1) What is the "startling truth" of which Angelou writes?
2) Do you agree? How do you know?
A Brave and Startling Truth
By Maya Angelou, American Poet, Author and Actress
We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms
When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil
When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze
When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse
When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets
Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world
When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe
We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines
When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
Directed Writing 3
What is the
"startling truth" of which Angelou writes?
In order to understand what the "startling truth" of what
Angelou writes I have to decide what she means by truth. Angelou could be referring to a subjective
truth that only applies to her or she could be referring to a provable truth or
possibly an absolute truth that applies to everyone. Based on the first stanza
of the poem I gathered she was talking about an absolute truth. This thought was reinforced by the title
itself. Angelou would not call this
truth startling if it was not an absolute truth. The truth would not startle people if it did
not apply to them and likewise if they could tangibly prove the truth they
wouldn't be startled.
Maya struggles throughout the poem with the faults of
humanity. She cites examples of death,
war, corrupt or fanatical religion and self gratifying actions. At the same time she contrasts the terrible
facets of humanity with the beautiful things that we do. People have made peace with fellow people,
built legendary and awe striking monuments showing human ingenuity, we labor in
care for others and people do give up their pride for the greater cause. As I progressed through the poem I realized
Angelou is juxtaposing the good and bad to emphasize the truth she is writing
about. Many of the stanzas start with
wicked directions humanity has taken then contrast how we have used the same means
to bring peace and beauty. The startling
truth must be that humanity has the ability to live in harmony but lacks the
permanent will.
Maya struggles with the postmodern thought that although
we know the universe and how it works that does little for the gross injustice
committed daily by human kind. The
startling truth which Angelou references is that humanity is the "wonder of
this world" and we will eventually come to peace. Based on the last two stanzas I realized
Angelou's startling truth is that humanity must accept what can and should
happen, then make it happen.
Do
you agree? How do you know?
Based on Maya's last two lines of the poem I completely
disagree with her fantasy that humankind can restore itself to peace. The lines read:
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
The key word is "We." Angelou believes that humankind can lift itself up. Unfortunately history repeats itself and not just once but over and over. Over the recorded history of human kind we have neither completely restored ourselves even for an instant, much less permanently. Humanity has done great and terrible things, but we cannot make peace permanently. I disagree based on the fact that we have never been able to restore this creation in the past, thus how can we in the future.
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