INTRODUCTION
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928. Although she had a variety of jobs, such as fry cook, dancer, actress and reporter, she is known for her Pulitzer Prize winning writing which includes poetry, novels and autobiographies. Maya Angelou's life was not easy. As an African American growing up in the Great Depression, she had enormous obstacles that may have led to this poem.
Maya Angelou was born on April 4, 1928. Although she had a variety of jobs, such as fry cook, dancer, actress and reporter, she is known for her Pulitzer Prize winning writing which includes poetry, novels and autobiographies. Maya Angelou's life was not easy. As an African American growing up in the Great Depression, she had enormous obstacles that may have led to this poem.
POEM
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
By Maya Angelou
Life Doesn’t Frighten Me
Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn’t frighten me at all
Bad dogs barking loud
Big ghosts in a cloud
Life doesn’t frighten me at all
Mean old Mother Goose
Lions on the loose
They don’t frighten me at all
Dragons breathing flame
On my counterpane
That doesn’t frighten me at all.
I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won’t cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.
Tough guys fight
All alone at night
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.
Panthers in the park
Strangers in the dark
No, they don’t frighten me at all.
That new classroom where
Boys all pull my hair
(Kissy little girls
With their hair in curls)
They don’t frighten me at all.
Don’t show me frogs and snakes
And listen for my scream,
If I’m afraid at all
It’s only in my dreams.
I’ve got a magic charm
That I keep up my sleeve
I can walk the ocean floor
And never have to breathe.
Life doesn’t frighten me at all
Not at all
Not at all.
Life doesn’t frighten me at all.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Angelou, Maya. 1993. LIFE DOESN’T FRIGHTEN ME. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 1556702884
EXTENSION
The beginning verses of “Life Doesn’t Frighten Me at All” are all rhyming couplets, followed by the sentence refrain, “Life doesn’t frighten me at all.” Begin working with a partner on a couplet about something a teenager fears, and work to make it rhyme. Try to find or draw an illustration that captures the mood of the couplet. Then we will bind the pages together in a picture poetry book for class.
Photo courtesy of http://images.google.com/.
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