Maya Angelou's "Remembrance"

Welcome to a new edition of The Insight Newsletter, your dedicated resource for mastering English literature. This week, we delve into a poem that contrasts sharply with Maya Angelou's "Remembrance."

This piece is a masterclass in sensual intimacy and the profound ache of absence. It moves beyond simple passion to explore the complex psychological landscape of love, memory, and longing. Designed for students at all levels, this guide will break down the poem's intricate imagery, structure, and themes with academic rigour and clarity, providing you with the essential tools for critical analysis and essay writing.

Let's explore the haunting beauty of "Remembrance."

A Critical Analysis of Maya Angelou's Love Poem "Remembrance"

The Poet - Maya Angelou (1928-2014)

While Angelou is globally celebrated for her autobiographies and civil rights activism, her poetry showcases an equally powerful range. From the resilient anthem "Still I Rise" to the tender vulnerability of "Remembrance," her work demonstrates a profound understanding of the human condition.

• A Voice of Many Layers: Angelou's writing is often associated with themes of survival, identity, and liberation against societal oppression. "Remembrance" reveals a more private, interior world, proving her literary scope encompasses the universal personal experiences of love and desire.

• The Power of Sensory Language: Her background as a performer infuses her poetry with a rhythmic, almost physical quality. In "Remembrance," this translates into language that appeals directly to the senses—touch, smell, and sight—creating an intensely immersive experience for the reader.

The Poem in Full

Remembrance by Maya Angelou

Your hands easy weight,
teasing the bees hived in my hair,
your smile at the slope of my cheek.
On the occasion, you press above me,
glowing, spouting readiness,
mystery rapes my reason.

When you have withdrawn
your self and the magic,
when only the smell of your love
lingers between my breasts,
then, only then, can I greedily consume
your presence.

Poem Summary

In a Nutshell: "Remembrance" captures a single, intimate encounter, focusing on the moments during and, more significantly, after a lover's presence. The poem argues that true, conscious appreciation of the beloved occurs not in the overwhelming heat of the moment, but in the quiet, hungry reflection that follows their absence.

Stanza-by-Stanza Paraphrase:

• Stanza 1 (Lines 1-6): The Act of Love

• Paraphrase: The speaker describes her lover's physical presence: the gentle weight of his hands, the sensation of his touch in her hair that feels like teasing a hive of bees, and his smile against her cheek. In the moment of passion, he is above her, radiant and full of energy. This intensity is so powerful that the "mystery" of the experience completely overpowers her logical mind.

• Stanza 2 (Lines 7-12): The Act of Remembering

• Paraphrase: After the lover has gone, taking his physical being and the immediate "magic" with him, a trace remains—the scent of his love on her skin. It is in this state of absence, the poem concludes, that the speaker can fully and greedily absorb the essence of his "presence," suggesting that memory allows for a deeper, more personal consumption of the experience than the moment itself.

Critical Appreciation & Analysis

"Remembrance" is a poem of powerful juxtapositions. It contrasts presence with absence, overwhelming sensation with conscious reflection, and surrender with reclaiming of self.

• The Paradox of Presence: The poem's central argument is a paradox: we can only truly "consume" a person's presence once they have become an absence. During the intimate act, the speaker's "reason" is "raped"—she is passive, overwhelmed. It is only in the aftermath that she becomes an active participant, "greedily consum[ing]" the memory.

• Shift in Tense and Tone: The poem is neatly divided into two parts by a shift in tense.

• First Stanza: Uses the present tense, placing us directly in the intense, unfolding moment.

• Second Stanza: Shifts to the future perfect tense ("When you have withdrawn"), creating a reflective, yearning tone. This structural divide mirrors the thematic divide between the experience and the memory.

Major Themes Explored

• Sensuality vs. Reason: The poem explores the conflict between physical passion and rational thought. The lover's "mystery rapes my reason," indicating a complete surrender of the intellect to the body's sensations. The return to reason is only possible after the lover withdraws.

• Presence and Absence: The core of the poem is an examination of how absence defines presence. The lover's physical being is described in the first stanza, but his true "presence" is only understood as a mental and emotional concept in the second stanza, once he is gone.

• Memory and Longing: The title, "Remembrance," points to the central act of the poem. Love is not just felt in the moment but is actively processed and cherished through memory. The "smell of your love" is a sensory trigger for this act of nostalgic, hungry remembrance.

Character Sketch (The Speaker)

• A Sensual and Reflective Persona: The speaker is deeply embodied, highly attuned to physical sensations—the "easy weight" of hands, the feeling of bees in her hair, a lingering smell. This sensuality is matched by her capacity for deep reflection.

• From Passivity to Agency: In the first stanza, she is the recipient of action ("you press above me"). Her reason is passive, being "raped." In the second stanza, she reclaims agency. She is the active subject: "I greedily consume." This shift is crucial, showing how she transforms a moment of surrender into an act of personal power through memory.

Literary and Technical Terminology 

This section defines and applies the key literary devices that make this poem so powerful.

• Imagery

• Explanation: Language that appeals to the senses (sight, sound, touch, taste, smell). It creates a vivid mental picture and physical experience for the reader.

• Application in the Poem: Angelou uses rich, tactile imagery ("hands easy weight," "slope of my cheek"), olfactory imagery ("smell of your love"), and visual imagery ("glowing") to build a fully immersive sensual experience.

• Metaphor

• Explanation: A figure of speech that makes a direct comparison between two unrelated things, stating that one thing is another to suggest a shared quality.

• Application in the Poem: The line "teasing the bees hived in my hair" is a complex metaphor. The lover's hands in her hair are compared to teasing a hive of bees. This suggests a sensation that is simultaneously sweet (like honey), agitated, buzzing with energy, and potentially dangerous or overwhelming.

• Juxtaposition

• Explanation: A literary technique where the author places two or more ideas, places, characters, or actions side by side to highlight their differences or contrasts.

• Application in the Poem: The entire poem is built on a structural juxtaposition. The intense, overwhelming physicality of the first stanza is placed directly beside the quiet, sensory absence of the second stanza. This contrast deepens the impact of both.

• Paradox

• Explanation: A statement that seems self-contradictory or logically absurd but, upon closer inspection, reveals a deeper truth.

• Application in the Poem: The central idea of the poem is a paradox: "then, only then, can I greedily consume your presence." The speaker can only truly possess and devour the lover's presence once he is physically absent. This contradicts logic but reveals a profound truth about memory and desire.

• Diction

• Explanation: The conscious choice of words and style of expression by an author. The diction creates the tone and impacts the meaning.

• Application in the Poem: Angelou's diction shifts between the stanzas. The first uses words of pressure and force ("press," "rapes"), while the second uses words of lingering and consumption ("lingers," "greedily consume"). This careful word choice charts the speaker's emotional journey.

• Synesthesia

• Explanation: A literary device where one kind of sensory experience is described in terms of another (e.g., "a loud colour" or "a sweet sound").

• Application in the Poem: The phrase "the smell of your love" is a subtle form of synesthesia. Love is an abstract emotion, but it is given a physical property (a smell) that can linger. This blends the emotional with the sensory, making the abstract concept of love tangible and persistent.

Famous Excerpt & Its Significance

"then, only then, can I greedily consume / your presence."

• Why it's Significant: This is the poem's powerful, concluding thesis. It encapsulates the central paradox and delivers its emotional payload. The adverb "greedily" is particularly potent, conveying a deep, almost desperate hunger that could not be satisfied in the moment of actual contact.

• Analysis: This excerpt marks the speaker's transition from a passive recipient to an active consumer. "Consume" suggests a deep, internalising process—making the lover a part of herself through memory, an act that can only be performed in solitude.

Important Key Points for Revision & Essays

• The poem explores the paradox of absence, arguing that we truly appreciate a presence only once it is gone.

• The speaker undergoes a journey from passive sensation to active, greedy consumption.

• Key metaphors like "bees hived in my hair" create complex, multi-sensory images.

• The structure is built on a clear juxtaposition between the two stanzas, marked by a shift in tense.

• The diction is carefully chosen to move from words of pressure and mystery to words of lingering and hunger.

• The title, "Remembrance," is the central action of the poem, framing the entire experience as an act of memory.

Conclusion

"Remembrance" is a testament to Maya Angelou's profound understanding of the human heart. It moves beyond a simple depiction of a sexual encounter to explore the intricate psychology of intimacy. The poem suggests that the fullness of love is not merely in its physical expression but in the private, sacred space of memory that follows, where the self can process, own, and greedily consume the essence of the other. It is a quiet, yet deeply powerful, exploration of how love endures and is transformed by absence.

Keywords

• Maya Angelou Remembrance analysis

• Love and absence in poetry

• Sensuality in Maya Angelou's poems

• Literary devices in Remembrance

• Cambridge poetry revision notes

• Metaphor and imagery in poetry