Maya Angelou

The Couple

The Couple - meaning Summary

Identity Stripped to Essentials

The poem imagines removing fear, hate and greed to reveal what people really are beneath social roles and pretenses. Through a series of questions it strips away romanticized and degraded images of women and men, showing how vices distort identity and exile basic kindness. The result is a bleak, communal portrait: when destructive emotions are discarded, human dignity and shared mortality remain as the poem's central truths.

Read Complete Analyses

Discard the fear and what was she? Of rag and bones a mimicry of woman's fairy-ness Archaic at its birth. Discharge the hate and when was he? Disheveled moans a mimesis of man's estate deceited for its worth. Dissolve the greed and why were they? Enfeebled thrones a memory of mortal kindliness exiled from this earth.

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