We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
Love arrives
and in its train come ecstasies
old memories of pleasure
ancient histories of pain.
Yet if we are bold,
love strikes away the chains of fear
from our souls.
We are weaned from our timidity
In the flush of love's light
we dare be brave
And suddenly we see
that love costs all we are
and will ever be.
Yet it is only love
which sets us free.
“Have enough courage to trust love one more time and always one more time.”(Maya Angelou). Maya Angelou has this idea of love and courage that she uses time and time again, even in the poem Touched By An Angel. Love and courage are two ideas that are difficult to achieve and difficult to portray, but when done right, can have the greatest effect on so many people.
Life is empty without it and life is a blessing with it: Love. In each stanza of the poem, Angelou describes life with and without love. In the first stanza, Angelou talks of life before love, the second is of life when love arrives, and the third is of life with love. At first, Angelou describes the love deficient people being alone and afraid, with nothing to hold onto. Those people are "unaccustomed to courage" and they are nowhere near delight. When love finally arrives in the second stanza, they feel emotion again and, if courageous enough, they can learn to life freely again. With this love, in the third stanza, it makes people better, but only with sacrifice of ourselves unto others. We learn from Angelou that in the end, life is incomplete without love, and even with love, sacrifice is necessary.
Even with the free verse, Angelou's poem is effortlessly flowing. The symbols and metaphors tangle within the poem to create an illusion of life and love. "Exiles of delight" proves how we are accustomed to that delight, but it is no longer among us due to the lack of love; this perfectly leads into the next line, telling of how we live in "coiled shells of loneliness" where the shells represent our small and lonely world. At this point, love needs to come find us, so leave its "high holy temple", which represents the greatness or even the highness that love portrays. When we finally find love, we decide to break away from the "chains of fear", those chains representing the fear that is holding us back from doing what really makes us great and that is sacrificing, loving, and being loved.
Touched By An Angel depicts love in a new light, telling a story of how love and courage are the only two things we really need in order to live a life fully and happily.
Life is empty without it and life is a blessing with it: Love. In each stanza of the poem, Angelou describes life with and without love. In the first stanza, Angelou talks of life before love, the second is of life when love arrives, and the third is of life with love. At first, Angelou describes the love deficient people being alone and afraid, with nothing to hold onto. Those people are "unaccustomed to courage" and they are nowhere near delight. When love finally arrives in the second stanza, they feel emotion again and, if courageous enough, they can learn to life freely again. With this love, in the third stanza, it makes people better, but only with sacrifice of ourselves unto others. We learn from Angelou that in the end, life is incomplete without love, and even with love, sacrifice is necessary.
Even with the free verse, Angelou's poem is effortlessly flowing. The symbols and metaphors tangle within the poem to create an illusion of life and love. "Exiles of delight" proves how we are accustomed to that delight, but it is no longer among us due to the lack of love; this perfectly leads into the next line, telling of how we live in "coiled shells of loneliness" where the shells represent our small and lonely world. At this point, love needs to come find us, so leave its "high holy temple", which represents the greatness or even the highness that love portrays. When we finally find love, we decide to break away from the "chains of fear", those chains representing the fear that is holding us back from doing what really makes us great and that is sacrificing, loving, and being loved.
Touched By An Angel depicts love in a new light, telling a story of how love and courage are the only two things we really need in order to live a life fully and happily.