This structured piece uses four elements of life, as described below, to assert a speaker’s determination to live well. She’s going to love men, sail ships, live fully, and acknowledge failure as a part of life. Throughout, the poet maintains an incredibly determined tone that may inspire the reader to feel just as confident in their day-to-day life.
To best understand this poem, consider your first impressions of the four topics Angelou addresses: ships, men, life, and failure. What do these things have in common, and how do they differ? What traits does one need to call themselves “successful” in each category?
Explore Call Letters: Mrs V.B.
- Summary
- Structure and Form
- Literary Devices
- Detailed Analysis
Summary
‘Call Letters: Mrs V.B.’ by MayaAngelou is a declaration of a certain way of living and dealing with adversity.
Through the four stanzas, the speaker addresses and talks about four parts of life. She speaks about ships, men, life itself, and failure. These things seem disconnected, but they’re used as a way of declaring the speaker’s intentions to embrace life without fear. She knows that failure happens, and she’s not afraid to admit that she’s failed, but she doesn’t make a habit of it.
The Poem Analysis Take
Expert Insights by Emma Baldwin
B.A. English (Minor: Creative Writing), B.F.A. Fine Art, B.A. Art Histories
This is, at its heart, a poem about not fearing life. The speaker addresses four elements of life in a way that leaves little doubt in this person’s abilities and confidence level.
Structure and Form
‘Call Letters: Mrs V.B.’ by MayaAngelou is a four-stanza poem that uses sets of five lines, known as quintains, except for the final stanza, which only has four lines (making it a quatrain). These stanzas are short and easy to read. Some have as few as one word in each line, but the majority are four to five lines long.
The poem uses a consistent rhyme scheme throughout. The third and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme, and generally, the second and fifth lines are exact rhymes (meaning that the poet used the same word at the end of the lines).
Literary Devices
In this poem, the poet makes use of a few different literary devices. For example:
- Epistrophe: This is seen when the poet repeats the same word or phrase at the end of multiple lines. For example, “them,” which ends three lines throughout the poem, and “it,” which ends five lines throughout the poem.
- Anaphora: This is another form of repetition that occurs when the poet repeats the same word or phrase at the beginning of lines. For example, “If” and “I.”
- Sibilance: This is seen when the poet repeats the same “s” sound multiple times. For example, “ships? / Sure” and “show” at the start of lines one, two, and three in stanza one.
Detailed Analysis
Stanza One
Ships?
Sure I’ll sail them.
Show me the boat,
If it’ll float,
I’ll sail it.
In the first lines of this poem, the speaker begins with a rhetorical question. This is a one-word question (something that’s seen at the beginning of each stanza). In this case, the first word is “Ships.” Here, the speaker imagines being asked to sail ships and if she would be prepared to do so.
Her answer is confident and comes without pause. She declares that she’d be able to sail any boat that floats. There is repetition in these lines, seen when the use of the same consonant sounds as well as entire words, like “it” and “sail.” There is no hesitation in these lines, either. They are to the point in a way that was certainly intentional.
Stanza Two
Men?
(…)
I’ll love them.
The same pattern plays out in the second stanza. Here, the speaker is addressing the idea of “Men” and how she’ll handle them. She states that she’ll love them but only if they “got the style” and know how to make her smile. She repeats the phrase “I’ll love them” at the end of this stanza, connecting “them” at the ends of lines two and five, as well.
It seems the speaker is as confident about dealing with men as she is with sailing ships, life, and failure (as seen in the next stanzas). She’s approaching life with a positive and confident attitude.
Stanza Three
Life?
(…)
And I’ll live it.
Life is the subject of the third stanza. Here, the speaker declares that she’s going to live her life and breathe until she passes away. She’s indicating that she’s not going to let life pass her by. She’s going to take advantage of her opportunities and live until her final moment.
Stanza Four
Failure?
(…)
Not failure.
The final stanza is slightly different than those which came before. It’s only four lines long and deals with something negative—failure. Here, the speaker says that she’s not ashamed to admit that she’s failed. This isn’t something that scares her as she, presumably, knows its important for growth.
The speaker also adds that she “never learned to spell” failure. Here, she’s indicating that while she has failed, it’s not something that she’s intimately familiar with. Failure isn’t something that happens so often that she needs to know how to spell it.
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