On the Pulse of Morning Essay Questions

What is the role of the mastodon in this poem?

The opening stanza situates the mastodon as a symbolic representation of the faraway, prehistoric past. The mastodon is only known, as the poem reminds us, through fossil evidence—so distant and inconceivable is its existence to people today. On the one hand, this detail acts as a warning, instructing humanity not to take its survival for granted and to aim for peaceful coexistence over self-destruction. On the other hand, the allusion to prehistory makes all of human history, and therefore all of humanity, appear recent and united. By contrasting history and prehistory, Angelou makes a case for both the relevance of recent history and for the fundamental similarities between people and cultures.

How does Angelou allude to race and slavery in this work?

Angelou was an African-American poet known for writing about themes of Black history and racism. She alludes to those themes somewhat indirectly in this work, however, maintaining a degree of vagueness that gives the poem a folktale-like quality. When discussing the American history of movement and migration, Angelou describes people from the "Ashanti, the Yoruba, the Kru," cultures, brought to the riverbank "Sold, stolen, arriving on the nightmare / Praying for a dream." Later, she links this historical enslavement to the modern condition of racism. The metaphorical warning not to "yoked eternally / To brutishness" employs the language of physical enslavement to describe a more abstract trap of contemporary oppression and emotional hurt.