with repetition of terms and natural elements Angelou portrays the demanding responsibilities women face as she reveals their spiritual relief. The work women perform requires societal understanding together with personal time for rest according to this poetic message.

Train Speaks By Eve Elwing

The format in Eve L. Ewing’s poem The Train Speaks is essential to facilitating how the themes are communicated. The poem’s structure, including its line breaks, stanza arrangement, and lack of strict rhyme or meter, work together to show the journey of the train. The format enables the emphasis on motion, time, and change that the poem theorizes. We can see how the form deepens our understanding of the poem’s meaning by looking at how the poem is structured. One of the most important features of the poem’s format is the use of enjambment-sentences continue beyond the end of a line without punctuation.

This gives the poem a flowing, continuous feel. The train itself is always in motion, and there are no pauses to reflect this within the lines. It is as if the flow of the enjambment provides a feeling that the train never stops, just as the speaker himself, the train, keeps on journeying, without stops. This structure mirrors the unstoppable passage of time, suggesting that life, like the train, moves relentlessly forward, never waiting for our catching up with it. The free verse structure in the poem does not follow a specific pattern of rhyme or meter.

This makes the poem less formal and fluid, just as the journey of the train itself. A train moves through different landscapes, picks up passengers, and moves through various environments just that is unpredictably reflected by the free verse format. The train does not follow a set path in some sort of rigid, controlled manner; it adapts to the world with which it shares a space. Similarly, free verse allows the poem to take organic directions, unencumbered by the binds of a more ordered pattern. In this, it mirrors how the journey of the train is shaped by the places it passes through and the people it carries. Another significant feature of the poem’s form relates to the use of stanzas. Each stanza represents a different moment or part of the journey of this train. The breaks between stanzas allow for small pauses, in which there is a sense of movement and change. These breaks are important because they show the different stages of the train’s journey like snapshots of different parts of the ride. The stanzas act as the different stations or new environments the train passes or stops at. This division enables the reader to trace the path of the train through the varied landscapes, both physical and emotional. Even the format of the poem-with no regular rhyme or rhythm-allows the instability of the train’s journey to be in reflection.

If the poem had a strict structure, it would feel more controlled and orderly, but the free-flowing lines reflect the way life and travel can often be messy and unpredictable. While the train speaks, it becomes a signifier of collective memory and experience, recording in itself the stories of those it encounters and places it goes through. As the train is part of that world it travels through, so are we shaped by the world one gets to see. The format of the poem also helps to bring into view an idea of memory and identity. The train travels on and passes through places and people. The poem follows the structure of the way memories are not set linearly, nor is there a structure to how or where they end up. It is the jumping around through ideas and images in this poem that gives one that fragmented sense of time, a little like life: our experience does not come as a whole story but comes along bit by bit. These are the moments in which stanzas represent new memories and new experiences of the train or the speaker. This is the fragmented structure that makes the readers feel the complexity and depth of the train’s journey. In conclusion, the format of  The Train Speaks is a key part of the poem’s meaning.

The passage of time and the layering of memories and experiences. With Ewing, he acquires the flowing, open-ended structure of the poem to create motion or change both physical and emotional. The format of the poem supplements its themes and allows a better connection by the reader to the speaker, the train, and the journey the train makes.

1919

True Stories About the Great Fire is a poem that represents just one piece of what is now known as the Red Summer. The Chicago riots of 1919, were racial riots between black and white people, They began on the south side of Chicago, Ewing captures the historical weight this incident had on the African American community, by illustrating the lasting impact it had on those affected. The repetition of the Great Fire emphasizes the strength and courage to keep going; even in the face of destruction, life continues. Ewing’s use of the word “True” is a powerful statement on the Great Fire of 1919, blending personal and collective narratives to explore themes of loss and resilience. She exploits this event throughout her book and explains different incidents of red summer in her poems to spread awareness about this tragedy. That is never talked about or remembered when talking about black history. Ewing emphasizes that memories of loss are not easily forgotten, near the end it says “We will for it to finish, and we can wait a long time and fire can too” I think this line still applies to the black community today. With the Black Lives Matter movement and Project 2025, it seems that black people are still having to wait for fire to “ finish” or for white people to stop trying to have their rights taken away from them. Black people have been fighting for basic rights as citizens since they were forcefully brought onto this land. Ewing emphasizes how this event is tied to the broader history of systematic racism and neglect that African Americans faced, both then and now. 

Additionally, throughout the poem, Ewing uses specific imagery. She describes the fire so well that the reader can practically feel the flames and sense the chaos going on in the city. The sensory detail evokes more emotion in the reader it can make you feel like you are witnessing them. And you can imagine all of these people dying in flames, and losing all their homes to the fire. I think it makes you feel almost powerless knowing that there was nothing they could do especially since it was the police also contributing to the attacks. “The great fire lives next doors, hides in the daytime” I think Ewing is just highlighting the societal neglect following the crisis of the red summer. The African American community always gets poor support when it comes to needing support in times of crisis. These Balck families did not have the resources they needed to recover their houses after they were burnt down and they did not care. Ewing recognizes the destruction Red Summer has caused the African American community, but she can acknowledge the pain while also moving toward healing. Which I think is an influential thing. It teaches other black people to not look at their history as a burden but as an encouragement to keep going for their ancestors who faced adversity time and time again. 

In conclusion, the word “true” is more than just about the fire, it’s a reflection of systematic trauma black people have endured,  how black people have faced adversity and the ongoing fight for justice in the community. Eve Ewing seamlessly navigates the complexities of history and memory, ensuring that the stories of the great fire of 1919 are never forgotten. Her work causes people to confront uncomfortable truths while inspiring hope for a better future. Ewing makes sure to honor those who lived through this tragedy and creates a space for remembrance of the lives lost urging us to carry these stories forward.

Eve L. Ewing

Eve Ewing is a poet and sociologist of education. She earned a BA from the University of Chicago, an MAT from Dominican University, and an MEd and PhD from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Her first collection of poetry, essays, and visual art, Electric Arches, was published by Haymarket Books in fall 2017. Her work has been published in many venues, including Poetry Magazine, the New Yorker, the Atlantic, the Nation, the New Republic, Union Station, and the anthology The Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop. She has been a Pushcart Prize nominee, a finalist for the Pamet River Prize, and a scholarship recipient for the New Harmony Writers Workshop.