Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie: Poems

By Maya Angelou

Another remarkable collection of poetry from one of America's masters of the medium. The first part gathers together poems of love and nostalgic memory, while Part II portrays confrontations inherent in a racist society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 10, 2013
• ISBN: 9780307833273

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou was one of the world's most important writers and activists. Born 4 April 1928, she lived and chronicled an extraordinary life: rising from poverty, violence and racism, she became a renowned author, memoirist, poet, playwright, civil rights' activist - working with Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. She wrote and performed a poem, 'On the Pulse of Morning', for President Clinton on his inauguration. She was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama and was honoured by more than seventy universities throughout the world. She first thrilled the world with I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969). This was followed by six volumes of autobiography, the seventh and final volume, Mom & Me & Mom, published in 2013. She wrote three collections of essays; many volumes of poetry, including His Day is Done, a tribute to Nelson Mandela; and two cookbooks. She had a lifetime appointment as Reynolds Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University of North Carolina. She died in 2014.

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Copyright © 1971 by Caged Bird Legacy, LLC

All rights reserved under International

and Pan-American Copyright Conventions.

Published in the United States by

Penguin Random House LLC, New York,

and simultaneously in Canada

by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

The following poems were first published in

The Poetry of Maya Angelou and are reprinted

by permission of Hirt Music Inc.

Copyright © 1969 by Hirt Music Inc.:

They Went Home, The Gamut,

To a Man, No Loser, No Weeper,

When You Come to Me, Remembering,"

In a Time, Tears, The Detached,

To a Husband, Accident, "Let’s

Majeste or the Ego and I,"

On Diverse Deviations, Mourning Grace,

Sounds Like Pearls, "When I Think

About Myself, Letter to an Aspiring

Junkie, Miss Scarlett, Mr. Rhett & Other

Latter-Day Saints, Faces, To a Freedom

Fighter, Riot: 60’s, No No No No,"

Black Ode, My Guilt, "The Calling of

Names, On Working White Liberals,"

Sepia Fashion Show, "The Thirteens

(Black), The Thirteens (White),"

Harlem Hopscotch.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 70-156964

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