Equality by Maya Angelou (One Student's Interpretation)

Equality by Maya Angelou

        You declare you see me dimly
        through a glass which will not shine,
        though I stand before you boldly,
        trim in rank and marking time.

        You do own to hear faintly
        as a whisper out of range,
        while my drums beat out the message
        and the rhythms never change.

        Equality, and I will be free.
        Equality, and I will be free.

        You announce my ways are wanton,
        that I fly from man to man,
        but if I'm just a shadow to you,
        could you ever understand?

        We have lived a painful history,
        we know the shameful past,
        but I keep on marching forward,
        and you keep on coming last.

        Equality, and I will be free.
        Equality, and I will be free.

        Take the blinders from your vision,
        take the padding from your ears,
        and confess you've heard me crying,
        and admit you've seen my tears.

        Hear the tempo so compelling,
        hear the blood throb in my veins.
        Yes, my drums are beating nightly,
        and the rhythms never change.

        Equality, and I will be free.
        Equality, and I will be free.

-Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou's poem "Equality" is about the way people see her and treat her, and how she wants to be treated.

She speaks of how she tries to let people see how she is no different from them. People see her as a women who has loose morals and goes from man to man. Society tries not to see her or hear her. She speaks her message loud and clear and her rhythm never changes. But, society stays deaf and blind to anything she says or does.

Maya wants society to treat her equally as everyone else. They look at her equally now, but there are still people out there today who have prejudice views on certain people. Those people are still fighting and they will speak their message loud and clear until the world, as Ms. Angelou says, "takes the blinders from its vision, and the padding from its ears."