“Harlem Hopscotch”

1. “Harlem Hopscotch” Paige Arcand

2. Maya Angelou Life • born April 4, 1928 in in St. Louis • raised by her maternal grandmother after the divorce of her parents she left from a disturbing and oppressive childhood • As a black girl growing up in a world whose boundaries were set by whites, Angelou learned pride and self-confidence from her grand-mother • the author’s self-image was shattered when she was raped at the age of eight by her mother’s boyfriend so devastated by the attack that she refused to speak for approximately five years • She finally emerged from her self-imposed silence with the help of a schoolteacher who introduced her to the world’s great literature

3. Influences • By the time she was thirty, Angelou had made a commitment to becoming a writer. • Inspired by her friendship with the author John Killens, she moved to Brooklyn to be near him and to learn her craft.

4. Poetry Unique • made a commitment to promote black civil rights in her poems she writes alot about the struggle of colored people

5. Harlem Hopscotch Poem One foot down, then hop! It’s hot. Good things for the ones that’s got. Another jump, now to the left. Everybody for hisself. In the air, now both feet down. Since you black, don’t stick around. Food is gone, the rent is due, Curse and cry and then jump two. All the people out of work, Hold for three, then twist and jerk. Cross the line, they count you out. That’s what hopping’s all about. Both feet flat, the game is done. They think I lost. I think I won.

6. Poetic Device 1 • metaphor • She tells how colored people don’t get the education they deserve because in line 4 she uses the word of "hisself"

7. Poetic Device 2 • Imagery and alliteration • She describes how if a person is black the only choice is to keep moving

8. Poetic Device 3 • Metaphor and rhyme • Game might be done but she’s still going to win

9. Theme of poem The theme is addressed to an Africa-American child in the city, and it gives the reader a sense of both aspects of this personality in the words that it uses. Because the child aspect is like children everywhere, following a rhyming chant to play the universally known game of hopscotch and The directions—“now to the left,” “Then jump two”—are part of the game, and the simplicity of the directions are the source of the game’s continuing popularity

10. Work cited "Harlem Hopscotch." Poetry for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski and Mary Ruby. Vol. 2. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 92-101. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 29 May 2014