Man Bigot - Analysis

A nursery-rhyme joke with a real accusation inside

This tiny poem works like a clipped, sing-song curse: it declares the bigot the worst thing in God’s creation, then twists the knife by saying there’s only one rival for that title. The central claim is blunt—bigotry is not just a flaw but a moral catastrophe—but Angelou delivers it with a comic snap, as if to show how ordinary and repeatable prejudice can feel when it’s been made into habit.

The turn: from bigot to Ms. Begot

The poem’s turn happens at except his match. For three lines the speaker points a finger at The man who is a bigot, then suddenly widens the target to his woman, crowned with the punning name Ms. Begot. That name matters: it sounds like beget, hinting at how prejudice is produced and passed on, not only chosen. The joke makes the accusation portable—bigotry can be a family project, a couple’s shared language, something reproduced in the home as efficiently as a rhyme.

A sharp tension: condemning prejudice without creating a new prejudice

There’s an uncomfortable contradiction here: the poem condemns the bigot as the worst thing, but then risks a cheap misogyny by implying the woman is worse. Read narrowly, it could sound like blame-shifting. Read more carefully, the emphasis on his match suggests partnership, not scapegoating: bigotry thrives when it finds company, when one person’s hatred is answered and amplified by another’s. The poem’s bright, almost playground tone makes that darkness more chilling—this is the kind of evil that can be said quickly, laughed at, and taught.