Senses of Insecurity Poem Analysis
Senses of Insecurity poem analysis explores the dangers of mistaking love for infatuation and the insecurity that creates in us.
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Senses of Insecurity
By Maya Angelou
I couldn’t tell fact from fiction
or if my dream was true,
The only sure prediction
in this whole world was you.
I’d touched your features inchly,
heard love and dared the cost.
The scented spiel reeled me unreal
and found my senses lost.
About the Author:
Maya Angelou was a prolific writer of autobiography, fiction, poetry, screenplays, and more. From those published works, the main themes that pulled at her heart focus on the human spirit, activism, women, and so much more. Angelou needed her message and essence to reach far and wide, so it did; she won multiple awards and 50 honorary degrees before her death in 2014.
Reflections
When I read this poem, I can’t help but feel the narrator is expressing her foolishness regarding love. There's a desperation to the words, she wants these dreams to be true - every fantasy - human connection - that perfect someone. But these emotions are immature. The narrator is projecting onto another person what she feels love should be, but in reality, isn't.
Her sense of love and affection comes from an idea built up in her mind and dreams, which is why she feels lost. The emotions are pure infatuation, which is often mistaken for love.
Towards the end of the poem, she says, her senses are lost; does that mean romance or common sense? The impression I get is that our author discovers the romance is one-sided and that realization kills her desire for love.
I’m certain that many of us can relate; the moment we first fell in love, but the emotional depths were as shallow as a kitty pool. Yet we didn’t know that nor feel that because our emotions, hormones, and infatuation levels were so deep that we mistook it for true love. To me, this is a coming-of-age poem - the first heartbreak.
Analysis
Themes: Infatuation & Insecurity
The narrator is insecure because she thought the romance was strong, but discovered it was brittle. She is lost.
People complicate most romantic relationships, especially the youth because they don't understand how their actions ripple. They don't know how to take care of someone's heart. This could be from a variety of reasons: the lover isn't forthcoming about their affections, they are starved for attention, or whatever it is - love is complicated. Yet, we all want to be loved. So, our narrator has childlike ideas of love, and they mistake infatuation for it.
The only sure prediction
in this whole world was you.
Senses of Insecurity, Maya Angelou
They project ideals that aren’t based in reality onto that other person, then when the truth sinks in - they are immediately insecure. They are lost within themselves, and that compass that may have guided them naively before is gone or jaded. How do you proceed forward once your ego is hurt?
Insecure people hide behind their pain. We see it by the way they emphasize something or constantly make fun of what they view are flaws in someone else.
I’d touched your features inchly,
heard love and dared the cost.
Senses of Insecurity, Maya Angelou
These two lines show us that she is timid to love but took a chance. When we are vulnerable with people, we become highly insecure when they hurt us because we cave in on ourselves, trying to find out why we aren't good enough. Then we pin it in on something - a physical fault - most of time it is much deeper.
Insecurity makes us feel like we are not loveable. And that is the essence of this poem - the insecurity makes her question something bigger - her soul.
Movie Lovers
Check out this heartening short film that clearly exemplifies what I mean by being insecure from a broken romance. The film produced is from a Colorado-based production company I work with: Reaching Through Films. We would love your support - so please, like, comment, and subscribe!
Verse
Senses of Insecurity is blank verse. The poem is written with strict rhythmic patterns per stanza that you’ll notice within the first four lines:
I couldn’t tell fact from fiction
or if my dream was true,
The only sure prediction
in this whole world was you.
Senses of Insecurity, Maya Angelou
And the rest of the poem follows this pattern - except for two lines, which are meant to be Angelou’s separation from the fantasy,
I’d touched your features inchly,
heard love and dared the cost.
The scented spiel reeled me unreal
and found my senses lost.
Senses of Insecurity, Maya Angelou
These lines are the disruption of the façade (a glitch in the matrix - if you will) of the infatuation that becomes clear and painful. Our ego blinds us from what we don’t want to see and can be the root of our pain when used against us as a defense mechanism. This poem is Maya Angelou's expression of infatuation and insecurity in romance.
What are your thoughts on this poem analysis of Senses of Insecurity by Maya Angelou? Do you get the same impressions or something different from this piece? Tell me in the comments below!
