Musical Devices:

Thesis: Maya Angelou incorporates the usage of musical devices, such as rhyme and anaphora, as well as tone to portray the speaker's deep love for nature's release from her hard labor.

           The use of rhyme scheme in the poem adds a nostalgic and playful tone for the poem. The first 14 lines list the speaker's chores, but they are written in a way that sounds both tedious and playful. The chores themselves are many, but the rhyme scheme and rhythmic meter lighten the burden of the speaker ever so slightly. The rhyme scheme changes from AABB to ABAB, and the rhythm becomes less simple and even. The shift shows how the speaker's feelings become more complicated as she thinks of the ways in which she enjoys herself. For her, the chores are automatic and stand as obstacles that keep her from letting go. The beauty of nature is the only source of comfort for her. By using anaphora, she emphasizes her need to indulge into happiness. She prays, "Rain on me, rain" (16). The urgency to be released from the tedious and monotonous chores can be explained by observing the evenly monotonous writing in the first 14 lines. The chores are void of any emotional excitement. The speaker can only look forward to the way nature comforts, for nature is all that is left that holds no grudges or prejudices. Nature also has no schedule or strictness--it's essence is free-flowing, spontaneous, and pure. Thus it is so that the the speaker feels that nature is "all that I can call my own" (30).