This is an analysis of In All Ways A Woman by Maya Angelou.

In my young years I took pride in the fact that luck was called a lady. In fact, there were so few public acknowledgments of the female presence that I felt personally honored whenever nature and large ships were referred to as feminine. But as I matured, I began to resent being considered a sister to a changeling as fickle as luck, as aloof as an ocean, and as frivolous as nature. The phrase 'A woman always has the right to change her mind' played so aptly into the negative image of the female that I made myself a victim to an unwavering decision. Even if I made an inane and stupid choice, I stuck by it rather than 'be like a woman and change my mind.'
Being a woman is hard work. Not without joy and even ecstasy, but still relentless, unending work. Becoming an old female may require only being born with certain genitalia, inheriting long-living genes and the fortune not to be run over by an out-of-control truck, but to become and remain a woman command the existence and employment of genius.…

Browse poems by Maya Angelou

Structure

  • Rhyme scheme: X a a X X X
  • Stanza lengths: 1,1,1,1,1,1,
  • Metre: 01101110011111010011011101000001110111100010010101110010110011101101001100100100010011011101111011100110011101110101011110000100100011111110100101000101001110111011110101110101111 10010011101111010011010010101011111010101010100010010011011010100110111001110011010100100101010010 010101011101011101111101011000010110010011101010101010001011111110101001100111010010100101101010101010100100 1101010001010100011011010101010010101101101010010010001001110110111010100010111010101010011010101 01110101111110101100100101001010010101010100101000101010010100011001010010010010100101001111010011101101 000100101010101001110101111001001011001001010001111101110010110110101110010101100100100111010110111110011110101010001010101010100101011100001010101100
  • Closest metre: trochaic pentameter
  • Guessed form: unknown form
  • Stanzas: 6
  • Lines: 6

Repeated words/phrases

and, in, of, to, as, i, she, that, being, must, woman, her, be, female, but, even, thing, herself, not