I keep on dying again.
Veins collapse, opening like the
Small fists of sleeping
Children.
Memory of old tombs,
Rotting flesh and worms do
Not convince me against
The challenge. The years
And cold defeat live deep in
Lines along my face.
They dull my eyes, yet
I keep on dying,
Because I love to live.
It is often challenging to discern structure in a poem, as it can sometimes be confusing at best, if at all clear to the reader. In the poem The Lesson by Maya Angelou, the phenomena of turn and volta have an essential place. To analyze this poem, it is significant to start a conversation about structure in general and turn in particular. Structural analysis is a way to understand a work fully and vividly, as the author intended it, and the reader can interpret it. The analysis of The Lesson reveals that the emotional and dramatic shift, the volta, plays a central role in this piece of poetry. Thus, throughout the poem, the use of volta changes the mood of the work, from melancholic to uplifting, and makes the reader understand why the narrator chooses to live despite the deaths of loved ones.
A turn is a significant shift in rhetorical and dramatic trajectory in poetic structural terms. The turn is of great importance in the sonnet tradition, in which the turn is called by the resounding, telling name volta. The reader’s attention to turns tended to be sporadic rather than systematic. The analysis of the poem’s use of volta is closely connected to the content and images of the work. As such, the idea of collapsing veins passes through volta to the appearance of tiny fists of sleeping children (Angelou). This instance demonstrates the emotional drift between the two images in the initial phase of the poem.
The poem abruptly moves towards something warm and tender from a melancholic, fatalistic tone. At the same moment, the author, through the turn, returns from a moment of warmth back to the images of old tombs, rotting flesh, and worms, denoting the motif of death, decline, and decay (Angelou). This passage about the deaths of loved ones makes the reader understand why the narrator keeps dying. This contrast exemplifies the use of volta as an emotional contrasting device.
However, the clearest appearance of the volta in the poem is in its end. The final transition, along with the result of similar transitions in the past, laconically ends the poem with the phrase “I keep on dying, because I love to live” (Angelou). This last line brings a whole new dimension to this poem. The main part of the poem is devoted to the suffering that the narrator experiences in her life. However, she does not leave the fight. The last line highlights the reason why the narrator does not give up. She loves life, and it helps her overcome pain. Thus, the volta in the poem serves as the primary tool for emotional movement and conveying the idea of the work.
To conclude, the volta is developed through the narrative, the dramatic part of the poem, the dynamic background of which is expressed in the structure. The technique constantly leads the reader from image to image, from thought to thought, preventing them from losing what the author feels and conveys with the poem, namely its core. The Lesson is a profoundly and movingly personal work in which the volta as an instrument guides the reader along the lines, and at the same time, along with the emotional narrative and idea of the poem. The poem’s last line completely reverses its meaning, switching attention from death to life.
Work Cited
Angelou, Maya. “The Lesson.” Amous Poets and Poems.