ON THE PULSE OF

MORNING
Published in 1993
Maya Angelou
WHAT IS THE POEM ABOUT?
GLOBAL AREA
Science, technology and the
environment 
CONTEXTUAL FACTORS
■ American people must confront their history of slavery, colonialism, and environmental
destruction
■ Angelou was also a prominent civil rights activist and served on two different U.S.
presidential committees.
■ Bill Clinton asked her to write and perform a poem at his presidential inauguration in
January 1993.
THEMES
1. The importance of facing the past
2. Unity and responsibility
 is a reference to the stock symbol of literature, morning. It
symbolizes hope and advancement. Therefore, the essence of
the poem, though covered by layers of meanings, deals with
hope for a better future.

’On the pulse of morning’

The poem aims to inspire in its audience a sense of unity and

responsibility towards other people and the planet. Pulse
essentially means throb rhythmically; therefore encourages the
readers to begin their life with hope and confidence ”on the
pulse of morning.”
 The asyndeton implies that there is no hierarchy here; these
The rock doesn’t represent a singular rock but elements are equals, and together, they gesture to the earth as a
symbolizes all the stones on earth. The river is symbolic
of all bodies of water on earth. And the tree connotes
A Rock, A River, A Tree whole. That they together comprise the first line seems to
emphasize the fact that the earth was here long before the various
wisdom, age, growth, life, shelter, and so forth.  Hosts to species long since departed, species who would come to occupy it, and long after those
species disappeared.
Marked the mastodon.
The alliteration present in these lines adds
The dinosaur, who left dry tokens musicality to the poem and also subtly draws
attention to the relationship between the departed
The speaker describes these species' existence as a
"sojourn," emphasizing the brevity of their time on Of their sojourn here species and the earth itself
the earth in the grand scheme of things. 
On our planet floor,
Any broad alarm of their hastening doom The cross rhyme between "doom" and "gloom" in
Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages. the seems to imply a relationship between the ruin
of an entire species and the "gloom" (or darkness)
of ignorance. 

But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly,

forcefully,
Come, you may stand upon my
The antithesis present in these lines does a lot of work in
this section, as having "Back" and "face" occupy the same Back and face your distant destiny, alliteration
line emphasizes the relationship between facing the past The rock alerts everyone by saying it will provide
and facing the future. But seek no haven in my shadow. no recourse as it did. Its “shadow” symbolizes
ignorance and darkness in society.

I will give you no hiding place down here.

 The assonance of the letter ‘o’ evokes a
feeling of low self esteem and a dark
You, created only a little lower than time.
The angels, have crouched too long in
The phrase "Face down" refers not to a literal hiding, but a
metaphorical one: it implies shame and cowardice, a lack of The bruising darkness,
courage.
Have lain too long
Face down in ignorance.
The poem employs the metaphor of words being "armed for
slaughter" to say people cannot even speak to each other
without the intent to harm, dehumanize, destroy.
Your mouths spilling words
Armed for slaughter. The speaker again describes the earth as
"crying out." Through this use
of personification, the poet allows the
earth to speak for itself. 
The Rock cries out to us today, you may stand upon me,
But do not hide your face.
The repetition of the phrase "you may stand" and the
repetition of no longer hiding allows the poet to again

The alliteration of /w/ sounds in ”wall" and Across the wall of the world, emphasize key points in the poem. It is important to
remember here that this poem was always meant to be heard
”world" emphasize that there is a relationship
between the idea of a wall and the idea of the
A River sings a beautiful song, aloud.

world. It says come rest here by my side.

The speaker continues to personify the River, again
allowing it to speak as if it were a person. 
Each of you a bordered country,
Delicate and strangely made proud,
Yet thrusting perpetually under siege.
 The parallelism present draws a comparison between the River's shore
and a mother's breast. It implies that, similar to a breast given to a
baby, the River's shore contains nourishment, sustenance. Your armed struggles for profit
Have left collars of waste upon
My shore, currents of debris upon my breast.
Yet, today I call you to my riverside,
If you will study war no more. Come,
The polysyndeton gives the passage momentum as
well as underlining the sense of unity the River is
trying to convey.  Clad in peace and I will sing the songs
The Creator gave to me when I and the
Tree and the rock were one.
Before cynicism was a bloody sear across your
Brow and when you yet knew you still
the word "collar" brings with it
connotations of constriction and
ownership, rather than freedom
and equality.
The alliteration creates a resonance
between the three words, as if by
"wearing" peacefulness people might
emulate God.
This metaphor speaks to the counter
productiveness of distrusting one
another's motives. 

The presence of diacope (the repetition of "sings") here Knew nothing.

serves a different purpose: there is a steadiness to the
River's song; it has always sung this song and it always
will. It is consistent because it is true. The River sing and sings on.

There is a true yearning to respond to

The singing River and the wise Rock.
 The listing of peoples has a rhythm to it as
well. The asyndeton throughout pushes the
reader forward, creating momentum and
So say the Asian, the Hispanic, the Jew suggesting that the list could be endless.
The African, the Native American, the Sioux,
The Catholic, the Muslim, the French, the Greek
The Irish, the Rabbi, the Priest, the Sheikh,
The Gay, the Straight, the Preacher,
The privileged, the homeless, the Teacher.
These six lines follow a rhyme scheme of
AABBCC. In a poem that is mostly unrhymed, They all hear Diacope is evident with the use of repetition
emphasizing the clarity of the earth's
these lines thus stand out.
The speaking of the Tree. message. The only word intervening in the
repetition of "They hear" is the word
"all" indicating the earth speaks equally to
everyone.
They hear the first and last of every Tree
Speak to humankind today. Come to me, here beside the River.

Plant yourself beside the River.

Each of you, descendant of some passed The term "paid for" may even be an allusion to the
Christian belief that Jesus died for the sins of all
On traveler, has been paid for. humankind, so that they may be saved.
The use of anaphora with the repetition of “you” seems like
a way of acknowledging these peoples who have so often
gone unacknowledged, of drawing attention to the fact that You, who gave me my first name, you
they knew and honored this part of the earth long before
Europeans came and forced them to leave "on bloody feet." Pawnee, Apache, Seneca, you
Cherokee Nation, who rested with me, then
Forced on bloody feet, left me to the employment of
Other seekers–desperate for gain,
Starving for gold.

You, the Turk, the Arab, the Swede, the German, the Eskimo, the Scot …
You the Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru, bought
Sold, stolen, arriving on a nightmare The end rhyme between "Scot" and
Praying for a dream. "bought" really emphasizes this
difference in experience

Here, root yourselves beside me. The word "dream" seems to be an allusion to

the American Dream—America's ideal of equal
opportunity for all.
The anaphora reflects that the Rock, the River, and the Tree are I am that Tree planted by the River,
all individual voices yet it is a whole and unified earth which is
speaking, an "I" rather than a "we." Which will not be moved.

The capitalization of "Passages" likely

being an allusion to the Middle Passage,
I, the Rock, I the River, I the Tree
the part of the slave trade in which
enslaved Africans were carried in ships
I am yours–your Passages have been paid.
across the Atlantic ocean to America.
 Morning becomes a symbol for a bright and
unified future, a future in which Americans
have taken responsibility for their past in
order to never repeat it. 
Lift up your faces, you have a piercing need
For this bright morning dawning for you.
History, despite its wrenching pain,
Cannot be unlived, but if faced
The imperfect rhyme adds some emphasis to
the speaker's point that repeating the past can
be avoided by owning up to it. 

With courage, need not be lived again.

Again “day” is a symbol of the future available to Americans
(and all of humanity) if they will only commit to change and
growth, setting aside the competition and greed of their past in
favor of working together for the well-being of all.
The metaphor of giving birth illustrates the
difficulty of remaking the dream. 
The alliteration draws attention to the relationship between
the difference of the two words and seems to imply that the
"Private" and the "public" are not so separate after all, that
they are interdependent.
Lift up your eyes upon
This day breaking for you.
This is again an allusion to the American Dream .
Give birth again
To the dream.
This imagery holding the dream in the palms of their
Women, children, men, hands—speaks both to the care and attentiveness
required in holding a baby, as well as to the malleability
Take it into the palms of your hands. of dreams, the fact that they can always be shaped anew.
Mold it into the shape of your most The imagery of molding and sculpting
evokes someone working with clay. This is
Private need. Sculpt it into earthy imagery, speaking again to the
The image of your most public self. connection between human being and the
earth they inhabit.
Lift up your hearts

The parallelism present in these lines, which feature the
same grammatical structure, points to the fundamental
relationship between fear and brutishness. 
the assonance of long /ay/ sounds creates a
sense of pleasure which the listener or
reader might feel as evocative of hope.
The shift from "a" to "the” reflects the fact that
listeners are now familiar with these characters, and
underscores that they are meant to symbolically
stand in for something more than themselves, for the
earth as a whole.  No less to Midas than the mendicant.
Each new hour holds new chances
For new beginnings.
Do not be wedded forever
To fear, yoked eternally
To brutishness.
The horizon leans forward,
Offering you space to place new steps of change.
Here, on the pulse of this fine day
You may have the courage
To look up and out and upon me, the
Rock, the River, the Tree, your country.
No less to you now than the mastodon then.
The presence of diacope here with the repetition of the
word "new" places emphasis on the need for Americans
to create something which has never existed before: a
truly responsible and unified country.
The metaphor of the forward-leaning horizon
reflects the dawning of a new day, of time and
progress moving ahead. That feeling of potential
is echoed by the sound of these lines. 
The metaphor here evokes the sense of blood-
flowing through the day's veins. In other words,
the day is awake, ready and eager to get started.
 Allusion to a figure from Greek mythology who turned
everything he touched to gold. In other words, those
who have nothing are just as much a part of this vision
as people who have acquired fortunes.
 Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, and into
Your brother’s face, your country The repetition of the word ‘simply’ emphasizes this
And say simply simplicity, this ease.
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.