This was from a speech similar to what we heard.
Angelou continued by stating the importance of making poetry an integral part of
everyone’s lives, which she claims has always been a motivating factor for her.
“During those years that I didn’t speak, I memorized Shakespeare, Langston
Hughes, Longfellow, Countee Cullen and Paul Lawrence Dunbar. We look to poetry
for encouragement.”
She said that poetry offers support for those who are
going through hard times, because one can read it and know that someone else has
already experienced something just as difficult, and, more importantly, made it
through.
She concluded by urging everyone to make the most out of life,
since “it’s given to us to live but once. The noblest cause in the world is the
liberation of the human mind. Know that you all have the privilege of becoming a
rainbow in the clouds.”
