The Health-Food Diner by Maya Angelou: A Poet's Satrical Inclination and Doubts About Being a True Carnivore

No sprouted wheat and Soya shoots
and Brussels in a cake,
carrot straw and spinach raw,
today I need a steak.
Not thick brown rice and rice pilau
or mushrooms creamed on toast,
turnips mashed and parsnips hashed,
I'm dreaming of a roast.
Health food folks around the world
are thinned by anxious zeal,
they look for help in seafood kelp
I count on breaded veal.
No smoking signs, raw mustard greens,
and zucchini by the ton,
uncooked kale and bodies' frail
are sure to make me run.
Loins of pork and chicken thighs
and standing rib, so prime,
pork chops brown and fresh ground round
I crave them all the time.
Irish stews and boiled corned beef
and hot dogs by the scores,
or any place that saves a space
for carnivores. smoking
By Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was born Marguerite Johnson. Ms. Angelou is a true renaissance woman. Ms. Angelou is an author, a conductor, poet, historian, actress, singer, songwriter, playwright, film director, and civil rights activist. She was born in a segregated rural area in St. Louis, Arkansas and came from a broken home. She was tragically raped at eight, and was an unwed mother at 16 years old. However, throughout all of these hardships she became San Francisco's first black woman conductor and the first black woman to have an original screenplay produced in 1971, in Georgia. She has written several volumes of poetry about the emancipation, freedom, and the equality of African Americans, most particularly African American women.

I read this poem in College for my American Literature class. It is a different work from her more serious poems in that it is a satirical work about what is accepted in polite society. It is a brilliant reaction to the new wave overly health conscious 80's and new age 90's. Maya Angelou reveals her aversion to health food and her preference to being a carnivore when Ms. Angelou explains, "She will not have spouted wheat and Soya shoots and Brussels in a cake, carrot straw and spinach raw, today, the poet needs a steak."

Ms. Angelou explains she does not need thick brown rice and rice pilaf or mushrooms creamed on toast. Nor does she need mashed turnips and hashed parsnips, instead she is dreaming of a large roast. The author goes on to tell us that health food folks around the world are anxious and happy to be thin to look for help in seafood kelp. She tells us she looks for it in breaded veal. No smoking signs, raw mustard green, zucchini by the ton. The uncooked kale and lean bodies are sure to make her run away.

The pork loins and chicken thighs and prime rib standing. The poet craves pork chops ground round all the time. That she craves Irish stews, broiled corns beefs and hot dogs or any place where smoking carnivores are allowed. The poets' view is she is and always will be a carnivore. She will never succumb to the health food trend. The mood of Ms. Angelou is humorous, as she adamantly declares her biased opinion for being a carnivore. The poet uses this partiality to manipulate the meanings of her words by using paradox metaphors that play on the opinions of health food and carnivore lovers.

The poets' imagery emphasizes her partiality by using the form of implied comparison. The author brilliantly describes being a carnivore as if she is trying to make it seem more appetizing. She utilizes dramatic monologue by reciting the good qualities of health food, being a carnivore and a smoker without a solution. Maya Angelou's poem is a lyrical poem complete with the author's emotions and ideas as she achieves a total integration of the elements to support her opinions.