On the Pulse of Morning (For Further Study)

For Further Study

• Cudjoe, Selwyn, “Maya Angelou and the Autobiographical Statement” in Black Women Writers (1950-1980), edited by Mari Evans, Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1984.

  Focusing primarily on Angelou’s five autobiographies, this essay provides insight on her passion for individual identity, a theme the poem also reflects.

• Hagen, Lynn, Heart of A Woman, Mind of a Writer, and Soul of a Poet: A Critical Analysis of the Writing of Maya Angelou, University of America Press, 1997.

  One of the several books of comprehensive Angelou criticism to appear as a result of her renewed prominence following the inauguration, this critical text explores the poet’s use of colloquial urban language as a source for her musical poetry and prose.

• Neubauer, Carol E, “Maya Angelou: Self and a Song of Freedom in the Southern Tradition” in Southern Women Writers: The New Generation, edited by Tonett Bond Inge, University of Alabama Press, 1990, pp. 114-42.

  In this essay Neubauer uses close readings of Angelou’s poetry to illustrate the connection between individual images of Black hardship and the larger picture of an oppressed race surviving in America during the poet’s lifetime.