Contemporary Announcement
Ring the big bells,
cook the cow,
put on your silver locket.
The landlord is knocking at the door
and I’ve got the rent in my pocket.
Douse the lights,
hold your breath,
take my heart in your hand.
I lost my job two weeks ago
and rent day is here again.
Contemporary Announcement displays how Maya
Angelou expresses her feelings about having enough money to pay rent. Maya
writes about a lady trying to hold on to her rent money, so she gets dressed
up because her landlord. In the poem it states, “ Take my heart cook a cow,
put on your silver locket.” That really tells me that she was just trying
to butter the landlord, so that she
wouldn’t have to pay the rent.
On Aging
When you see me sitting
quietly,
Like a sack left on the shelf,
Don't think I need your chattering.
I'm listing to myself.
Hold! Stop! Don't pity me!
Hold! Stop your sympathy!
Understanding if you got it,
Otherwise I'll so without it!
When my bones are stiff
and aching,
and my feet won't climb the stair,
I will only ask one favor:
Don't bring me no rocking chair.
When you see me walking,
stumbling,
Don't study and get it wrong.
'Cause tired don't mean lazy
And every goodbye ain't gone.
I'm the same person I was back then,
A little less hair, a little less chin,
A lot less lungs and much less wind.
But ain't I lucky I can still breathe in.
In On Aging by Maya Angelou talks about the effects on aging with how her personality will never change. Maya expresses how she doesn't want anybody to cut her any slack or pity because she's getting older now.
"When my bones are stiff and aching
And my feet won't climb the stair,
I will only ask one favor:
Don't bring me no rocking chair."
Maya writes this in her poem because, she feels as though her figure may has but her personality hasn't.