INTERPRETING A POEM: PRACTICE

Maya Angelou
Refusal

Beloved,
In what other lives or lands
Have I known your lips
Your Hands
Your Laughter brave
Irreverent.
Those sweet excesses that
I do adore.
What surety is there
That we will meet again,
On other worlds some
Future time undated.
I defy my body's haste.
Without the promise
Of one more sweet encounter
I will not deign to die.



How to Understand the Poem:

As stated in the first line of this poem ‘beloved’, I know that it tells us about love. On the next lines, the writer shows how she admire and remember her beloved one, as it is stated ‘Have I known your lips/ Your Hands/ Your Laughter brave’ and ‘Those sweet excesses that/ I do adore.’. Then, there is an element of optimism in ‘What surety is there/ That we will meet again,/ On other worlds some/ Future time undated.’ The writer also shows her patience to wait for her beloved, as in ‘I defy my body's haste’. Then, in the end, she relates her message with the title of this poem Refusal with expression ‘…. I will not deign to die’.