The Heart of a Woman
by Georgia Douglas Johnson
 
 
The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn, 
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on, 
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam 
In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home. 
 
The heart of a woman falls back with the night, 
And enters some alien cage in its plight, 
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars 
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.  
 

 

  

Today's poem is in the public domain. 

About This Poem
The first poem in her volume of the same name, "The Heart of a Woman," imagines a type of feminist liberation through metaphor. Maya Angelou's fourth autobiography, The Heart of a Woman, takes its title from this Johnson poem. The 133rd anniversary of Johnson's birth is Tuesday.  
Work by Johnson

(Nabu Press, 2010)

 

Poem-A-Day
Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on 
weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.  
September 8, 2013

Georgia Douglas Johnson was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on September 10, 1880. A prolific member of the Harlem Renaissance, Johnson wrote poetry that explored romantic and sentimental traditions and ideas. Johnson died in 1966.
Related Poems
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by Maya Angelou
by Anne Sexton

 
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