While Angelou might not be known for her love poems as much as she is for her inspirational and uplifting poems, readers are certain to enjoy the passion and love that fills the sixteen lines of this poem. It’s a strong declaration that ends with a refusal to die until her connection to her partner is set in stone for the next life.
In order to better understand this poem, readers should really focus on the words that Angelou puts emphasis on. IN a poem this short, it's all the more important to know exactly why Angelou used the words she did.
Explore Refusal
- Summary
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Detailed Analysis
- Similar Poetry
Summary
‘Refusal’ by Maya Angelou is an incredibly emotional poem that expresses a speaker’s desire to know, without a doubt, that she will be with her beloved in the next life before she dies.
In the first half of the poem, the speaker uses a rhetorical question to speak about how much she loves her partner in her life. They’re her beloved, and she knows that they’ve met and loved one another in other lives.
In the second half of the poem, she indicates that until she gets some kind of promise that they’ll be together in the next life, she refuses to die.She expresses her extreme devotion to this person and her intense desire to spend every future life with them.
The Poem Analysis Take
Expert Insights by Emma Baldwin
B.A. English (Minor: Creative Writing), B.F.A. Fine Art, B.A. Art Histories
While this isn't Maya Angelou's best-known poem, it does demonstrate a degree of romantic devotion that is not always prevalent in her more popular poems. For this reason, readers may find themselves connecting to this poem in a way that's unusual for readers of her verse.
Structure and Form
‘Refusal’ by Maya Angelou is a sixteen-line poem that is contained within a single stanza. The poem is written in free verse, something that’s very common in Angelou’s poetry and throughout contemporary verse. Despite the lack of a rhyme scheme or metrical pattern, the poet uses rhythmic repetition and repeated sounds in order to make the poem sound more musical.
Free verse is an incredibly common choice for Maya Angelou in her writing. She often wrote in this style in order to maintain a more colloquial feeling in the lines and even create a conversation-style narrative.
Literary Devices
In this poem, the poet makes use of a few different literary devices. For example:
- Anaphora: This is seen when the poet repeats the same word or phrase at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “Your” at the beginning of lines four and five.
- Enjambment: This is seen when the poet cuts off a line before its natural stopping point. For example, the transition between lines two, three, and four.
- Alliteration: This is seen when the poet repeats the same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple lines. For example, “lives or lands” in line three and “we will” in line ten.
- Personification: This occurs when the poet imbues something non-human with human characteristics. For example, “body’s haste.”
Detailed Analysis
Lines 1-8
Beloved,
(…)
I do adore.
In the first lines of the poem, the poet’s speaker, who is likely the poet herself, asks a rhetorical question. She’s addressing her “Beloved.” This is someone she loves desperately, and she demonstrates this by thinking about how it feels like she’s known and touched this person in other “lives or lands.”
She feels like they’ve been together as lovers forever, perhaps meeting each other at other times and in other places. Carrying on these feelings of love in the next lines, she speaks of the brave, irreverent sound of “Your Laughter” and the feeling of “Your Hands.”
These are the “sweet excesses,” or the extra parts of their relationship with one another, that she adores. They aren’t who this person is, but they are an extra part of him that she loves deeply.
Lines 9-16
What surety is there
(…)
I will not deign to die.
In the second half of the poem, there is another rhetorical question. Here, she wonders what chance there is (alluding that there’s a high one) that she’ll meet this person again in another life. She believes this is going to be the case but is determined that she’ll get some kind of “promise” that they’ll meet again. Otherwise, she’s not going to “deign to die.”
She’s declaring here that she’s not going to die until she knows for sure that she’ll be with this person she loves in the next life. Otherwise, she’ll keep on living.The determination in these lines is one of the most important parts of the poem. She knows that there’s nothing she won’t do to be with this person and is so strong in this belief she feels she can overcome death.
Similar Poetry
Readers who enjoyed this poem might also like these other Maya Angelou poems. For example:
- ‘The Lesson‘ – begins the poem by claiming that she has died already, more than once, and that she will keep on dying.
- ‘A Conceit‘ – in this poem, the poet indicates she is interested in a relationship that is real and tangible.
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