Summary
Stanza One: The speaker is in a somber and pensive mood. The night before, she laid down and contemplated her life, questioning how to “find her soul a home.” The speaker appears to be lonely and distressed about this fact, implying that her soul is not at peace and that she feels disconnected from the world. She wishes to nourish her soul, so to speak, as it thirsts and hungers for connection.
During her contemplation, she has an epiphany: No one can make it alone in this world. The speaker is very certain of this idea. To emphasize her point, she repeats that absolutely “nobody” can make it—or survive—“out here alone.” To survive in this world—both in an emotional and physical sense—people must band together for support and company.
Stanza Two: The speaker laments that she is alone, repeating the word for emphasis. The repetition of the last few lines of the first stanza once again illustrates the speaker’s affirmation that no one can survive in this world without support or community. The tone remains somber, but the speaker’s repetition of her belief also gives her voice great conviction. She is not merely suggesting that people need others—she knows this to be true.
Stanza Three: The speaker defends her convictions by giving examples of various people who fail to find comfort and happiness. She notes that some millionaires are wealthy to the point that they do not know what to do with their wealth. These millionaires’ wives run around like “banshees”—in Irish folklore, female spirits who wail of impending death. The wives are likely frantic and anxious despite their wealth, and their fortune cannot save them from living frenetic lives devoid of spiritual nourishment. Likewise, the children of millionaires are singing the blues, either passing the time casually without any sense of responsibility or actually expressing their sadness as depicted in blues music.
To remedy these emotional afflictions, millionaires often consult expensive doctors—most likely, therapists. However, the speaker claims that these doctors have a hopeless case on their hands. The hearts of these wealthy people are “made of stone,” and they are unable to truly feel anything. Once again, the speaker concludes the stanza by repeating that no one can make it alone and that money cannot buy happiness.
Stanza Four: Stanza four repeats the second stanza, word for word. The speaker laments her loneliness once again. Furthermore, she repeats her conviction that other people also suffer from the same afflictions of sadness caused by loneliness and cannot get by in this world without human connection.
Stanza Five: The speaker addresses the listener for the first time in a mysterious tone. Up until this point, she seemed to be musing out loud. However, in this stanza she refers to the listener as “you,” revealing a desire to confide in another person. She explains that “storm clouds are gathering”—a portent of suffering and doom. She mentions explicitly for the first time that the entire human race is afflicted with problems and that these troubles are becoming more apparent. Something terrible is happening to the world at this time, and she hears the human race moaning from despair. The sudden shift from stream of consciousness thinking to speaking to another person—the listener—now suggests that the speaker is calling for solidarity in the human race. Before, she lamented the isolation of her life and described the pain of others. In this stanza, she is actually demonstrating the act of solidarity by emerging from her own inner monologue and confiding her thoughts and hopes for action to another person. At the stanza’s conclusion, she attributes the suffering of the human race to the fact that people are living isolated lives and not in solidarity.
Stanza Six: The key stanza about loneliness is repeated once again. She reminds the listener that nobody can survive alone. The third repetition of this stanza cements the style of the poem as lyrical and truly reminiscent of a song.
Analysis
From the poem’s outset, the reader is privy to the inner monologue of the speaker. The speaker is not speaking to anyone in particular; rather, she seems to be thinking out loud. At this point in the poem, no specific audience has been addressed. It is also important to note that the gender of the speaker is unspecified; however, one may use the pronoun “she” if one assumes that Angelou is speaking from her own perspective.
In the first stanza, the speaker recounts how just the night before, she was lying in solitude and pondering how she might find her soul “a home.” The metaphorical use of “home” for her soul suggests that her spirit is not at peace; it wanders, seeking emotional and spiritual comfort in her life. The following two lines bear heavy religious overtones with the mention of water and bread loaves. The speaker is so desperate for emotional connection that even water is thirsty. Furthermore, the bread loaves—another form of nourishment—do not nourish her at all, as they are not bread but “stone.” Perhaps they are stale, or perhaps they were never real to begin with. These lines conjure the image of a lost soul in a desert, reaching out for water and finding that salvation is in fact just a mirage. The speaker is searching hard for her connection to the world, as being alone has left her devoid of the community and spirituality that make a soul thrive.
The references to water and stone in the first stanza may be interpreted as Biblical allusions. In John 4:14 of the New Testament, Christ says to a woman at a well: “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” The implication in this stanza is that the reader feels alone because she is lacking not just spiritual, but religious comfort as well. The nourishment that faith provides—which many obtain from being part of a religious community—is greatly lacking in the speaker’s life. Furthermore, in Matthew 4:3 the Bible states: “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Once again, the speaker is suggesting that she seeks the comfort of religious faith. Upon deep reflection, the speaker finally arrives at the conclusion that to survive, a person must not be alone. By using the word “nobody,” the speaker suggests that this idea applies not only to herself, but to every human being. However, the use of the word “here” is ambiguous. The speaker may be referring to her actual geographic location—a specific place that has left her emotionally and spiritually bankrupt. However, it is also possible that the poem refers to the world as a whole. If the speaker’s suffering and need for community are indeed as universal as she suggests, then “here” may represent the world.
The second stanza reads like a song. The repetition of words as well as their somber meaning resembles the blues music popularized by African Americans. Given the religious subtext of the first stanza, one might also say that the stanza is reminiscent of gospel music. In both genres, singers typically sing of their troubles and their hopes to rise above pain.
The speaker also highlights her sadness by using the adverb “all,” emphasizing the magnitude of her isolation. In addition, the conjunction “but” illustrates the speaker’s conviction that absolutely nobody can survive without community.
In the third stanza, the speaker’s tone shifts from somber to self-assured and cynical. She wants to convince the listener that her argument is correct, and she is confident that she is right. At the same time, she takes on a cynical tone, as she paints a sad portrait of the effects of wealth on a person’s soul. In spite of wealth, some millionaires find themselves bored and lonely. No amount of money can compensate for these feelings.
Similarly, the millionaires’ wives fail to find joy and peace in their lives. Instead, they run around “like banshees,” presumably spending their fortune constantly and filling their days with useless activities. The term “banshee” gives the line a morbid tone, as it suggests that the wives’ behaviors and feelings mirror the alarm and anxiety of a wailing spirit expecting death. The wives essentially live their lives at a frantic pace and complain of loneliness for the duration of their lives. The cycle will repeat until the day they die. The children of these millionaires are also struggling in their own way. The speaker says that they “sing the blues,” which may suggest two different meanings. These children may be living superficial lives by passing their time just singing songs—a life that bears no deeper meaning. On the other hand, the speaker may be saying that the children are as depressed as their parents, expressing their sadness as a blues singer relays his pain.
The speaker then claims that, to remedy these emotional afflictions, doctors are often called in to help. However, no matter how skilled these doctors may be, nothing can cure the wealthy of their loneliness. Their hearts are made “of stone,” suggesting that they are unable to connect emotionally or spiritually with others. This affliction may indeed be a result of their loneliness; perhaps their problems run so deep that they have lost their ability to show compassion and feel love. It is too late to help them. Their wealth is most likely the culprit behind this emotional void—money has ruined their ability to feel anything at all. The speaker emphasizes that all the money in the world cannot buy the human connection they desperately need, and—once again—nobody can make it in this world alone.
In the fourth stanza, the speaker repeats her message of loneliness and the need for human connection. She once again conveys a somber tone. Now that the speaker is repeating this key stanza, the poem more clearly takes the form of a song. The words of this stanza sound like a refrain from a song, as if a chorus is singing in counterpoint to the speaker’s message. The musical rhythm gives the poem the feel of a spiritual song, as one might hear at church.
In the fifth stanza, the speaker brings the listener’s attention to the immediate present by using the word “now.” When the speaker addresses the listener with the personal pronoun “you,” the poem shifts from reflection to conversation. The poem immediately becomes more intimate, as the speaker asks the listener to “listen closely.” One might say that the speaker is asking the listener to draw closer so as to hear a secret or an important message. The speaker is no longer thinking aloud. This time, she wants to make sure that there is a witness to her thoughts and that someone will heed her message. With the words “I’ll tell you what I know,” she is entrusting the listener with valuable insights.
The speaker uses nature metaphors for dark events that are already happening and that will continue to happen. “Storm clouds” and “wind” blowing indicate foul weather. By elaborating that “the race of man is suffering,” the speaker implies that people are living through turbulent times and that more problems lay ahead. The “moan” she hears represents the collective pain and loneliness of the entire human race. While she repeats the phrase that “nobody can make it out here alone,” she also explains that the suffering of humans is because of the fact that they are lonely. All this pain is a result of isolation.
Up until the fifth stanza, it may have seemed that the speaker was mostly concerned with her own loneliness and merely referenced other people to justify her own pain. However, the shift to conversation as well as the mention of the human race suggests that in fact, the speaker is concerned about the loneliness and suffering of all people. In this stanza, the words of the poem as a whole take on a new meaning: The speaker identifies the problem, but she is also appealing for a solution. The speaker insists that humanity must work together to overcome societal tensions and live in harmony. The tensions referenced in the poem may refer to any number of problems experienced in America and the whole world during the 1970s when the poem was written: racism, war, sexism, religious persecution, and the like. The speaker is suggesting that these issues can be overcome if people talk to one another, listen carefully, and allow love, spirituality, and friendship to enter their lives. This stanza, therefore, suggests that the poem is calling for the solidarity of the human race.
The sixth stanza repeats the second and fourth stanzas. Now that the speaker has turned to the listener and confided in him, she is once again somber and lost in her thoughts. She laments yet again that she is alone, and she reminds the listener of her message about a need for solidarity. She ends the poem with a tone that is both self-assured and somber. She is both certain of her thoughts on loneliness and sad to feel the way she does in her life.
