(4 April 1928)

poet Maya Angelou
#2 on top 500 poets
User Rating:
7.1 / 10
( 132 votes )
What do you think this poem is about?

When You Come

When you come to me, unbidden,
Beckoning me
To long-ago rooms,
Where memories lie.

Offering me, as to a child, an attic,
Gatherings of days too few.
Baubles of stolen kisses.
Trinkets of borrowed loves.
Trunks of secret words,

I CRY.

Submitted: Friday, January 03, 2003


Read poems about / on: child, memory, children, kiss

Comments about this poem (When You Come by Maya Angelou )

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  • Luis Estable (9/7/2011 11:34:00 PM)

    Unbidden and beckoning are two of the words that start this good poem, and they set what is to followed and one wants to know how the poem is going to develop, but we are to guess a bit about the meaning that lies bettween words in this poem. I supposed that the relationship or the conection of one person to the other was not aways a happy one; things happened between the two that were not ever flowery.

    I bilieve you did good here. You do not tell evevrything; you leave some for the reader to fill in and this is good.I like poetry that suggest rather than tell or explain all. That task is mainly for prose.

    The poem is short, but it tells a lot, and the two words that I made mention of at the beginning are the centerpiece of this wonderful try. If you had chosen others the poem would have have a different effect and perhaps would have failed as a good poem.

    The economy of words here is great, and I got the thought that removing one word and its oder in this verse would spoil the result of the same.

    The best to you and I hope that you keep wriing poetry untill your very last day on earth. You give to the world a good gift and with it your deed is well-taken by millions around the world.

    The best ever, and live, live and live!

    Luis Estable.

    5 person liked.
    		5 person did not like.
  • Orla Mcandrew (7/26/2009 6:32:00 PM)

    This is so painful to read. The innocence of her childhood stripped bare. When he comes, she cries. I love Maya Angelou. She is a phenomenal human being.

    10 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
  • Nandhini .... (11/11/2008 6:14:00 PM)

    I agree with Janua, it reminds too many painful & love drenched memories.. beautiful...

    6 person liked.
    		7 person did not like.
  • p.a. noushad (6/9/2008 7:20:00 AM)

    frustations of the realities of life turns into a new horizen.

    4 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
  • Sylvi Sylva (1/4/2008 9:07:00 AM)

    Wonderfully short, a good read indeed

    5 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
  • Janua Catt Alonzo (5/16/2007 6:18:00 AM)

    Gatherings of days too few.
    Baubles of stolen kisses.
    Trinkets of borrowed loves.
    Trunks of secret words,
    ......wahhhhhh this part is making me cry, , , it opens an aged memories of love affair that was 1ce shared, , , ..*sniff sniff...*...

    5 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
  • Delilah Miller (12/9/2006 10:47:00 PM)

    She breaks you heart and fills it to bursting all in the same poem with only 41 words.

    4 person liked.
    		7 person did not like.
  • Karima Isaacs (5/3/2005 4:11:00 AM)

    I LOVE this poem! ! ! Just love Maya Angelou. Her poetry is tender, poignant, bold, vulnerable, sweet, painful, evoking, powerful...

    5 person liked.
    		6 person did not like.
Read all 8 comments »

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